Information/Write-up
Canada’s first explicitly feminist rock band, Mama Quilla II emerged from the intersection of radical politics, art-school creativity, and Queen Street’s boundary-pushing music scene. Formed in the late 1970s, the group fused rock instrumentation with activist messaging, delivering confrontational and powerful songs like “Angry Young Woman” and “KKK” in clubs, festivals, and women’s spaces across the country.
Mama Quilla II began as an all-women's collective tied to Toronto’s activist and performance communities. The original lineup featured Lorraine Segato (vocals, guitar), Susan Sturman (guitar), Jacqui Snedker (bass), Lauri Conger (keyboards), Linda Robitaille (saxophone), Catherine MacKay, and Lee Shropshire (backing vocals). Uniquely, they welcomed drummer Billy Bryans into the fold — a respected musician in the Queen Street scene — who brought a versatile rhythmic drive to their live shows and recordings. Bryans had already played with avant-garde acts like The Government and gender-bending duo The Time Twins, making him a natural fit for the group's boundary-defying ethos.
From the beginning, Mama Quilla II positioned themselves as more than a band — they were a cultural force. Performing in Toronto venues like the Cabana Room and the Cameron House, the band became staples of the emerging downtown scene, playing benefit shows, feminist rallies, and clubs that had never seen anything quite like them. Their lyrics tackled racism, sexism, and political complacency with a raw intensity, all while weaving infectious hooks and sharp musicianship into their arrangements. Their music was unapologetically political, but also deeply rhythmic and rooted in groove, inspired in part by the reggae, funk, and punk energies pulsating through the Queen West circuit.
Mama Quilla II recorded at Grant Avenue Studio in Hamilton with a young Daniel Lanois at the board, long before his work with U2 or Peter Gabriel. Though they never released a full LP during their active years, their music — preserved on compilations and in oral histories — deeply influenced Toronto’s next wave of genre-blurring, gender-inclusive bands. Most famously, Segato and Bryans would go on to form The Parachute Club, carrying forward Mama Quilla II’s social conscience and worldbeat rhythms to a national and international audience with hits like “Rise Up.”
In retrospect, Mama Quilla II stands as a foundational moment in Canadian music history: not only for giving rise to The Parachute Club and inspiring later feminist-punk collectives like Fifth Column, but for asserting, loudly and joyfully, that music could be both danceable and revolutionary.
-Robert Williston
Lorraine Segato: vocals, guitar
Susan Sturman: guitar
Jacqui Snedker: bass
Billy Bryans: drums
Lauri Conger: keyboards
Linda Robitaille: saxophone
Catherine MacKay: backing vocals
Lauri Conger: backing vocals
Lee Shropshire: backing vocals
Written by Susan Sturman, Judith Quinlan (track B1), and Lorraine Segato (track A)
Engineered by:Daniel Lanois and Dan Lanois
Recorded at Grant Avenue Studio, Hamilton, Ontario
Design by Susan Sturman
Camp Director: Nancy Poole
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