The real story of life in the Jett set

The Runaways line-up (from left) Joan Jett, Sandy West, Cherie Currie, Vicki Blue and Lita Ford. Photo / Supplied

If The Runaways film starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning is a Hollywood take on the riotous all-girl teen rockers from the 70s, then Edgeplay: A Film About the Runaways could just be the real story behind the band. Unfortunately, the only thing missing from this brutally honest documentary is the band's music, because guitarist and leader Joan Jett refused to participate or let the Runaways' music be used - although their rowdy live cover of Wild Thing is included.

You see, Edgeplay, which was initially released back in 2005 and got reissued in New Zealand last month on DVD, is a very different film from the one director and former Runaways' bassist Victory Tischler-Blue (aka Vicki Blue) made first time round.

Originally she came up with a documentary - using footage collected from the band's rehearsals, gigs, and tours, as well as TV appearances and fans' home movies - about the spirit of the band, their music, and "teenage girls realising their dream".

But then Jett, who is noticeable by her absence in Edgeplay, contested the film and as a result Tischler-Blue had to rework it.

"I was heartbroken. I didn't see it coming and Joan and her management blindsided me with it. So I couldn't do the film. I couldn't talk about Cherry Bomb without playing the song."

In the end she got around the music problem by using songs from former Runaways' guitarist Lita Ford and 70s rock chick Suzi Quatro. However, this fraught relationship with Jett is indicative of the friction that was within the band back in its heyday - and also how badly it ended in the late 70s. As Tischler-Blue puts it in the doco, "It had become ugly."

There is a "dark" mood to Edgeplay, and much of it stems from the revealing, candid interviews with the band members and their mums, and notorious manager Kim Fowley.

There's lead singer Cherie Currie's admission that "I had a couple of fun times with Joan". Ford laughing about bassist Jackie Fox trying to kill herself (although Tischler-Blue regrets putting that in the film now); and there's drummer Sandy West's mum's great line about meeting Fowley for the first time: "I didn't know whether to throw him out or laugh at him."

But there's also a rebellious and fun side to the film that celebrates the band's boundary pushing and raucous legacy. "Up until that time there had not been teenage girls who looked cool, who could really play, and who had their edge. People weren't ready for that, and I think that's what their legacy is, they were in the right place at the right time, with the right look and we made our move.

"And it was really fun. We were running wild. We'd go to these rehearsal studios to prepare to go on tour and all these other band's would be rehearsing, like Led Zeppelin and Cheap Trick, and we'd be jamming with them and feeling incredibly special."

A big part of the Runaways' success came down to the eccentric and at times abusive Fowley. "I had never met anybody like him," she says. "So I was fascinated, I liked it, because he was everything that I was not around, and shouldn't have been according to my parents."

As for the Hollywood film, Tischler-Blue has mixed feelings. Personally, she believes it's just the Joan and Cherie story, because it hardly features founding member Sandy West, who died of cancer in 2006, and they create characters who didn't exist.

But as the director of Edgeplay she says it's been great because "sales of my film have gone through the roof" and she rates the performances of Stewart and Fanning.

"The director said the actresses watched Edgeplay over and over again to learn more about us. So that's kind of fun."

* Edgeplay: A Film About the Runaways is out now on DVD.

- TimeOut