Drummer Sandy West of the rock band "The Runaways"

Sandy West with DIXON drums

Drummer Sandy West.
Sandy West the drummer of The Runaways, is perhaps know as having the best performance and presence out of all female drummers. Sandy West was born as Sandy Pesavento on July 10, 1959. She was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and drummer. She was hailed by fans and critics alike to be a groundbreaking musician, as a drummer. She was one of the founding members of The Runaways, the very first teenage, all-girl hard rock band in 1970s. When she was 9 years old, her grandfather bought her a drum kit, and being an avid fan of rock and roll acts of the 1960s and 1970s, she began practicing rock music immediately and regularly. She proved to have a natural talent and quickly became a proficient drummer.

Driven by her ambition to play professionally, she sought out fellow musicians and other industry contacts in southern California with the idea of forming an all girl rock band. In 1975 she met producer Kim Fowley, who gave her the phone number of another young musician in the area, guitarist Joan Jett. When Joan and Sandy met shortly thereafter there was a palpable synergy between them, and the inception of the eventual Runaways arguably took place that day. The girls subsequently played for Fowley, who agreed to help them find other female musicians to round out the band, most notably Lita Ford and Cherie Currie.

Sandy West

Sandy West
Born	July 10, 1959 (Long Beach - California)(1959-07-11)
Died	October 21, 2006(2006-10-21)
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, drummer
Skill	Vocals,drummer,songwriter
Learning drum since	9 years old
Band	The Runaways

The Runaways

(clockwise from top left):
Lita Ford, Sandy West,
Jackie Fox, Joan Jett, and Cherie Currie

The Runaways were an American all-girl teenage rock band that recorded and performed in the second half of the 1970s. The band released two studio albums carrying their best known songs "Cherry Bomb", "Queens of Noise", "Neon Angels (On the Road to Ruin)", "Born to Be Bad" and the cover of The Velvet Underground’s "Rock n Roll". The Runaways were later a sensation in Japan where "Cherry Bomb" was a hit single.

Discography

• The Runaways (1976), #194 US
• Queens of Noise (1977), #172 US
• Live in Japan (1977)
• Waitin' for the Night (1977)
• And Now... The Runaways (1978), international release
• Flaming Schoolgirls (1980), outtakes compilation
• Little Lost Girls (1981), re-sequenced U.S. version of And Now... The Runaways
• I Love Playin' With Fire (1982) compilation
• The Best Of The Runaways (1982) compilation
• Born to be Bad (1991), compilation of early demos
• Neon Angels (1992) compilation
• The Runaways featuring Joan Jett and Lita Ford (1997) compilation

Sandy West Video



Sandy West Video Tribute