THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Fanny’s four Reprise albums, each a tuneful testament as to why they were the first all-female band signed to a major label, have already been reissued. But there has always been a piece missing from the fable. Even though Fanny worked with big-time producers and engineers like Richard Perry, Todd Rundgren and Geoff Emerick, their studio albums never captured the excitement of their live show. However, buried away in a vault thousands of miles from their L.A. base, there long lay a recording that could provide the emphatic answer as to why these four ladies were the hottest ticket on the Sunset Strip during the early ’70s.
Now, over 50 years later, its time — and their time — has come. Live on Beat-Club ’71-’72 presents the two sets Fanny recorded for the German TV show, mastered by Mike Milchner of Sonic Vision from hi-res mono files taken from the original videotape. Aside from the incendiary and incredibly tight performances, what immediately becomes apparent is that all four of these women were powerhouses in her own right. June Millington’s stringbending Les Paul wizardry, her sister Jean’s driving, melodic bass lines and Janis Joplin-esque vocals, Nickey Barclay’s intricate yet somehow rocking keyboard work, and Alice de Buhr’s precise, piston-like drumming punctuated by ferocious fills — put together Fanny were an overwhelming display of talent. And greater than the sum of their parts.
That’s why getting these recordings released has long been a crusade for Alice, and why June tells the story in the accompanying liner notes (which feature contributions from June, Jean, and Alice) that the engineer who was assigned to do the transfers of all the Beat-Club material told her that their material was the best in the vault, better even than Jimi Hendrix. This invaluable archival recording comes with a bonus track of the soundcheck to boot. Essential.”
