(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – June Millington, cofounder of one of the first all-women rock bands and the “godmother” of “women’s music,” performs two back-to-back concerts in Courtyard D at MASS MoCA on Saturday, September 19, at 7:30pm and 9:30pm.
June Millington made history in the 1960s as the cofounder and guitarist of Fanny, one of the first all-women rock bands to be signed to a major label and dubbed as “extraordinary” and “one of the [finest] rock bands of their time” by David Bowie. Ann Powers saluted Fanny’s “glam hippie vibe” in a profile on NPR in 2015, comparing the group to the Band and Little Feat.
Since knocking down the boys’ club door with her bandmates, Millington has trailblazed across the industry as a producer, soloist, and cofounder of the Institute for the Musical Arts (IMA) in Goshen, Mass., which supports women and girls in music.
By 1968, the Manila-born Millington’s band Wild Honey had played with Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Youngbloods, and the Turtles at fairs and private parties, and had auditioned at the Fillmore West with the Doors. Signed to Reprise Records the next year by Richard Perry, they renamed themselves Fanny, and were active for the first half of the 1970s.
Millington would go on to be hugely influential in the emerging genre of “women’s music,” role modeling and working with the likes of Cris Williamson, Tret Fure, Isis, and Holly Near.