Trailblazers Fanny are, undoubtedly, one of the most underrated rock bands of the ’70s. The outfit, heralded by sisters June and Jean Millington – on guitar and bass respectively – recorded four albums together before the original line-up split.
However, during their time together, the band was bona fide pioneer – receiving nods from contemporaries such as David Bowie, who hailed them as “one of the finest fucking rock bands of their time.”
“They were extraordinary: They wrote everything, they played like motherfuckers,” he continued in a 1999 interview with Rolling Stone. “They were just colossal and wonderful, and nobody’s ever mentioned them.”
The L.A.-based quartet initially met Bowie in Liverpool in 1973, where both were performing – an occasion that June Millington reminisces about.
“We got back to the hotel, and when we walked up to the desk to get our keys, the guy said, ‘There’s a message from David Bowie,’” she tells Music in the Berkshires. “‘He’d like to invite you to a party up at the penthouse.’ It was one of the most fabulous parties I’ve ever been to.”
The Bowie connection doesn’t stop there, however. Her sister and bandmate Jean dated Bowie for a year or so in the mid-’70s, and later went on to marry Bowie guitarist Earl Slick.
“They’re as important as anybody else who’s ever been, ever; it just wasn’t their time,” Bowie continued. “Revivify Fanny. And I will feel that my work is done.”
In 2018, Fanny did, in fact, reunite to release the reunion album, Fanny Walked the Earth – followed in 2021 by the documentary film Fanny: The Right to Rock, which recounts the band’s astounding story and equally important legacy.
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