When the Trailblazing '70s Band Fanny Encountered Their Fans, The Beatles] - Guitar | Technique

Fanny were one of the first rock bands comprised only of women to achieve both critical and commercial success during the ’70s – with two of their singles landing on the Billboard Hot 100.

The band, led by sisters June and Jean Millington, carved a unique path for themselves and a repertoire that would nowadays be referred to as “art-rock”.

“For the longest time, we had first to prove that we could actually play,” bassist Jean tells Guitar World in a new interview.

“The first 10 minutes [of the shows], people were not believing [us] – after a while, they understood that we actually play. But that went on for a long time – having to prove that we could really play.”

“We recorded at the studio at Apple [Studios], and their engineer, Geoff Emerick, was ecstatic when he realized a) we could play and b) we knew how to record.”

Fanny Live @ The Beat Club 1971 – YouTube

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Following up landmark Beatles records Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road, Emerick would end up producing the band’s third studio album, Fanny Hill – the band’s most commercially successful record, and a clear sign of the four-piece’s evolution as a powerhouse live band.

“We were recording every day,” June recalls. “When we had the time to, we also flew over to Germany to record Beat Club [the West German music programme that ran from 1965 to 1972]. We did the BBC.

“We were playing gigs around London, so every single day it was an intense schedule, but we did it, because, number one, we were young, but we [also] had worked so hard to get to that point, to prove to the world that we could play.”