The rock band Mama Quilla II first performed together in 1977 in Toronto, Ontario and dissolved in 1982.

Band members

Personnel changed over the band’s five year existence, but Mama Quilla II was usually a 7-piece all-female band. The main band personnel were as follows: Lorraine Segato

Lorraine Segato

Lorraine Segato is a Canadian pop singer-songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist for and a principal songwriter of new wave and pop rock group Parachute Club, with which she continues to perform.- History :...

 (vocals, guitar), Lauri Conger

Lauri Conger

Lauri Conger is notable primarily as the keyboardist and one of the principal co-writers of most of the songs of the Parachute Club.- History :...

 (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). Nancy Poole acted as the group's manager.

Development out of original Mama Quilla

Mama Quilla II developed out of a band called Mama Quilla (named after the Inca Goddess Mama Quilla). 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." Conger also notes that MQII was one of the earliest women's music

Women's music

Women's music is the music by women, for women, and about women . The genre emerged as a musical expression of the second-wave feminist movement as well as the labor, civil rights, and peace movements...

 groups to go electric rather than playing acoustic instruments.

High profile shows

Mama Quilla II headlined at the First Annual Bi-National Lesbian Conference

Bi-National Lesbian Conference

The first annual Bi-National Lesbian Conference happened in Toronto in May 1979.-Organizing:The conference was organized by members of the Lesbian Organization of Toronto in cooperation with members of the Toronto International Women’s Day Organizing Committee...

 in Toronto, which was put on by members of the Lesbian Organization of Toronto

Lesbian Organization of Toronto

The Lesbian Organization of Toronto was a multi-faceted 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.-History:L.O.O.T. grew out of an October 1976 meeting...

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

Transformation into Parachute Club

Mama Quilla II morphed into the Parachute Club and signed a recording deal with Current Records in 1983. The band was “asked to organize a group for the 1982 Toronto Festival of Festivals and Mama Quilla II personnel were unavailable so they grabbed Conger and several other area session players and formed The Parachute Club.”

Discography

• 1982 Mama Quilla II KKK//Mama Quilla/Angry Young Woman Tupperwaros; EP
  Extended play
  An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
  
  . Produced by Daniel Lanois
  Daniel Lanois
  Daniel Lanois born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie...
  
  

External links

• Canuckistan Music review of KKK EP