"It's all about personnel"

Inspired by seeing the legendary At The Drive-In live, James and Sarah set about finding the right characters to help them form a band that could succeed in combining the Drive-In's fury, the Clash's passion, Blondie's pop sensibility, the Stones' swagger and the raw exuberance of the Ramones. Guitarist Mauro was spotted playing fronting the last incarnation of his previous band, Taxi Driver - James and Sarah convinced him that he was a lead guitarist who just didn't know it yet... Drummer Aidan (aka "the Cheeky Scamp") was recruited from James' previous outfit, OjO. Bass player Chris happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time one night, (Mauro's house, with James and Sarah in attendance) and became the last piece of the jigsaw... James busied himself writing a song a night the week before rehearsals started, (in Spring 2001) and we were off!

"Apathy won't win the war we started"

Song titles were bandied about, ideas and concepts argued over, and sometimes instruments were even played! With the firm intention of getting on with things, not getting bogged down in usual band bullshit, and HAVING FUN, after three rehearsals, it was thought, "Enough fucking about - let's go record!", and some early tunes like "It's Really Bad", "North London Nightmare" and the now-legendary "(I Don't Wanna Take) E's (Next Saturday)" were banged down. The plan at this point was to do a show in New York, (perhaps one in London too?) and then whatever... split up even?

"Here to get right in your face"

The gig in NY was planned and booked for September 17, 2001. Er.... nuff said. (That obviously didn't happen). Instead, we planned the London Takeover, with some famously messy shows at our early "spiritual home", the Hope & Anchor, occasionally padding out the set with Only Ones or Neneh Cherry covers, and developing our reputation for being rubbish and brilliant AT THE SAME TIME. When the time finally came to hit NY, in April 2002, things were starting to gather momentum nicely back home, and a week of taking our chaotic mayhem to a slightly bemused yet appreciative Big Apple spurred us on to kick things up a gear. Around this time we even came up with our first (murder) ballad, "I Won't Need You When You're Dead"...

"We never even try"

Still determined not to waste any time or opportunities, us Rocks hooked up with film-makers Save The Wolf to produce our first promo video, for live showstopper, "The Bomb", filmed on location in Turnpike Lane, Nunhead, Camberwell, Stevenage and Hammersmith Working Men's Club! Begging, stealing and borrowing to get it made, the only payment we could offer the Wolf was to pen a tune in their honour... Around this time, notorious promoter Sean McLusky got wind of the growing buzz (as is his wont), and booked us onto the "Sonic Mook Future Rock'n'Roll" Jubilee festival at the ICA, where we joined the Libertines, 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster, the Parkinsons, Earl Brutus and numerous others on one of the year's ultimate rock'n'roll events. The most rubbish yet BRILLIANT show so far ... the Rocks come of age??!!

"Get off your asses and do somefink"

Word was spreading... A few one-off club nights ("The Bomb" at Catch 22) and more legendary shows followed, cementing the Rocks' live reputation. Some very productive studio sessions in Tooting with Pat Collier set us up nicely for releasing material in 2003... What with record labels and press being too slow to join the party yet, it was time to unleash something so the world could wake up and realise!! Help was at hand from "sixth member" Simon Bromides, whose label Scratchy Records sorted us out distribution and all that important stuff... Insurrectionary anthem "Everybody In The Place" was picked to accompany tearjerker "I Won't Need You" as a classic AA-sided single, and it finally hit the stores in March, 2003. All sorts of entertaining reviews followed such as this one and this one and these ones and John Kennedy gave the track several spins on his "X-posure" show, once mistakenly playing the "uncensored" version, having to apologise immediately on-air afterwards!

Spring and Summer 2003 saw us play in all sorts of places, from boats to people's bedrooms and even open fields(!). We acquired ourselves a manager, soon sold out all the copies we'd pressed of "Everybody In The Place" and took the Rocks message all over the place (Amsterdam and Birmingham being particularly memorable and brilliant).

Support dates with, among others, 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster and Hot Hot Heat, set us up for the release of our second single, another AA (of course!) "We Got It"/"The Bomb". This time the idea was, on the one side, to get people dancing around their bedrooms (hang on, there's a video concept in there somewhere!), and on the other, to trash 'em...!

Then came one of the highlights of the year as the Rocket on Holloway road played host to an evening of full on debauchery taking in candy floss stalls, dwarves, strippers, free booze, wrestling and rock n roll. Needless to say we rose to the occasion and pulled out a blinding performance managing to incorporate the wrestling ring into the show much to the delight of the audience.

As summer wound down, our third single was, as they say, "in the can", we were popping up on compilation albums here and there and plans to make a full-length album were being hatched...

"Where are we? What happened?"

The third single "Celeste" - a move towards "classic pop" with nods to Costello and Blondie - duly arrived in the autumn and was hailed by certain discerning punters as "single of the year", and our best single yet. Although radio play was still slow, John Kennedy at XFM kept the faith and recklessly invited us onto his show, where we ranted and babbled (usually all at the same time) and totally missed his subtle hints for us to wind up the interview and leave the studio! We also slapped down four "session" tracks, including "the Squirrel", (which became "Zafira"), and "Eyes Wide Open", with Rob Schultzberg from Lomax taking over Aidan's drum stool...

Aidan was sadly finding it harder and harder to balance the increasing demands on his time from the band and his burgeoning acting career, so as the year wound down, we decided a parting of the ways was inevitable… Rob carried on helping us out, playing on the Sean Mclusky-promoted Acupuncture Rocks Tour/Farce, featuring us and the Parkinsons - which ended up as a somewhat feeble TWO dates, but, errr fun anyway!

Deciding it was time to revisit the Big Apple and see our chums over there again, we jetted over to NYC in November for three shows, featuring two different drummers who we'd never met before, and one show in which Chris was replaced by Vivian from Mommy & Daddy, who we managed to rehearse with once! Who said we were getting too professional??

Upon our return, sessions for our first full-length album began in earnest, with producer Marc Waterman (Elastica/ARE Weapons etc). We rounded off a busy 2003 in fine style, headlining the "Artrockers of the Year" show at the Garage and joining the bill at City of Libertines at the Rhythm Factory, both shows where James mutated into a scary Karen O-alike…

"We started something so we might as well just carry on"

So what next for the Rocks???

Watch this space...