Today’s Blimp Time-Hop

Happy 59th Birthday to the ‘Godmother of Punk’, Joan Marie Larkin. We all know her best as Joan Jett! She started playing guitar at the age of 14 and in her high school years moved to the Los Angeles area with her family. It was in LA that she pursued music seriously and formed the legendary all-girl band the Runaways in 1975. The Runaways opened for Cheap Trick the Ramones, Tom Petty, Van Halen and although they didn’t have huge success in the US, they were ‘big in Japan’, Europe, Australia, Canada and South America. The Runaways broke up in 1979 and Joan formed the Blackhearts later that year. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts have released 10 albums since 1982’s I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll. The title track was a number 1 single for 7 weeks in a row that year and is still to this day one of the biggest hits of all-time!

In 2015, Joan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She also opened for the Who on their 50th anniversary tour and appeared with the Foo Fighters at the their 20th Anniversary show in DC that summer. The last time Joan Jett played Portland was opening for Def Leppard in February of 2000 at the CCCC. She had dyed-blonde buzz-cut and punched us right in the face with her unmatched rock-n-roll power! Joan also came to the Civic Center in '87 and to the Topsham Fairgrounds on the 4th of July in '82.

“Put another dime in the jukebox, baby!”