June Millington is a Filipino American guitarist, songwriter, producer, educator, and actress.
Millington, a singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and educator, has a new album on the way. June was the co-founder and lead guitarist of the all-female rock band FANNY, which was active from 1970 to 1974, the first all-female rock band to release an album on a major label. 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. Now the subject of a new documentary film, “Fanny: The Right to Rock.”
She will be meeting fans, signing autographs and doing photo ops to benefit her IMA project, along with being inducted into the New England Music Hall of Fame on Friday night just prior to the showing of the new documentary about her band, “Fanny, The Right To Rock.” Fanny was the first all-female rock band to release an album on a major label. They eventually released five albums and achieved two top-40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. The band has long been considered pioneers and are highly respected by later all-women rock groups like The Go-Go’s and The Runaways.
In 1999 Fanny fan David Bowie said that Fanny was “extraordinary… they’re as important as anybody else who’s ever been, ever; it just wasn’t their time.”
June Millington has been highly regarded for her work on behalf of women musicians and the LGBT community. Millington indicates that when she was 20 years old she knew she was a lesbian, and that while “everybody” associated with the band Fanny knew at that time “you didn’t talk about it” and it was not featured in the promotion of Fanny. Since 1984 Millington has been in a domestic partnership with education activist Ann Hackler who had been the director of the Women’s Center at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. In 1986, Millington and Hackler founded the Institute for the Musical Arts (IMA).
The IMA received its nonprofit status in 1987, and operated its studio and programs from the historic Old Creamery in Bodega until 2001, when a 25-acre permanent property was purchased in Goshen, Massachusetts. The IMA’s nonprofit mission is to support women and girls in music and music-related businesses. Rooted in the legacy of progressive equal rights movements, IMA’s development is guided by the visions, needs, and concerns of women from a diversity of backgrounds. Its programs including a Rock ‘n Roll Camp for Girls, and workshops on vocal and instrumental instruction, album production and recording techniques, lyric and music composition, and booking, promotion, and entertainment law.
“We’re providing a safe space for the younger girls and providing them with the stories they need, and providing them with their own experiences,” June Millington says. “To be in an all-girl band — or any band at all — is a big deal. It’s so powerful.”
The film “Fanny: The Right To Rock” will be shown at the Music Collectibles Extravaganza as a benefit for the IMA with screening each day (a low added fee to event admission), which can also be bundled with June’s autograph and a photo op. Screening times are Friday April 8 at 8:30 pm preceded by an induction ceremony; Saturday April 9 at 6:45 pm; and Sunday April 10 at 2:45 pm. Screenings sponsored by documentary film distributor, Film Movement www.filmmovement.com. Appearing all weekend Friday 4-8 pm, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10am-1:30 pm
Join us at The Boxboro Regency Hotel & Conference Center April 8th, 9th and 10th
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Featuring 143 comfortable rooms and suites, including poolside options with balconies or patios overlooking a tropical indoor atrium, our affordable, full-service hotel offers space, comfort, and convenience.
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Within seconds of Interstate 495, the Boxboro Regency Hotel & Conference Center provides easy access to the highway for travelers from out of town. In addition to being 35 miles from downtown Boston, It is close to Worcester, Marlborough, Acton, Concord, Lexington and Nashua, New Hampshire.
Meet June Millington, guitarist, songwriter, producer, educator & actress.
#GetBehindFanny #GetBehindFannyPodcast
