If you know your music history, Fanny should ring a bell as the first all-female rock band to be signed on a major record label. That was back in the 60s. Recently, June Millington, the band’s lead guitarist, visited Manila to perform in a concert with other lesbian artists in Rolling the Ls Home (which I attended, btw). Eric Caruncho of the Inquirer met the lively lady and wrote this article:

Most girls wanted to date rock musicians–but June wanted to be one. The problem was, there were no precedents. The so-called “girl groups” of the Sixties were singers, but their music was created by male producers. There were folkies like Joan Baez and singers like Janis Joplin–but female rock musicians? There were no role models. The Millingtons had to create their own.

“Girls didn’t feel they had the right to pick up an electric guitar—that was the problem,” says Millington. “It’s not that they weren’t into Jimi Hendrix. The thought just wouldn’t have struck them to go out and buy a guitar and an amplifier and try to figure out how to get those sounds. I remember in high school standing in front of the Grateful Dead and watching Jerry Garcia and I remember the thought going through my mind, ‘How can I play like that?’ It really scared me because I couldn’t figure it out. But we kept doing more gigs and I’d meet enough nice guys who would show me things, and if I learned one little thing I would go home and I would really practice and so that’s what it took. We had to work so much harder than everybody else because girls weren’t given the right to do that. It’s harsh but it’s true.”

Read the rest of the article…

Or read the June Millington interview…