You have heard of The Runaways and The Go-Go’s, The Bangles, L7 and Bikini Kill. But, have you heard of Fanny? Chances are, you may not have – however, thanks to director Bobbi Jo Hart, you can watch Fanny: The Right To Rock about the first all female band to record a full length album with a major record label (Reprise Records). 

The documentary has sold out venues in various cities all across the country, and garnered many awards including the Audience Choice Award (Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival). On Oct. 8, Hart and Fanny’s lead guitarist, June Millington, will take the Brattle Theatre stage to open the fourth annual Boston Women’s Film Festival. The screening, discussion, and musical performance is the only in-person event for the festival, which runs virtually through Oct. 17. You can read the full interview with Bobbi Jo Hart and June Millington via WBUR News here.  

Left-to-right: Alice de Buhr, Patti Quatro, Brie Howard Darling, June Millington. Fanny / Fanny Walked The Earth at the 2018 She Rocks Awards in Anaheim, Ca. Photography by Kevin Graft

The Los Angeles-based group Fanny is the first all-female rock band in the early 1970s whose members performed their own instruments and wrote songs. Original members Alice de Buhr (drums), Nickey Barclay (keyboards, vocals), Jean Millington (bass, vocals) and June Millington (guitar, vocals) recorded 5 full length albums with major labels and toured across the U.S. and Europe. Although they never reached mainstream success, they were highly respected by some of the biggest names in the music industry. Artists like David Bowie, Deep Purple, George Harrison, and the Kinks, went out of their way to promote the band and to book them as an opening act. Plus, their singles would rank in the Top 10 on various radio stations and chart for weeks on Billboard and Hit Parade.

“One of the most important female bands in American rock has been buried without a trace. And that is Fanny. They 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. Revivify Fanny. And I will feel that my work is done.” – David Bowie, Rolling Stone Magazine (12/29/1999).

Other members who joined the band were Brie Howard Darling (drums, vocals) and Patti Quatro (vocals). By 1976, Fanny disbanded only to return some 40 years later as Fanny Walked The Earth with June, Jean, and Brie to record new material. You can learn more about the band’s history here: About Fanny – Rock Band Fanny (fannyrocks.com).

American all-female rock group Fanny, 17th May 1973. Left to right: drummer Alice de Buhr, keyboard player Nickey Barclay, guitarist June Millington and her sister, bassist Jean Millington. (Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images)