I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure how much more there is to say about Bob, Paul and John, Mick and Keef, David or Elvis. Docs on them are increasingly microscopic or PR-led. I’m much more drawn to those about the b-listers, the never quite made-ers. This is why the Anvil film, or the Disco series recently, are so engrossing. So it is with Fanny. Perhaps the first all-female group to play their own songs they presented the mid-sixties music industry with a triple threat: women who play their own instruments and wrote their own songs, Filipina-Americans who wrote their own songs, and lesbians to boot. Despite all this they were the first all-female band to be signed to a major label, recorded four albums and toured the world. It never quite happened in terms of top tier success, and I’ll leave you to think about whether they were geniuses done down by the man, a band with good but not great songs, or something in between.
Fanny: The Right to Rock is on the iplayer.
The framing device is a reunion thirty-five years after Fanny broke up, in which June, Jane and Brie re-assemble to write and record a new album in their sixties and seventies. Wrapped up in this is a left turn two-thirds of the way into the reunion that’s deeply affecting, and a sense of real resilience.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001ln6p/fanny-the-right-to-rock
While saw them support Tull at the Birmingham Odeon in November 74 remember very little about the songs they played.
Agree with you about docs re less famous acts
There’s a Judee Sill doc due for release in April. Should be interesting…I only got familiar with her music a few years ago but otherwise don’t know a lot about her only that she is someone with a terribly interesting but ultimately tragic story
The Fanny doc is a very interesting story, well told, but the music isn’t quite my thing. If a music doc is well made, I don’t mind if the actual tunes aren’t for me. And many are unintentionally hilarious – usually pompous, bitter men in their seventies (always shot in a home studio with guitars in the background) who blame everyone but themselves for why their act went off the boil in the eighties.
The Judee Sill doc is different – I can’t wait to see it AND I love her music. I heard a R4 doc in which Andy Partridge was reduced to tears by the beauty of her song The Kiss – If you listen to XTC songs like Knights in Shining Karma you’ll hear the influence.
Watched this a while back. I found myself not really caring about their precise place in the rock hierarchy, their story was riveting.
Same here. really good doc.
I remember Fanny because “Blind Alley” was on the Fruity compilation and I thought it was a great track.
My now retired framer friend in a previous incarnation used to roadie for Fanny. Personally I’d have much preferred cold hard cash but each to their own.
Speak for yourself chief 😜
Funnily enough that was more or less what my framer used to say.
I hope it included enough for his stamp.
I’d be up for them. I hope the Judee Sill one gets a cinema release.
It’s outliers all the way for me now.
All the stuff that influenced the Beatles et al – i.e. Rock ‘n’ Roll and anyone black – but I rarely listen to those acts. Whisper it, but the ups and downs of 60’s LPs by Davy Graham, Bert Jansch or John Fahey, say, are far more interesting and entertaining than the over-subscribed Dylan equivalents.
I know the Judee Sill doc is getting a showing or two in Dublin’s Lighthouse cinema – usually reserved for art house or less mainstream films, so I doubt it will journey west of the Shannon. So I imagine it will be something similar in the UK – It will show up sooner or later on one of the streamers I’m sure, fingers crossed one that I subscribe to…
I’d downloaded this to take on holiday along with lots of other stuff. I remember the name but know nothing of their music.
I heard it was mingeing but I can’t say for sure as I’ve only caught a snatch of it.
For b-listers, the never quite made-ers documentaries, it’s worth checking out Doc ‘n’ Roll Films. Available to stream here.
https://www.docnrollfestival.com/docn-roll-tv/
I saw it some months ago – riveting and inspirational in terms of the obstacles they faced, and heartbreaking and heartwarming in terms of my own physical situation.
This one looks interesting. I’ve just read an article about the film’s release.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17677112/
‘Getting It Back: The Story Of Cymande’
They actually appeared on BBC 6 O Clock News a couple of weeks ago. Incredible.
https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/cymande-the-best-band-you-never-heard/
Jean Millington was Mrs Earl Slick. That’s all.