the svelts - sacramento's all female band...

A band that seems to have remained a mystery over the years due to the fact that they didn't play the ballroom circuit or have their names emblazed on posters of the day..the band in fact formed around '64 when two sisters jean & june millington relocated to sacramento from their native manilla home in the philippines to sacramento with their parents...at school they formed a duo playing  guitars and singing hits of the day.They by late '64 decided an electric band was needed when the beatles and the brit invasion hit america so was born 'the svelts' which was : june millington/jean millington/cathy carter and brie berry on drums...all friends at high school berry was forced to leave the band early on due to being pregnant (and married..)...

poster from 1965.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the coming years many line-up changes came about so its almost impossible to keep track but with berry gone kathy terry was brought in as a replacement.Dates are very vague but '64 is a good guess here...

same photo but different drummers top is berry bottom  kathy terry.

the two photo's you see are a complete mystery to myself  and looks photo shopped! does anyone know what happened here? i personally believe the one with kathy terry is the original....

The group was playing san francisco and up and down the west coast their set list was a mixture of hits of the day and motown covers..All female bands were nothing new in the bay area with bands like 'the fruedian slips' actually having a residency at the 'ark' no less in sausalio playing alongside big name groups like moby grape etc..Another were 'the harem/she' again from sacramento who released the amazing proto punk-psych single 'outta reach'..(check out the big beat c.d.of their single and demo's 'she wants apiece of you'...) yet another band were 'michelle & the modemoiselles' & later of course the 'ace of cups' and several more....

 

a five piece svelts 1966.

1967 brought about more changes with brie berry returning to the fold and with her vocal and drumming skills giving the band a  fuller sound as one of their weak points were the vocals...gigs continued to come in with a major tour up in canada which lasted quite some time...

berry back in the fold march 1967.

 

 

 

l-r : jean/brie/addie & june los altos 1967.

... addie (lee) clement had joined on rhythm guitar from the palo alto all girl band 'the california girls' a fine player who later when june left the group in late '67 to continue study's at uc berkeley took over lead guitar duties.When brie berry left the band to have her baby she did return a short while later with a local outfit 'the kee-notes'  from fair oaks who have a track ('quit changing your mind'esar records december '65..) on another big beat compilation 'the sound of young sacramento' on the track brie sings and well as drumming they lasted barely a year late '64 to early '66...

1968 saw big changes happen for the band now based in san jose when alice de buhr joined on drums but de buhr and clements soon left to go and form yet another all female group they called 'wild honey'..with the svelts having another line-up that still gigged up and down the west coast 'wild honey' made its way to portland and a series of shows then onto the midwest where they imploded so de buhr and clements rejoined a renamed svelts as 'wild honey' and made their way to los angeles to try and get signed..they did infact get signed by producer richard perry to 'reprise records' but clements left before they recorded a series of demo's of which i'll include a link so you can hear what the 'svelts/wild honey' sounded like at that date.Three demo's were laid down on july 11th '69 at wally heiders studio in hollywood 'flame tree/queen aretha & i find myself ' the link is for 'i find myself '....After signing the record deal they were encouraged to make a name change and so became 'fanny' which is a whole other story...

the svelts/wild honey in los angeles 1969.

 

 

Can anyone supply info on the photo as it seems to be a hidden addie clement far left & to leave before the demo's were recorded/june/on floor jean/berry by door then de buhr to her right...berry was never an official member of svelts/wild honey/fanny  just appearing on the demos and some tracks on the debut adding vocals/percussion...but if you have more info please do get in contact as its all a tangled mess!

Next blog i'll have a very short story on the 'freudian slips' who like the svelts seem to have little or no history to speak of so look back in a few days to check it all out....

svelts/wild honey demo. 

the kee notes