Bretting game-“Rock Hard 1977”: Play me the song from rocker life

They appeared in the middle of the seventies, in the teenage leaves, like out of nowhere and overnight. The Runaways from Los Angeles, one of the first women’s rock bands. We rubbed our eyes in primary school. On the one hand the five that did not look like a band. Much younger! On the other hand, huge poster, the disturbed and amazed. Size -sized: “These 5 aunts drive Europe crazy,” the “Bravo” in 1976. Here with a different shoot.

Failed or no longer sought-after ex-rock stars rent classic cars or equipment or apply to cultural positions. Or they remain border crossing and continue musically, make constant plates. Jacqueline Fuchs opted for a different way, even more than one. At Runaways she was called Jackie Fox and played bass from 1976 to 1979. Then she wrote down at the Harvard Law School. In seminars she crouched next to one who later became US President. “A fellow student once”, according to the lawyer, “how pretentious the talk of some students was, that could be seen on the” Obamanometer “.” Because he knew “everything better than the lecturers.” In her whole life, only another person met who, like Obama which Runaways had co -founded.

To process her youth, Fuchs has now presented a board game: “Rock Hard 1977”. It is inspired by their time at Runaways, it is said. When the band began just before punk in 1975, it was announced as “Heavy Metal Schoolgirls” on the first flyers. They already transported the energy and pace of the coming and toured with the Ramones, The Cramps and Blondie, but also with Van Halen and Tom Petty. They were a big cracker, teenagers with a crudem sound. They met sexism, but wanted to be independent and confident. After all, you disputed the question: Should your music be more punk or metal? All of this is reflected in the game “Rock Hard 1977”, there are also tickets, tasks and intermediate exams.

At Runaways, Jackie Fox was the third bassist in the first year. Actually, she was a guitarist – and surfer, one of the few women on the board on the beaches of the Pacific, also with a feminist awareness. A second guitar was searched for at the Runaways because Joan Jett was not interested in the fingerboard acrobatics. When Fuchs then went to the forefront, the job on the second guitar was already awarded – to Lita Ford. In addition, the Runaways had a copywriter who never appeared with the band, and a bassist who was currently packing her things – and later entering the Bangles. So Fuchs then became a bassist and also to Jackie Fox. At 15, she was the youngest in the band, in which everyone was under 18.

The runaways had no real rehearsal room, hardly any songs, but already a kind of manager: Kim Fowley, more notorious than famous. Due to his bizarre preferences and his participation, the call of a legend around a few hits. The drummerin Sandy West was the best musician. But Joan Jett, the black hair, strikingly into the face and artistically, understood on the moves and the ultra -cool look.

“Rock Hard 1977” with its extensive rules of the game benefits from Fuchs’ insider knowledge and clarity. It is played over nine rounds, April to December, in between is a winter break. In each round there are several tasks to be used, issue or take dollars – in the afternoon in studios, in the evening on stages and at night in contexts that make up everything else: backstage, parties and embarrassing. Fuchs has developed the complex board game in the Covid Lockdown, the graphic designed Mona Shafer Edwards, she is famous as a teacher-she portrayed OJ Simpson, Rodney King and Courtney Love in processes.

The figures are equally divided: diverse and female/male in a ratio of 2: 4: 4. In terms of minority protection, keyboardists are also considered. Otherwise, the frame has followed the conventions of Rock since 1961: Vocals/Guitar/Guitar/Bass/Drums. The characters differ in individual attributions-for the “showman”, who is also allowed in a field, if someone is already playing there, they are nuanced differently than for “romantic” or “high-scooter” with their own character traits and weaknesses.

As in real, a lot is worse than the cliché – and therefore also to scream. Just like in music, it’s not about who wins, but who laughs the loudest at the end of the day – or better: at the end of the night – and who books the slopedest anecdotes and most embarrassing failure. Just as life is a gambling, with a lot of cheating and fraud.

In the game, most of it is regulated with cards that you have to pull – and also with dollars that you get or pay for it, and with other tricks like »Candy« (to read as sugar or coke or dope). The enclosed dollar grades have it all: play money that looks completely real.

As in the game, everything developed very quickly with the Runaways, too frenzied by tough. Fowley’s bookkeeping could be described as “rather too creative”. He asserted the musicians to look after them, accompany them, if necessary to abortions. In truth, they really felt like “runaways” on the tours, Fuchs later said, nobody took care of them. Fuchs was raped by Kim Fowley, as she told after his death in 2015. And about Runaway singer Cherie Currie tells Fowley to a journalist: »Cherie Curries ego can be managed like when a dog urinates your face. It would be the best for the band now if Cherie hangs on the shower curtain bar and triumphed into the tradition of Marilyn Monroe and Patty Hearst. «

Currently stepped away and how tires, Currie was the most striking victim that fell by the wayside. On the route between Hollywood and CBGB’s in Manhattan. More than 50 appearances, then further overseas, again around 50 gigs, television, photo shoots, drinking, candy. Collapse in Japan. Nerve breakdown, also the end station for Jackie Fox. She stops. Shortly afterwards also for Currie, she is bankrupt and sinks into depression. Fox, cursed or blessed as overachiever, had already pointed out sexism in the industry in music magazines. Then she studied law. When she was finished, she was able to negotiate contracts in the show business and in Hollywood.

When the Runaways were founded, there were hundreds of bands, many of which still shape rock and pop, some of which are still on tour. These were and are practically without exception men. Because in 1975 bands with musicians were counted on the finger on one hand. And worldwide.

“Rock Hard 1977” is a strategy game in which workers such as roadies and managers change the dynamics. This is very entertaining with hundreds of cards and crucial questions. And it is difficult to get, preferably directly from the USA or as an import via Spain. The topics and the design are well thought out, with loving manual work. It’s cool like a 1977 patch jeans, each stitch sits. If you then whistle your ears, because of loud action and surprises, you can watch videos from Jackie Fox on YouTube and be amazed at how confidently she dealt with with her disasters and crises and grew on it.

»Rock Hard 1977«, Strohmann Games, 50,00 €.