Goldie & the Gingerbreads was an all-female American rock band from 1962 to 1967 consisting of 3 musicians and a singer. They were the first all-female rock band signed to a major record label. Whereas most female bands were ignored by the big record labels and rarely attracted live audiences, the quartet consisting of Goldie (Genya Zelkowitz, later Genya Ravan), Ginger Bianco, Margo Lewis, and Carol MacDonald was among the first to break into a domain dominated by men. They were signed to Decca in 1963 and to Atlantic in 1964. (More from Wikipedia)
In passing, I should note that the Runaways are overtly a hard rock band; they were later identified with the punk rock scene that was unfolding at the same time, but each of the all-female bands that I mentioned last month – Goldie and the Gingerbreads, the Pleasure Seekers, Isis and Fanny – also has a real edge to them.
(November 2013)
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These Are the Days by Certain General was produced by Genya Ravan, the former lead singer of perhaps the very first all-female rock band Goldie and the Gingerbreads. She was also in the band Ten Wheel Drive and has released several solo albums; I have Urban Desire (1978) myself. Among her other production credits are the Dead Boys’ first studio album, Young, Loud and Snotty (1977). That’s two important punk rock albums that I know of which were produced by women, the other being the 1979 album by the Germs, (GI), which was produced by Joan Jett (a veteran of another all-female band the Runaways).
(March 2015)
