Watch Fanny’s blistering TV performance
Never let anybody tell you that representation in music doesn’t matter. No matter who you’re listening to, whether it’s CMAT, Led Zeppelin or Jay-Z, whatever end of the musical scale, and regardless of genre or style, we all listen for the same reason: because we want to feel a connection with a song.
The connection obviously varies depending on the kind of music we’re listening to. For instance, we sometimes like sad music, but then we also like to listen to something heartwarming, fun or powerful. It’s because of that variety that we need diversity within music. The more diverse voices we have in the arts, the more we increase those connections that can be made across the board.
People refer to the ‘60s and ‘70s as the pinnacle of rock. Granted, there was a lot of great music that came out of the genre during this period, but it was greatly lacking in diverse voices. There weren’t a lot of female rock bands, which makes musical outfits like Fanny a rarity for the period. When you listen to them perform live, there is no denying that they had voices, stage presence and talent which could rival any band at the time, and their sound still holds up to this day.
Bassist Jean Millington spoke about how difficult it was trying to break through as an all-female rock group. There weren’t many all-female bands, and those who were making music were doing so with some kind of gimmick in place. Fanny just wanted to make good rock music, and doing so proved more difficult than it should have been, purely because of their gender.
“Women who could rock hard were a rarity in those days,” said Millington, discussing the band, “Most of the girl bands were a novelty act. When we were sixteen, seventeen years old and playing up in Reno, there was a band called Eight Of A Kind – four females who performed topless, you know what I mean? That’s what we were up against. They were radically different times. We had to prove that we were serious and that we could really play our instruments.”
Though they had to work hard to prove themselves, they did just that. When you watch the video of them performing live, every single band member brings their A-game. There is a single person who holds back when performing, the guitar solos are killer, the bass runs are mesmerising, the drums are powerful and floor shaking, while the vocals can rival any other rock star of the ‘70s.
Nickey Barclay takes lead vocals on the song, which is a cover of Randy Newman’s ‘Last Night I Had a Dream’, and her gritty performance is truly unbelievable. It was picked up by a number of people who listened and were moved by the power packed behind every line. Joe Cocker was a big fan and asked her to come on tour with her. Barbra Streisand was also a fan and asked her to perform on the classic track ‘Stoney End’ in 1971. She also had the entire band play on her song ‘Solid Gold’.
Fanny are an underrated name in the world of rock as they were some of the most powerful musicians in the industry at the time, pushed back because of a lack of progression when it came to diversity in music. Don’t believe me? Watch the blistering performance of the band below.
