Who: Joan Jett
When: 26 May 1995 – Coogee Bay, Sydney, Australia
Joan Jett spells rock n roll. No other female personifies rock n roll like her and this could quite possibly be my all-time favourite photograph. With the recent release of The Runaways Movie, there has been a renewed interest in Joan Jett and justifiably so. I was/am a Runaways nut and missed out on seeing Joan and The Blackhearts when they toured Australia in 1982. 1994’s Pure and Simple album kicked major ass and it was truly amazing when she toured Australia in 1995 on a run of dates with the Divinyls. The tour took in two nights at the Coogee Bay Hotel in Sydney’s East and the Rockbrat (who managed to get his name on the Pest List) was front row centre with the old Canon SLR. I shot a couple of rolls over both nights and this image was taken on the Friday the 26th. Most of the photo’s of Joanie came out great, but this one is my favourite. Looking dead into the Rockbrat’s lens with a look of steel-eyed coolness. I immediately loved this photo and gave Joan herself an enlarged print of it at a gig at Manly Leagues a couple of weeks later. This image has been used in Runaways fanzines, reviews on the internet and elsewhere. It even made an appearance during a recent Kim Fowley interview I watched on Youtube. One of the better photo’s from the Rockbrat Photo Collection.
