Mama Quilla II was a Canadian rock band that first performed together in 1977 in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

and dissolved in 1982. Although the band recorded only a single EP as Mama Quilla II, after 1982 a revised lineup evolved into the influential pop band Parachute Club.

History

Mama Quilla II developed out of a band called Mama Quilla (named after the

Inca The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...

Goddess

Mama Quilla Mama Quilla (Quechua "Mother Moon", Hispanicized spelling ''Mama Quilla''), in Inca mythology and religion, was the third power and goddess of the moon. She was the older sister and wife of Inti, daughter of Viracocha and mother of Manco Cápa ...

). The original Mama Quilla was formed in the early 1970s by Sara Ellen Dunlop, a "major independent figure on the Toronto music scene who died of cancer in 1975." Original Mama Quilla members included Linda Jain, Linda Robitaille and Jackie Snedker, as well as Dunlop.

Relationship to "women's music"

Keyboard player Lauri Conger describes a time at the beginning of the band's history when she decided to "make a political shift (from being the only woman in the bands she played with) ...to work with women."Kivi, K. Linda. ''Canadian Women Making Music'', Green Dragon Press, 1992, , p86 Conger also notes that MQII was one of the earliest

women's music Women's music is a type of music based on the ideas of feminist separatism and lesbian separatism, designed to inspire feminist consciousness chiefly in Western popular music, to promote music "by women, for women, and about women." Women's mu ...

groups to go electric rather than playing acoustic instruments.

High profile shows

Mama Quilla II headlined at the First Annual Bi-National Lesbian Conference in Toronto, which was put on by members of the

Lesbian Organization of Toronto The Lesbian Organization of Toronto (L.O.O.T. or LOOT) was a lesbian organization founded in 1976 and disbanded in 1980. The group was Toronto's first openly lesbian feminist group, and its members elected to open Canada's first Lesbian Centre. ...

(LOOT) with members of the Toronto International Women’s Day Committee in May 1979.

Transformation into Parachute Club

With Mama Quilla II's material being written by Susan Sturman, MQII vocalist Lorraine Segato and percussionist Billy Bryans had founded a spin-off group called V to showcase their own material. V had been asked to play the 1982 Toronto Festival of Festivals, but several band personnel were unavailable. Instead, Segato and Bryans recruited MQII keyboard player Lauri Conger and other area session players for the gig, and dubbed the new group The Parachute Club. The Parachute Club continued as a working band and signed a recording deal with Current Records in 1983, while Mama Quilla II was effectively dissolved.

Band members

Personnel changed over the band’s five-year existence, but Mama Quilla II was usually a seven-piece all-female band.Mama Quilla Collective promotional flyer, accessed at the CWMA ( Canadian Women's Movement Archives) The main band personnel were as follows: Lorraine Segato (vocals, guitar), Lauri Conger (keyboards, vocals), Linda Jain (drums, percussion), Linda Robitaille (saxophone, vocals), Susan Sturman (guitars), Catherine McKay (bass, vocals) and then Jacqui Snedker (bass, vocals), Maxine Walsh (percussion), Susan Cole (vocals and piano) and BJ Danylchuk (keyboards, vocals).Ross, Becki. ''The House That Jill Built: A Lesbian Nation in Formation'', University of Toronto Press, 1995, , p281 Nancy Poole acted as the group's manager.Kivi, K. Linda. ''Canadian Women Making Music'', Green Dragon Press, 1992, , p87 Billy Bryans, who would later become a bandmate of Segato and Conger in Parachute Club, also sometimes performed with the band on percussion; by 1982, he was a full member of the group, and plays on their EP. As the only man performing with an otherwise all-female band, his bandmates jokingly gave him a T-shirt which read "Token Male"."Billy Bryans’ eclectic musical tastes took him far"
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', April 23, 2012.

Discography

*1982 ''KKK//Mama Quilla/Angry Young Woman'' Tupperwaros; EP. Produced by Billy Bryans. Engineered by

Daniel Lanois Daniel Roland Lanois ( , ; born September 19, 1951) is a Canadian record producer and musician. He has produced albums by artists including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, and Harold Budd ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mama Quilla II Musical groups established in 1977 Musical groups disestablished in 1982 Musical groups from Toronto Canadian pop music groups Canadian dance music groups LGBTQ history in Toronto 1977 establishments in Ontario 1982 disestablishments in Ontario Women's music Women in Ontario Canadian LGBTQ musicians