June Millington (1948-present) is a celebrated guitarist who helped pioneer West Coast Garage rock. Her all-women band inspired many generations of women in rock.
June Millington (1948-present) is a celebrated guitarist who helped pioneer West Coast Garage rock. Her all-women band inspired many generations of women in rock.
Special thanks to our exclusive Pride Month sponsor, Mercedes-Benz! Mercedes-Benz continues to support and stand with the LGBTQIA+ community. Listen all month long as we celebrate women whose authentic expression in their lives and bodies of work have expanded the norms of gender and sexuality in the performing arts.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Carmen Borca-Carrillo, and this is Womanica.
June is Pride Month, and to celebrate, we’re highlighting queer stars of the stage and screen. They’re women who expanded the norms of gender and sexuality in the limelight, and behind the scenes. I helped curate the month, and I’m so excited to guest host this episode.
Today we’re talking about a true rockstar. A celebrated guitarist, she helped pioneer West Coast Garage rock. Her all-women band inspired many generations of women in rock.
Please welcome June Millington.
June Millington was born on April 14, 1948 in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. She was the oldest of seven children, born to an American naval officer and a Filipina socialite. When the family moved to Sacramento, California in 1961, June and her sister Jean turned to music to ground themselves in an unfamiliar place.
In a 2013 interview with Gibson, June said: “Jean and I flipped a coin to see who would play bass in the band. I won, so I got to stay on guitar. We learned to play by listening to the radio and by hanging out with boys who were in bands.” In 1965, the sisters formed an all-women’s rock band called The Svelts. June was on rhythm guitar, Jean on bass, and their friends Kathy Terry and Cathy Carter were on drums and guitar.
The sisters started out performing at their high school but soon they were doing gigs up and down the West Coast. A few years and a couple different band-members later, the group evolved into Wild Honey and eventually moved to LA. This group played folk and Motown and even some original songs. In a 2008 interview with the alternative publication ‘Dyke Diva’, June said that songwriting had always been a big part of her. “That’s the spiritual side,” she said. “That’s the higher calling part to which I am attached.”
But being an all-women band in the 1960’s wasn’t easy. No one in the male-dominated scene was taking them seriously. After a while, Wild Honey was ready to give up their efforts and disband. Wild Honey played at open mic night on what they thought would be their last night in LA – by chance someone from Warner Brothers Records was there scouting for unsigned bands. Wild Honey had their big break.
In 1969, the group was renamed “Fanny” and became the first all-female rock group to record an entire album under a major label.
In an interview with NPR June said: “What really unified us was that we were all individually, and as a group, so determined to not only prove that we were good, but that we were as good as anybody," she said. "We were just sick and tired of the way people talked about us and viewed us…In a word, we were pissed."
Fanny’s drive to keep learning and improving is what helped distinguish them. They became known as an eclectic group with a rare sound. Soon music critics received their albums with greater praise and finally started to take the band seriously. Fanny was the first group of women playing their own instruments and their own original songs to reach success of this kind.
But Fanny didn’t have a commercial breakthrough. In 1973, frustrated with the state of the band, June left the group.
A few years later, June began to play with Cris Williamson, a singer-songwriter and a lesbian political activist. Up until that point, June didn’t know that there were artists singing about the lives and experiences of lesbian women like herself. June told the publication Dyke Diva that joining the movement of “women’s music” was exactly what she had been looking for. She had wanted to soften the hard edges she’d built up in the industry and be more open to “the subtleties of life.” June played with Cris from 1976 to 1979.
Since then, June has continued to make new music, with others and as a solo artist. June’s legacy is sometimes left out of the rock world she helped make accessible to women. But she has continued to work on her craft and is focused on passing on her knowledge. In 1986, she founded the Institute for the Musical Arts which holds rock camps for teen girls and empowers them to tell their own stories. Just last year, June told the Boston Globe, “To be in an all-girl band — or any band at all — is a big deal. It’s so powerful.”
All month, we’re highlighting queer stars of the stage and screen.
For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!