We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago….
It has often been said that women plying a trade in a traditional “man’s” world have to work twice as hard to get through. The world of rock & roll was no different. Outside of the overt sexism that existed there was was the more subtle kind that kept female rock & rollers in the familiar niches of singer, background singer, or worse…
Then came Fanny. A quartet of ladies who could lay down the rock & roll with the best of them. They played their own instruments…wrote most of their songs…and had the energy on stage to rouse even the most jaded fan from their seat. The band was led by the Millington sisters…Jean (bass & vocals) and June (guitar and vocals), keyboardist Nicki Barclay who had toured the previous year with Joe Cocker and drummer Alice de Buhr (who could lay down a wicked beat)
And yet, the band never quite broke through. In 1971 they released their second Lp, “Charity Ball” It only reached #150 on the Billboard charts. They did score their first Top 40 hit with the title track. Produced by the legendary Richard Perry, the album was a mixture of rock, pop and some ballads as well. It also included a kick-ass cover of the Buffalo Springfield tune ‘Special Care” which the band did on a German Tv show that shows the charisma they brought to the stage.
You can find other great tv perfomances on You Tube
The LP is a nice mixture of the Millington songs and the rougher edged Barclay numbers including a Beatlesque tune called “Place in The Country”
This was a band before their time. They toured widely opening for everyone from Jethro Tull to Humble Pie. David Bowie loved them saying ” They were one of the finest f**king rock bands of their time” They wrote and played like mofas. They were colossal and wonderful and nobody ever mentions them” Notice he doesnt say “one of the finest “female”bands of all time”. These were rockers who happened to be female….and they deliver the goods.
The band is being re-discovered these days..including a new documentary.
They may never have hit the heights they wanted…but they are remembered fondly after many other bands have disappeared without a trace. “Dance…oooh” and enjoy.
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