Rock and Roll, since its inception in the 1950s, has been and still remains to some extent, a man’s game. Males have dominated and controlled the industry since its inception. There were, of course, female acts like Lesley Gore, girl groups like the Shangri-Las, the Ronettes, and the Supremes, Brill Building songwriters like Carole King, and female fronted bands, like Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Frumpy, fronted respectively by Grace Slick, Janis Joplin, and Inga Rumpf. And their were bands with female members such as Anne “Honey” Lantree the drummer for the English band The Honeycombs. Thanks to the World Wide Web and especially YouTube and Wikipedia, however, it is now possible, if tentatively, to begin to recover the lost history of female rock and roll bands, the lost history of bands made up of females who played their own instruments, the lost history of female bands trying to make their way in what was a man’s world.
Despite the fact that rock and roll has been a man’s world since it began there have been all-female rock and roll bands since the 1960s. Eric Brightwell’s database of
all-female rock and roll bands formed in the 1960s and
the 1970s lists some 110 all-female bands founded before 1975. There was, for example, Liverpool’s Liverbirds a band founded in 1963. There was Manhattan’s Goldie and the Gingerbreads, a band formed in 1963 by singer and saxophonist Genya Zelkowitz who was later known as Genya Ravan. There was Minnesota’s and Iowa’s Continental Co-ets, a band that emerged in 1963. There was Niles, Michigan’s Tremolons, a band formed in 1963 by sisters Char Vinnedge, who played guitar, and Chris Vinnedge who played bass guitar, who later morphed into the Luv’d Ones. There was Finland’s Cimmats, a band founded in 1963. There was Detroit’s
Debutantes and
Pleasure Seekers, both formed in 1964, the latter by guitarist Patti Quatro. Patti’s sister Suzi, who played bass in the band, would go on to have a major solo musical career particularly in Britain and a career as an actor appearing on American the TV sitcom
Happy Days. In 1969 the Pleasure Seekers morphed into Cradle. There was Indonesia’s Dara Puspite, a band which emerged in 1964. There was Singapore’s Dorothy and the Vampires, a band which was founded in 1964. There was Argentina's Las Mosquitas, a band that was formed in 1964. There were Les Filles and Cheetas both of which emerged in 1964, two of the eight all-female bands that formed in the 1960s in Denmark, which seems to have been a hot bed of all-female rock and roll band activity during that era. There was Norway’s Dandy Girls, a band founded in 1964. There was Berlin West Germany's Die Sweeties, a band that emerged in 1964. There was Sacramento, California's Id, who formed in 1964 and who later morphed into Hairem and finally
She. There was Sacramento's Svelts, a band founded in 1964 and who later morphed into Wild Honey and finally Fanny. There was Tokyo’s
Tokyo Happy Coats, a band formed in 1964 and who played on
Fanfare in 1965 and the
Ed Sullivan Show in 1966. There was Jugoslavija’s Sanjalice, a band founded in 1964. There was Boston’s Pandoras, who emerged in 1964. There was Montréal Québec's Les Beatlettes, who formed in 1964. Québec, by the way, was home to five all-female bands in the 1960s. There was Sweden’s Black Cats, who formed in 1965 and who later changed their name to the Woops. The Black Cats were among the five all-female bands that emerged in Sweden during the 1960s. There was Sydney, Australia's The Vamps a band formed by European immigrants a la The Easybeats in 1965. There was Chicago’s Daughters of Eve, a band founded in 1965. There was New Zealand’s Fair Sect, a band formed in 1965. There was Manitoba’s Feminine Touch, a band that emerged in 1965. There was California’s Freudian Slips, a band founded in 1965. There was Manhattan’s What Four, a band formed in 1966. There was Lubbock, Texas’s the Heart Beats, a band that emerged in 1966. There was Nashville, Tennessee’s Feminine Complex, who later renamed themselves the Pivots, and who formed in 1966. There was Columbus, Ohio’s Wild Things, who emerged in 1966. There was Mexico’s Las Chicas, a band founded in 1967. There was Fullerton, California's The Daisy Chain. There was the Haight’s Summer of Love Ace of Cups, a band formed in 1967. There was New Hampshire’s the Shaggs a band founded by the three Wiggin sisters in 1968. There was Orem, Utah’s the Clingers, who morphed from a girl group into a garage rock and roll band in 1969. There was Toronto’s The Curse, who formed in 1971.
In an era when singles were more important than albums--albums really didn't start to become important in certain circles until the late 1960s--several of the all-female bands of the 1960s recorded singles. Most of the singles they recorded were cover versions of songs written by others. The Liverbirds, for instance, hit the top five in Germany with a version of Bo Diddley’s
“Diddley Daddy”. Goldie and the Gingerbreads, who initially signed a recording deal with Spokane Records, released a single version of Bill Haley and his Comet’s
“Skinny Vinnie” with lyrics slightly altered and credited to Zelkowitz and Stan Green. In 1963 they recorded a cover version of Herman’s Hermits
“Can't You Hear My Heartbeat” which reached number 25 on the UK charts, for Decca, who they signed with in 1963. The band released nine singles before breaking up in 1967. West Germany's Die Sweeties released two singles in 1964, "Morgen Will Mein Schatz Verreisen" on Bingola and
“Früher Oder Später” on Polydor. The Pleasure Seekers recorded the David Leone penned single
“What a Way to Die" for Detroit's Hideout Records in 1965 and the G.Fishcoff and C. Boyer penned
“Light of Love" for major label Mercury Records in 1968. Les Beatlettes recorded two singles,
"C'est N'est Plus Qu'un Rêve", written by Hal Stanley, Lucien Brien, and Ben Kaye, who also produced the single, in 1964, and
"C'est Grace A Toi", a single released in 1968. The latter was a cover of the Supremes "You Can't Hurry Love". The What Four signed a record contract with major label Columbia where they recorded two singles including
“I'm Going to Destroy That Boy” written by Ronnie Dante and Arthur Resnick in 1966. Auckland's
The Fair Sect recorded the single "Kimberley" b/w "Never Again", the first written by Tom Turner, the second by Hart Randazze, for New Zealand's Zodiac Records in 1966. Chicago's Daughters of Eve, who were founded by Carl Bonafede manager to be the sister band of his Buckinghams, signed with USA Records then Spectra Records and finally Cadet Records, releasing four singles, including the James Butler penned
"Social Tragedy", between 1966 and 1968. The Clingers recorded a cover version of Australia’s The Easybeats “Gonna Have a Good Time Tonight”, with slight lyric changes, that was released as a single produced by Kim Fowley and Michael Lloyd on Columbia Records with production in
1969. The Clinger’s performed the
song on the
Smothers Brothers Hour in 1969. Mr. Kim Fowley, by the way, would later create and manage the all-female punk band the Runaways. The Tokyo Happy Coats released two singles in the 1970s, including the Earl Hagen penned "Harlem Nocturne" and the Bob Marsano penned "Tea-A-Wanna Whistle" on King Records.
A few of the all-female bands of the 1960s did record their own compositions, something that was becoming more common and would soon become the norm in the post mid-1960s rock and roll world thanks to the Beatles. Carol Goins, lead guitarist of the Continental Co-ets, wrote
"I Don't Love You No More", while all the members of the band wrote the instrumental b side,
"Medley of Junk" of a single released by Milford, Iowa's International Great Lakes Records in 1965. Goins also penned the Co'ets single
“Let’s Live for the Present”, a single that went unreleased until Hip Hop Records released it in 1994. Many of the Luv’d Ones songs, including
“Dance Kid Dance” and
“Up Down Sue”, two of the four singles the Luv’d Ones released in 1966, were written by singer, guitarist, and manager Char Vinnedge. Most of the unreleased songs of the Ace of Cups, including
“Simplicity”, were written by the Cups guitarist Denise Kaufman, who was, by the way, the Mary Microgram of Merry Pranksters frame. Contemporaries were able to see and hear The Cups perform “Simplicity” thanks to the 1968 documentary on the San Francisco music scene,
West Pole. The Feminine Complex's Mindy Dalton wrote their single
"Run That Through Your Mind”, which was released on Athena Records in 1968. She's guitarist Nancy Ross wrote both sides of their single,
"Boy Little Boy" b/w "Outta Reach", which was released on Kent Records in 1970.
Several of the 1960s all-female rock and roll bands recorded extended play discs or long playing albums. The Liverbirds recorded two albums in Hamburg,
Star Club Show 4 and
More of the Liverbirds, the former released by Spain's Fontana Records in 1964 and on West Germany's Star Club Records in 1965, the latter released by Star Club Records in 1966. Dara Puspita recorded three albums and 6 eps between
1966 and 1970. The Daisy Chain released the album
Straight or Lame on United International Records in 1967. The album, released during the Summer of Love, consisted mostly of psychedelically tinged songs like
"Love to Share", and more soul tinged songs like
"Got to Get You in My Arms", mostly written by members of the band.
Sanjalice recorded two eps in 1967 and one in 1968 for three different Jugoslavijan labels.
Dorothy and the Vampires released an ep on Philips Records in 1968. The Feminine Complex released their album
Livin' Love on Athena Records in 1969. According to Jonathan Marx, by the way,
Lee Hazen, the engineer of the
Livin' Love album, claimed that studio musicians were used on all the songs on the album while others have wondered whether the
The Feminine Complex existed at all. The Shaggs recorded the album
Philosophy of the World, which later became a favourite, if that is the right word to use, of Frank Zappa, Dr. Demento, Kurt Cobain, and Terry Adams and Tom Ardolino of NRBQ, was released on Third World Records in 1969. All of the songs on the album were written by The Shaggs guitarist Dorothy "Dot" Wiggin. The Tokyo Happy Coats recorded two albums, one of them
live, in 1970 for King Records.
Several of the all-female bands from the 1960s were novelty acts. Genya Ravan, aka Goldie Zelkowitz of Goldie and the Gingerbreads, recalled in
an interview that the band was considered “freaks”, at least in America, and that many assumed that the band
could not play their instruments. The Continental Co-ets and the Heart Beats competed in battle of the band contests with male groups, the Co-ets
while performing live in the Midwest and the Heart Beats while performing on ABC TVs
Happening ‘68’s Battle of the Bands where they performed
“Time Won’t Let Me”, suggesting that musical promoters used novelty and sex to sell rock shows. The Heart Beats, by the way, beat seven other all male bands to win
Happening ‘68. Then there were the novelty all-female band acts of a more overt sexual kind including the All Girl Topless Band, founded in 1967, and the Ladybirds, both of who performed topless onstage. The All Girl Topless band accompanied comedian Godfrey Cambridge’s act at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas while The Ladybirds played for audiences in Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
Many of these all-female bands toured at least until family, motherhood, college, chance, and breakups intervened. The Liverbirds were a staple at the Star Club, the same club the Beatles played at, in Hamburg, West Germany and appeared on the famous West German TV show
Beat Club. The Star Club billed them as the female Beatles. They broke up in 1968 after a tour of Japan.
Goldie and the Gingerbreads toured the US and Europe playing on the same bill as the Kinks, the Yardbirds ,and the Rolling Stones before breaking up in 1967 after losing bassist
Nancy Peterman to pregnancy. The
Continental Co-ets toured the American Midwest and the Canadian Plains. They broke up after members left for college or got married.
Les Beatlettes broke up after drummer Mimi Jourdan and lead guitarist Claudette Faubert died in a car crash.
Christine Vinnedge left the Luv’d Ones when she got pregnant. The Daughters of Eve broke up after guitarist founding members Marsha Tomal and Judy Johnson got married. San Francisco's
Ace of Cups lost members to motherhood and added male members to the band before they broke up in the early 1970s.
It wasn’t until the late 1960s and 1970s that the landscape of all female rock and roll bands began to change thanks to a host of economic, political, cultural, demographic, and geographical factors including core nation economic expansion, countercultural political radicalism, civil rights movements, free speech movements, anti-war movements, and women’s rights movements. In the late 1960s and the 1970s an all female band from California named
Fanny, the band Cher referred to as strange to see in the title of this paper, emerged, changing the rock and roll landscape for all-female bands and females in rock and roll bands after them. One of the things Fanny changed was the level of musicianship in all-female rock and roll bands. Fanny took musicianship in an all-female band to a level rarely if ever seen before, a level, as a matter of fact, rarely seen even in most of the all-male bands of the 1960s and early to mid 1970s.
The pop/rock band Fanny, consisting of Manila, Philippines born guitarist and singer June Millington, Manila born bassist and singer Jean Millington, drummer and singer Alice de Buhr, and keyboardist and singer Nickey Barclay, evolved out of the Svelts, a cover band founded by the Millington sisters in 1964, a band which eventually included Alice de Buhr, and the band Wild Honey, which included the Millington sisters, de Buhr, and guitarist Addie Lee.
Unlike most of the all female bands before them Fanny recorded albums on two major record labels. Fanny recorded five albums—
Fanny in 1970,
Charity Ball in 1971,
Fanny Hill in 1972, and
Mother’s Pride in 1973--all on the major label Reprise, and one,
Rock and Roll Survivors, for the major label Casablanca in 1974 with two new members, Patti Quatro, who had been in the Pleasure Seekers, and Brie Brandt, born Bree Howard, who had been in the Svelts. Most of the songs on these five albums were written by Fanny. Two of the singles Fanny released between 1970 and 1974 hit the singles charts including
”Charity Ball”, written by June Millington and Alice de Buhr, which topped out at number 40 on the
Billboard singles chart, and
”Butter Boy”, written by Jean Millington, which peaked at number 29 on the
Billboard singles chart in 1975. These albums and singles were produced by noted producers like Richard Perry, who produced Fanny's first three albums, and Todd Rundgren, who produced the fourth. Fanny recorded their third album,
Fanny Hill, at the famous Abbey Road studio in London.
Fanny, unlike the all-female bands before them, garnered a good deal of press and music press attention. There was a cover story on Fanny in
Teen magazine in June of 1971. There was a review of Fanny’s second album
Charity Ball in
Creem magazine in November of 1971. There was an interview with Fanny in the
Great Speckled Bird in November of 1971. There was an interview with Fanny in
Creem magazine in its January of 1972 issue.
Billboard magazine reviewed Fanny’s third album
Fanny Hill in its 4 March 1972 issue.
Rolling Stone’s Mike Saunders praised Fanny’s album
Fanny Hill in its April of 1972 issue. There was a profile on and an interview with Fanny in the
Phonograph Review in August of 1972. There was a review of Fanny’s fourth album M
other’s Pride in the
New Musical Express in April of 1973 and in
Melody Maker on 6 May 1973. There was an interview with Fanny in
All Right in February 1973. There was an article on Fanny in the
New Musical Express in June of 1973. There was an article on and interview with Fanny’s second incarnation in the
New Musical Express in November of 1974. There was an interview with the second incarnation of Fanny in
Gallery in 1975.
Unlike the all-female bands before them Fanny was extensively promoted by their record label, the Warner Brothers owned Reprise Records. Reprise released three radio spots for Fanny’s first album one of which played up the fact that Fanny was an all-female band that was
“heavier than anybody’s sister”. A second promo told the radio listening public that Fanny was
“something that they could get behind”. Reprise placed an advertisement for Fanny’s single “Charity Ball” in the 13 November 1971 issue of
Billboard magazine. A fourth Reprise Records promo promoted Fanny’s fourth album,
Mother’s Pride, in the German market in 1973.
Unlike most of the all-female bands that they followed Fanny made several appearances on
American and European television. Fanny appeared lip-syncing to “Charity Ball” on the
Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour in August of 1971. Fanny played live versions of “Charity Ball” and the Nickey Barclay written “Cat Fever” on the
Dick Cavett Show in 1971. Fanny played live on the BBC’s
Old Grey Whistle Test in December of 1971 performing the June and Jean Millington written “You’re the One” and Stephen Stills’s
“Special Care”. Fanny played several songs ("Charity Ball", "Place in the Country", "Hey Bulldog", "Thinking of You", "Ain't that Peculiar", "Blind Alley", and "Special Care") live on German TV’s
Beat Club on 23 November 1971. In November of 1972 Fanny performed the Nickey Barclay penned
“Borrowed Time” and the June Millington written
“Summer Song” on
Beat Club. Fanny played live on the French television programme
Rock en Stock along with Birtha, another all-female band, probably sometime in 1972, performing Cream’s “Badge” and the Ike Turner composition “Young and Dumb”, one of their singles. Fanny played live on the NBC live rock music programme
The Midnight Special in April of 1973. A third incarnation of Fanny, with Cam Davis replacing Brie Brandt, as Fanny’s drummer, played on the
Mike Douglas Show in June of 1974 and performed a cover of the Bell Notes' “I’ve Had It” on
American Bandstand in August of 1974.
Fanny toured widely in the US, Canada, and Europe with record label support, and played at a number of well known venues in the US and Europe. In Los Angeles, for instance, Fanny played both the Whiskey a Go Go and the Troubadour. They played the
Fillmore West and the
Fillmore East in April and May of 1971, places that some have called the churches of rock and roll. They performed at
Max’s Kansas City, one of New York City's most famous live music venues, in January of 1973.
In many ways Fanny was just like almost any other band, male or female, before and after it. Some of what Fanny experienced during their run was what every band experiences. There were the inevitable tensions between members of the band. Alice de Buhr told Angela Smith that there were already tensions between her and the Millington’s in the pre-Fanny Svelts.
Jean Millington admitted in an interview that there were a lot of tensions in Fanny particularly between her sister June and keyboardist Nickey Barclay. Nickey Barclay said in an interview that there were
tensions between her and June, tensions that arose, she believes, from their different musical backgrounds. There were tensions between the band and its manager. Nickey Barclay said
in the same interview that Fanny, like many other bands before and after them, had a crooked, sly, manipulative, and narcissistic “manager from hell” and that this was the main reason she left the band. Alice de Buhr said in an interview that she left the band because
her girlfriend asked her to.
In other ways, Fanny had experiences that members of male rock and roll bands probably didn’t have. Sexuality may have been a factor in tensions within Fanny. June Millington and Alice de Buhr were lesbians while Nickey Barclay was bi. Barclay talked about the impact that the perception of some that Fanny was a lesbian band on her. “It”, she said in an interview with
Curve magazine “affected me badly. In fact, I'd say it significantly delayed my realization—some six years after the end of the band—that I am bi”. Sexism was a constant for Fanny during their five year run. In an interview with Gibson
June Millington noted that Fanny was in the trenches given that they were an all-female band. The record industry, as members of Fanny have repeatedly remarked, did not take them seriously because of their gender. There were also tensions that arose from the attempt by Reprise record executives to sell Fanny as a novelty act. Tensions arose because record executives and producers made Fanny much popier in the studio than they were live. June Millington mentioned on the YouTube page for
“Blind Alley” that this, the "Blind Alley" live performance, really captured what Fanny truly sounded like.
Jean Millington mentioned in an interview in
PopMatters that Fanny’s albums don’t accurately reflect what the band sounded like live and didn’t accurately represent Fanny as a band. There were tensions between Fanny and its producers.
Jean Millington recalled in an interview that producers Richard Perry and Todd Rundgren kicked Fanny out of the studio during the mixing and editing of their albums. There were tensions because many listeners assumed that Fanny didn’t play their own instruments.
Nickey Barclay recalled that people came to jeer at Fanny thinking it was somebody else who was playing guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards on their songs.
Alice de Buhr recalled that many who came to see them live came to see them because they thought the band couldn’t play their instruments. There were tensions in how record executives tried to dress and fashion an image for Fanny Band members have spoken about how record executives posed them in provocative positions.
Nickey Barclay recalled how at the beginning Fanny wore whatever they wanted but over time were pushed to dress in more “feminine” ways.
Alice de Buhr remembered a photo shoot in Germany during which a photographer demanded that Fanny get on their hands and knees and look submissively into the camera all with management approval.
Jean Millington recalled that Reprise wanted the band to emphasise the “T&A” in order to increase record sells and that her sister June was uncomfortable with being pushed to be a sex object.
Alice de Buhr recalled that Reprise pushed them to wear skimpy outfits. Record executives reacted negatively when de Burh said she wanted to cut her very long hair. She did it anyway.
Alice de Buhr, who later worked in record distribution, recalled that Fanny was a running joke among her male colleagues at the record company. The mainstream music press often wasn’t any less sexist than the record company or artist management. An article on the second incarnation of Fanny in the
New Musical Express from November 1974, for example, seems to encapsulate the sexism of the time in the
mainstream musical press toward female groups like Fanny with its references to the appearance of Fanny’s Jean Millington and Patti Quatro and references to the provocative clothes they wore. Band members noted that what began as jokes, the humourous suggestions that Reprise market the band with sexually suggestive slogans like “Fanny, the End of an Era” and “Get Behind Fanny”, were used to market the band by the record company.
Nickey Barclay later described all of this as the equivalent of being in a “freak show” and said she was embarrassed by it all.
Ironically, as members of Fanny mentioned in their appearance on the French TV show
Rock en Stock, many rock musicians were more accepting of their presence in the man’s world that was rock and roll in the 1970s than record company movers and shakers and the male dominated music press. In an interview
June Millington said that the better the male performers and bands were, the less threatening Fanny was to them.
Mike Jahn reviewing Fanny’s performance at the Fillmore East for the
New York Times on 30 May 1971, wrote that Fanny were “extremely good” and added that if the performance Fanny put on that night had been by a male band they would have gotten a standing ovation rather than the “slight applause” they actually got from the mostly male crowd with damaged male egos that night. In an interview with Gibson
June Millington spoke about how John Lennon, who had earlier dismissed the idea that girls with guitars was a good idea in reference to his fellow Liverpudlians the Liverbirds, got David Bowie’s guitarist Earl Slick to introduce him to June in New York City so they could talk guitar. Bassist
Gail Ann Dorsey, who played with David Bowie and Lenny Kravitz, has spoken about how much Bowie loved Fanny, how he introduced her to Fanny, a band she had never heard of before, and how Earl Slick, one of Bowie's guitarists, who was married to Jean Millington, told her how great a bassist Jean was.
Fanny wasn't the only all-female band to emerge in the 1970s. California’s
Birtha, founded in 1968 also gained a level of popularity in the 1970s. Birtha, whose music mixed heavy funk and blues, was comprised of guitarist and singer Shele Pinizzotto, bassist and singer Rosemary Butler, keyboardist and singer Sherry Hagler, and drummer and lead singer Olivia "Liver" Favela. Birtha signed with Dunhill Records in 1972 releasing two albums on the label,
Birtha, produced by Gabriel Meklar who had earlier produced Steppenwolf, in 1972, and
Can’t Stop the Madness in 1973. Birtha also released the single,
“Free Spirit”, written by Shele Pinuzzotto, in 1972. Almost all of the songs on both albums were written or co-written by members of Birtha. Birtha got some media attention but not as much as Fanny. An anonymous reviewer, for instance, praised Birtha’s first album in
Billboard magazine in September of 1972. Lorraine Alterman briefly reviewed Birtha’s first album in the
New York Times in October of 1972. Freelance critic and new journalist
Lester Bangs, one of many in a long line of critics who conflated personal views with critical analysis, praised Birtha’s second album in a retrospective review in 1981. Like Fanny, Birtha also appeared on European television. Birtha appeared on the BBC’s
Old Grey Whistle Test, on French TVs
Rock en Stock, and on Belgium TV. Fanny guitarist June Millington, by the way, in a post on a
Ms. Magazine story of all-female rock and roll bands, praised Birtha and Birtha’s guitarist
Shele Pinizzotto, who
died in 2014.
Manhattan’s jazz fusion band
Isis, consisting of singer/guitarist Carol MacDonald and drummer Ginger Bianco, of Goldie & the Gingerbread’s fame, lead guitarist Susan Ghezzi, bassist Stella Bass, saxophonist Jeanie Fineberg, trumpeter Lauren Draper, trombonist Lilly Bienenfield, and percussionist Nydia Mata, formed in Manhattan in 1972. Isis signed with Buddah Records in 1973 and released their
debut album Isis, produced by noted producer “Shadow” Morton, in 1974. All of the songs on Isis, with its emphasis on horns, congas, flutes, and even the occasional lead guitar, an album critics called a mixture of funk, psychedelic, prog, and jazz. All the songs on the album, which reached the Billboard’s Top 100 Album Chart, were written by members of Isis. Two other albums with new members added to the core group of McDonald, Lewis, Feinberg, and Seeley followed,
Ain't No Backin' Up Now on Buddah in 1973 and
Breaking Through in 1977 on United Artists. Like Fanny Isis got a bit of media attention during their run. Glenn O’Brien, for instance, wrote an article on Isis and did an interview with the band in
Rolling Stone in November of 1973. Isis was a regular fixture at the New York City Greenwich Village club Trude Heller’s and toured with Kiss, Aerosmith, the Beach Boys, and Lynyrd Skynyrd according to Angela Smith, who interviewed Ginger Bianco for her
Women Drummers: A History from Rock and Jazz to Blues and Country. Like Fanny, Isis was impacted by the sexuality of two of its members. Isis’s Ginger Bianco was lesbian. Isis’s Carol MacDonald was an out lesbian, something that was reflected in Isis’s music in songs like
“She Loves Me”. According to MacDonald in
She’s a Rebel (p. 130), her out lesbianism was a factor in the bands lack of popular success. Others have argued that the demise of the original line-up of the band was one of the reasons for tensions in the band and between the band and its label, Buddah Records.
The progressive rock band
Mother Superior formed in London in 1975. Mother Superior consisted of guitarist and vocalist Audrey Swinburne, keyboardist and vocalist Lesley Sly, drummer and vocalist Jackie Crew, and bassist and vocalist Jackie Badger. Mother Superior managed to record one album,
Lady Madonna, under difficult circumstances including off-time recording sessions and a first time producer, which was released only on SMA, an obscure Polydor label in Sweden. Band members wrote five of the seven songs on the album. Mother Superior also recorded one single, “Back Track”, which was never released. Mother Superior got even less TV airtime than Fanny and Birtha. The band appeared on BBC One’s
It’s Cliff and Friends, hosted by Cliff Richard, performing Stephen Still’s “Love the One You’re With” and a cover version of Chuck Berry's “Sweet Little Sixteen”, which they performed with Richard, in 1975. Mother Superior, like Fanny and Birtha, toured Europe and the US. They, like Fanny before them, were also at the receiving end of condescending and dismissive treatment by record executives. An
A&R man from Sony, who came to one of Mother Superior’s gigs in London, for instance, told them that, “[t]he trouble is, I can’t see an audience for you. Girls won’t like you and they won’t want their boyfriends to like you”. Mother Superior also, like Fanny, suffered from manipulative management. Mother Superior, like Fanny, had management problems. The band's manager negotiated a contract with their record company that allowed him to sign anything on behalf of the band.
It would be nice to say that Fanny, Birtha, Isis, and Mother Superior changed attitudes toward all-female bands once and for all. They didn’t, at least not right away, however. In a review and interview with the Runaways in Classic Rock in 2003
Ian Fortnum wrote that all-female bands were “self-consciously butch” with “hairy apparitions” for names like Fanny and Birtha. Translation: the names Fanny and Birtha conjured, for Fortnum at least, images of women with unshaven armpits and legs, images that have become standards in the anti-feminist rhetorical arsenal ever since the 1970s.
Fanny, by the way, claim they chose Fanny as the name of the band because it was short, feminine, and bold and reflected the female spirit.
Glenn O’Brien opened his article and interview with Isis in
Rolling Stone in November of 1973 by saying that “[an] all-woman rock band, one that really cooks, seems to be both a contradiction in terms and a lousy pun” and continued by writing that “there has never been a band of women which transcended the gimmick, which went beyond the queer, reverse draggery of it all and explored a musical territory that was a no man's land”. Translation: for O'Brien all female rock and rollers were as talent less simulators as drag queens.
Sadly after the 1970s and early 1980s Fanny, Birtha, Isis, and Mother Superior were, just like their 1960s predecessors, largely forgotten, so much so that some, like
Elizabeth Day and
Sia Michel, came to believe that Kim Fowley’s band, The Runaways, was the first all-female rock and roll band of note in the rock and roll universe. Amnesia about all-female bands before The Runaways was so complete that
David Bowie had to remind
Rolling Stone magazine in 1999 that "[Fanny] were one of the finest fucking rock bands of their time, in about 1973. They were extraordinary: they wrote everything, they played like motherfuckers, they were just colossal and wonderful, and nobody's ever mentioned them. They're as important as anybody else who's ever been, ever; it just wasn't their time".
Now, thanks to the digital revolution, Fanny, in particular, and Birtha, Isis, Mother Superior and several of their 1960s predecessors are finally getting their due. In 1996 Teenbeat Records re-released the Feminine Complex's
Livin' Love with additional demos on CD. In 1997 See for Miles Records in the UK re-released Birtha's
Birtha and
Can't Stop the Madness. In 1996 Audio Archives re-released Mother Superior's album
Lady Madonna, re-titled as
Mother Superior, on CD. In 1999 Sundazed Records released a compilation of Luv'd Ones singles, demos, and a live recording called
Truth Gotta Stand. In 1999 Big Beat Records of the UK released a CD of mostly unreleased music by Hairem and She. In 1999 RCA Records re-released the Shaggs first album
Philosophy of the World. In the 2000s Ace Records and Rhino Records released anthologies of all-female rock and roll bands on CD. In 2001 Minnesota Public Radio did a segment on the
Continental Co-ets. In 2003 Big Beat Records in the UK released a compilation of Ace of Cups rehearsal tapes, demos, sound stage recordings, and live recordings on CD titled
It's Bad For You But Buy It!. In 2005 Sundazed Records re-released The Daisy Chain's album
Straight or Lame on CD. In 2005 Fanny drummer Alice de Buhr was inducted into the
Iowa Rock and Roll Music Association Hall of Fame. In 2007 Fanny was honoured by the
Berklee College of Music in Boston and
Rockgirl magazine with their "Women of Valor" award. In 2008 Fanny’s first four albums were r-released, with additional live tracks, alternative recordings, demos, and unreleased tracks, in a box set entitled
First Time in a Long Time: The Reprise Recordings by Rhino Records. All four of Fanny’s Reprise albums were re-released by Real Gone Music with extra tracks in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. In 2011 CD Baby released
What a Way to Die, a compilation CD of Pleasure Seekers songs. In 2013
Goldmine magazine named the members of Fanny as among the ten women who influenced rock and roll more than people know. In 2015 the
New Musical Express ranked the first Fanny album
Mother’s Pride number 92 of the 100 lost albums rock lovers need to know. In 2016 Sundazed records released a compilation of Pleasure Seekers songs on vinyl called
What a Way to Die. In 2017
Guitar Player magazine named Fanny guitarist June Millington as one of their 53 unsung greatest guitarists everyone should know. In 2017 PBS station KQED's programme
KQED Arts did a segment on the
Ace of Cups. In 2018 Fanny was honoured with the
“She Rocks” award by the Women’s International Music Network. Women in all-female rock and roll bands, it appears, are finally getting the attention and recognition they deserve for the significant and important roles they have played in the history of rock and roll.
Bibliography
General:
Jacoba Atlas,
“There Aren’t Many Girls in Hard Rock, But a New Day (and Attitude) Is Dawning”,
Billboard, 6 November 1971, RN-20, RN-30
Claire Fallon,
“A History Of All-Girl Bands And The Rock World That Tried To Keep Them Out”,
Huff Post, 26 April 2017
Gillian Gear,
She’s a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock and Roll, NYC: Seal Press, second edition, 2002
"Girl in a Band: Tales from the Rock ‘n’ Roll Frontline", BBC Four, 30 October 2015
Lyndsay Helfrich,
"I Wanna Rock: A Critique of Gender Essentialism in Metal Music Scholarship", MA Thesis, the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Angela Smith,
Women Drummers: A History from Rock and Jazz to Blues and Country, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2014
Discographies:
Dicogs
On the all female bands of the sixties and seventies:
Eric Brightwell,
“All-Female Bands of the 1960s”,
Amoeba Music, 3 March 2015
Eric Brightwell,
“All-Female Bands of the 1970s”,
Amoeba Music, 4 March 2015
Cillie Retmeister,
“The Sounds of the Women’s Movement - Women’s Rock Bands in Germany (1974 – 1985)”, The Finland Lectures, Helsinki, Sibelius-Akatemia, March 5, 1985 and at Jyväskylä University, musiikin laitos / Music Institute, March 14, 1985
All-Female Band CD Anthologies:
Girls with Guitars, Ace Records, 2004
Destroy that Boy, More Girls with Guitars, Ace Records, 2009
The Rebel Kind: Girls with Guitars 3, Ace Records, 2014
All-Female Bands:
Ace of Cups:
“Ace of Cups Official Website”
Les Beatlettes:
“Les groups Québécois féminîn: Les Beatlettes”,
Jukebox Magazine, No. 69, 1993, p., 56
The Cake:
The Cake, who formed in New York City in 1966 and who later migrated to California, are not technically an all-female rock and roll band. The Cake were an a capella group consisting of Jeanette Jacobs, Barbara Morillo and Eleanor Barooshian, who signed a record contract with Decca and released two albums on the label. My favourite The Cake tunes, like
“Rainbow Wood”, which was written by Jacobs and Morillo of The Cake, have a wonderful Left Banke and Beatles "Norwegian Wood" baroque pop flavour to them.
Chris Campion,
“The Cake A Real Life Beyond the ‘Valley of the Dolls’”,
Dangerous Minds, 9 September 2016
Continental Co-ets:
Mark Stell,
“Remembering the Continental-Coets”, Minnesota Public Radio, 21 August 2001
The Daisy Chain:
J. Monk,
"1967: The Daisy Chain Straight or Lame”,
Tiny Mix Tapes, 27 June 2002
Patrick,
"The Daisy Chain Straight or Lame, 1967 Female Lysergic Garage Acid Psych”,
johnkatmc5, 13 September 2005
Daughters of Eve:
Debi Pomeroy and Mick Patrick,
“Chicago’s Daughters of Eve: The Story of an All=Girl Band”,
Spectropop, n.d.
The Debutantes:
The Debutantes: An All-Girl Band From Michigan,
West Mich Music Hysterical Society: An Interactive Archival Database for West Michigan Music History, n.d.
The Feminine Complex:
Jason Arkenny,
"The Feminine Complex",
All-Music Guide
Jonathan Marx,
"Liner Notes, Livin' Love" pp. 2–6, Teenbeat Records, 1996
Goldie and the Gingerbreads:
“Goldie and the Gingerbreads Official Website”,
Dana Spiardi,
“Goldie and the Gingerbreads: Rock’s First All-Female Guitar Band”,
Hip Quotient, 18 April 2014
Gary James,
“Interview with Genya Ravan (aka Goldie Zefkowitz)”,
Classic Bands, n.d.
Heart Beats:
"The Heartbeats Story"”, n.d.
Timothy Horgan,
“The Heart Beats: An Extremely Unofficial Fan Page”, 23 April 2002
Luv’d Ones:
Emilie Friedlander,
"1966: The Luv’d Ones - Truth Gotta Stand”,
Tiny Mix Tapes, 23 October 2008
Jessica,
“Char Vinnedge and the Luv’d Ones”,
The Flower and the Vine, 19 July 2013
Bess Korey,
“The Secret History of Women in Rock: Charlotte and Christine Vinnedge of the Luv’d Ones”, Bitch, April 2009
Steve Seymour,
“Ace Girl Band Made U.P. Stops”,
Rock and Roll Graffiti, 26 November 2008
Sini Timonen,
“Girls in the Garage: The Case of Char Vinnedge and the Luv’d Ones”,
The Girls Are, 29, November 2009
Pleasure Seekers:
Pleasure Seekers: 1964-1966,
QuatroRock: Official Site of the Quatro Sisters Music
Hairem/She:
Richie Unterberger,
“She”,
Pychedelicized and Mile High Music, n.d.
The Shaggs:
Susan Orlean,
“Meet the Shaggs”,
New Yorker, 27 September 1999
The Vamps:
Michael Organ,
“The Vamps--Australia's First Female Rock Group”,
VampsOz Blogspot
Fanny, Birtha, Isis, and Mother Superior:
Fanny:
“Fanny Rocks, Fanny’s Official Website”
“Fanny Portal”
June Millington,
“You Never Heard of Fanny?”, Ms. Magazine blog, 26 May 2011
Secondary Sources on Fanny:
Jamie Anderson,
“When Fanny Rocked”,
AfterEllen, 30 June 2008
Jason Ankeny,
“Fanny”,
Billboard, n.d.
Geoff Barton,
“Fanny: The Untold Story of the Original Queens of Noise”,
TeamRock 4 September 2015
Sophie Chernin,
“Meet June Millington: The First Badass Lady Rocker”,
Ms. Magazine, 25 January 2016
Eric Danton,
“Fanny Lives: Inside the Return of the Pioneering All-Female Rock Band”,
Rolling Stone, 16 March 2018
C. Degenarro,
“Fanny: An Unlikely Candidate for Rock and Roll Obscurity”,
Aquarium Drunkard, 1 June 2015
Richard Metzger,
“Fanny: the Great Lost Female Group from the 1970s”,
Dangerous Minds, 1 August 2012
Sally O’Rourke,
“Album: Fanny “Fanny Hill”,
Rebeat, 29 July 2015
Ann Powers,
“You've Got A Home: June Millington's Lifelong Journey In Rock” , National Public Radio, 19 November 2015
Lilian Roxon on
Fanny, 1971
Toine van Poorten,
“Back to the Past (29): Fanny”,
Metal Maidens, 2001
Interviews with Fanny:
Jamie Anderson,
“Kicking it with Fanny: The Women of the Groundbreaking All-Female ’70s Band Take us Backstage and Back in Time”,
Curve, 6 June 2010
Nicole Blizzard,
“Changing Horses in Mid-Stream”,
Technodyke, n. d.
Eric Danton,
“How Discrimination Kept Fanny From Being Recognized as Rock Pioneers”, P
itchfork, 11 November 2015
Jim Farber,
“Fanny: Behind the Reunion of of a Groundbreaking All-Female Rock Band”, the
Guardian, 1 March 2018
Russell Hall,
“Rock’s First All Female Band”,
Gibson, 20 March 2013
Eric Danton,
“How Discrimination Kept Fanny From Being Recognized as Rock Pioneers”, P
itchfork, 11 November 2015
Gary James,
“Interview with Jean Millington”,
Classic Bands, 2016
“Jean Millington for Women of Rock Oral History Project”
Lyndsey Parker,
“The Lost Story of Female Rock Pioneers Fanny: 'Society Was Not Ready to Accept Us'”,
Yahoo Music, 28 February 2018
Christian John Wikane
“Jean Millington: An Interview With a Rock and Roll Survivor”,
Pop Matters, 26 February 2009
Fanny Live:
Fanny doing
“Charity Ball”, live in Cleveland, recorded in April of 1972
Fanny live on the West German music programme Beat Club
Fanny Autobiography:
June Millington,
Land of a Thousand Bridges: Island Girl in a Rock and Roll World, Goshen: MA: Institute of Musical Arts, 2015
Contemporary Writing on Fanny:
Mike Jahn,
,“Fanny, a Four‐Girl Rock Group, Poses a Challenge to Male Ego”,
New York Times, p. 39, 30 May 1971
Ian Dove,
“Fanny Proves Role of Women in Rock is Not in the Kitchen”,
New York Times, p. 24, NY Edition, 29 January 1973
John Ingham,
“Unnnghhh! Grunt, slurp…” New Musical Express, November 1974
Mike Saunders, “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue: Cryptic Tales of America’s Fanny”,
Phonograph Record Magazine, August 1972, pp. 4, 14, and 25
June Millington and the Institute of Musical Arts:
Millington and her partner, Ann Hackler, have run the Institute for the Musical Arts, which was founded California and which is now in Western Massachusetts, since 1986. The institute runs summer programmes for young women including a rock and roll camp for girls, and workshops on vocal and instrumental instruction, album production and recording techniques, lyric and music composition, and booking, promotion, and entertainment law.
Tom Sturm,
“Millington Smoreship”,
Valley Advocate, 18 August 2011
”June and Jean Millington's (of Fanny) Play Like a Girl band camp with a brief bio of the two”, YouTube
Birtha:
“Birtha Rocks, Birtha’s Official Website”
Isis:
“Artist Biography: Isis” Classic Music Vault, n.d.
John S. Wilson,
“Isis Plays Gutsy Rock and Roll”,
New York Times, 19 November 1973
Mother Superior:
“Mother Superior, Official Website”
“Mother Superior - Mother Superior (1975 uk, classy wise prog rock)”,
Plain and Simple, 6 September 2014
Research and Writing: October 2017 to March 2018
Published: International Women's Day, 8 March 2018
I want to thank all of those mostly non-professional historians working in the field of all-female rock and roll bands whose work I have drawn extensively on in this paper. Any inaccuracies are my own.
