June Millington (born April 14, 1948) is a Filipino American guitarist, songwriter, producer, educator, and actress who is perhaps best known for being a co-founder and lead guitarist of the all-female rock band Fanny, which was active from 1970 to 1974. Millington was once described by Guitar Player magazine as the hottest female guitarist in the music industry. Millington is also “a godmother of women’s music”, and the co-founder and artistic director of the Institute for the Musical Arts (IMA) in Goshen, Massachusetts. (More from Wikipedia)
The second album by Isis, Ain’t No Backin’ up Now featured a guest appearance by June Millington; she has been described by Guitar Player magazine as the hottest female guitarist in the business. June Millington and her sister, bass guitarist Jean Millington had previously been part of another band called Fanny, which was the third all-female rock band to be signed by a major record label and the first to have a significant body of work.
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After moving to the U. S. from the Philippines in 1961, guitarist June Millington and her sister, bass guitarist Jean Millington organized an all-girl band while they were in high school in Sacramento, CA that was called the Svelts; the other bandmembers were Addie Lee (guitar) and Brie Brandt (drums), who was later replaced on drums by Alice de Buhr. After the Svelts disbanded, Alice de Buhr started yet another all-woman band called Wild Honey that June Millington and Jean Millington later joined; they eventually moved to Los Angeles.
June Millington and Alice de Buhr left Fanny after the fourth album; they were replaced by guitarist Patti Quatro (who was also a bandmember in the Pleasure Seekers) and Brie Brandt, who had drummed in their earlier band the Svelts. They came up with a final album in this line-up, Rock and Roll Survivors.
(October 2013)
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Behind the scenes, Olivia Records started to put the full weight of its philosophy into place on this album: To the extent possible, their work was to be in women’s hands from start to finish. As in most fields during this time period, women were regularly excluded in the music industry from working as backing musicians, producers, arrangers, engineers, etc. Thus, besides performing on guitar, Meg Christian produced The Changer and the Changed; other contributors later released women’s music albums, such as Margie Adam. June Millington, previously in the all-female rock band Fanny, provided backing vocals and also played drums, acoustic and electric guitar, slide guitar, and keyboards; Millington shows up on later Cris Williamson releases also. In all, Allmusic lists 50 people in the credits for The Changer and the Changed, with the vast majority being women.
(January 2014)
