Joan Jett’s In

Joan Jett will return to Australia for the first time since 1995 to headline the four-day Falls Festival at Lorne from December 28. It is not known at this stage whether Jett will be playing any sideshows in capital cities.

In the recent biopic based on the rise to fame of Joan Jett’s seminal 1970’s punk rock troupe ‘The Runaways’, former child star Dakota Fanning portrays lead singer Cherie Currie as an underage minx lost in a haze of drugs, booze and sexual abandon. Jett, played by Kristen Stewart of Twilight fame, is her equally decadent but somewhat wiser sidekick. In the 70’s, at a time when American music was dominated by males, The Runaways were an all-girl breath of fresh air.

Since that trailblazing era, Jett has forged a reputation as one of the hardest working American songwriters of her generation. Huge hits like I Love Rock and Roll, Crimson and Clover and Cherry Bomb all feature on the Greatest Hits album released this year and have made her a defining figure in the punk-rock canon. Once described as the “Godmother of Punk” – her songs have been used in shows such as Freaks and Geeks as well as movies like Detroit Rock City and Juno.

“I don’t give a damn about my bad reputation” Joan Jett insists on her 1980 hit Bad Reputation. Even if she doesn’t give a damn, fans around Australia certainly will as she teams up with her faithful band The Blackhearts and unleashes a myriad of fist pumping punk-rock anthems on her devoted audiences.

Concert-goers can also look forward to seeing ground-breaking hip-hop act Public Enemy perform its seminal 1990 album, Fear of a Black Planet, in its entirety

Other acts confirmed for the festival, which tag-teams with the Marion Bay festival in Tasmania for three days from December 29, include major American acts Interpol, The National, Cold War Kids, The Rapture and Sleigh Bells; and from the UK, Klaxons, sibling outfit Kitty, Daisy and Lewis, and dance-comedy act the Cuban Brothers.

Among the local attractions are perennial festival favourites The Living End, Paul Kelly and Dan Sultan. Sweet-voiced Sally Seltmann (aka New Buffalo), psychedelic rockers Tame Impala and brother-sister act Angus and Julia Stone are on the bill.

Joan Jett Revival Starts Now

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts have sold out their first UK club show in 20 years in just five minutes. Tickets to Jett’s June 14th concert at the London’s legendary music venue, The 100 Club, went on sale at 10am this morning and sold out by 10.05am.

The 100 Club concert will be Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’ first intimate UK club performance in 20 years.  Fans will get a chance to experience the music from one of rock music’s best loved icons, known to millions for her milestone rock anthems I Love Rock N’ Roll, Crimson and Clover, Bad Reputation, Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah), I Hate Myself For Loving You, Light of Day, Love Is Pain, and the seminal Runaways rock and roll classic Cherry Bomb.

Since co-founding the Runaways, the pioneering all-girl punk quintet, at age 15, Jett’s determination and drive have kept her in the public eye. This year, however, her profile will skyrocket yet again, with the release of both a long-awaited feature film telling the story of the Runaways and a new, two-disc Greatest Hits collection.

The Runaways is based on lead singer Cherie Currie’s book Neon Angel. Kristen Stewart, star of the Twilight series films, plays Jett, and her fellow A-Lister Dakota Fanning portrays Currie. The movie chronicles the band’s early years; formed by teenage girls living near Hollywood, CA., the Runaways became the first all-girl band to break into the world of arena-filling hard rock acts.

After the success of their first single, “Cherry Bomb,” the Runaways toured with such acts as the Ramones, Cheap Trick, and Tom Petty. But in Japan, the band became huge stars – their arrival for a set of shows in 1977 was like Beatlemania all over again. During the Japanese tour, Currie began to struggle, and she left the band when they returned home – but Jett decided to keep fighting the rock & roll fight, with the Runaways and then on her own.

Jett has been close to the project: She serves as an executive producer on the film, and she has described Kristen Stewart as being “like a little sister.” For her part, the young actress has said of Jett that “her story’s important – it’s an incredibly triumphant feminist story, really.”