Peggy Foster

Peggy Foster played bass in The Runaways for a short time. She then played fretless bass on two of Steve Vai’s albums, was sponsored by Travis Bean Guitars, did studio work and tours with numerous groups, and appeared in videos and several movies. She married and raised her family in Palos Verdes, California while producing shows for charity balls, serving on the Board of Advisors for Musicians Assistance Program, and playing bass in a jazz trio. In 2004 she and Sandy West reunited and were good buddies (visiting with Joan Jett as well) until Sandy’s untimely passing. In 2009 Peggy had a recording studio where she plays bass, engineers, and produces CDs of songs she wrote. At that time, she and a co-writer were forming a record company that would produce new rock artists. She is on Facebook and MySpace as Peggy Foster Bassplayer. [I was able to find Peggy’s MySpace page and songs but was not able to listen to them, maybe because I wasn’t logged in?]

Peggy (photo also from discogs)

There is not a huge amount of information I could find on Peggy Foster. The above was all I could find. Since I have covered several of the musicians who were in The Runaways this WMM but have yet to lay out how they all got together in the beginning, this post might be a good time to do it.

In early 1975, the rock producer Kim Fowley had an idea for assembling an all-female band at a time when, according to guitarist Joan Jett, “There were no young girls at all playing guitar or any sort of instruments.”

Fowley met lyricist Kari Krome at a party held for Alice Cooper, put her on salary, and had her begin looking for female performers. Krome met Joan Jett and brought her to Fowley. Jett successfully auditioned for Fowley by playing ukulele to a Sweet album, and picked up guitar as her instrument. Soon afterward, in the parking lot of the Rainbow Bar and Grill, Fowley met Sandy West, who agreed to play drums. Jett rehearsed with West at the Jett’s home in Huntington Beach, and auditioned the pair on the telephone to music journalist, Ritchie Yorke. He then turned to two radio stations to advertise for further auditions, which brought lead vocalist/bassist Michael “Micki” Steele.

The Runaways were formed in August 1975. Fowley touted the new group the Runaways as “an all-girl answer to Grand Funk,” and the band signed to Kim Fowley Productions for management in September 1975. The lineup of Jett, West, and Steele made its live debut playing the Whisky a Go Go September 28–29, opening for Fowley’s previous conceptual band the Hollywood Stars (then billed as “The Stars.”) On October 30, Steele left due to creative differences. In November, bassist Peggy Foster, as well as Lita Ford had joined to the group as lead guitarist, allowing Jett to focus on rhythm guitar. Fowley and Jett discovered Cherie Currie at the teen nightclub The Sugar Shack and brought her in as lead vocalist for the group. In two weeks, Foster left the group too and was replaced by Jackie Fox. Looking at wiki, Peggy is not listed as a contributing artist on any of The Runaways albums.

My conclusion is that Peggy did not stay with The Runaways long enough to break through. It also appears that she’s continued in the music business, just not with a lot of success.

Sources: wikibin, wiki

I did find out that Peggy played bass on Steve Vai’s 1984 debut album, “Flex-Able.” She sounds great on it!

Here is one of her playing bass with a jazz group 13 years ago:

This is kind of a lame little video with “where are they now” but it does show her in here: