Rocky
Be it with his X-Press 2 Friends or flying solo, Rocky pushes boundries
Rocky started DJing in the mid 80s, playing hip-hop, jazz, soul and funk at a local youth club and various birthdays and weddings, he then moved into club gigs in and around London. He hooked up with Diesel in 1987 and did the first Rocky and Diesel gig at a night called Trance (!) in Barbarellas Greenford on the 12th June 1988. They were playing when the whole acid house thing blew up and were carried along with the wave which included a residency at London’s Yellow Book in 1989 and appeared regularly at Boys Own events. He then started remixing in 1990 for the Farm and other bands of the time.
By 1992 Rocky and Diesel had joined forces with Ashley Beedle and formed X-Press 2 who burst onto the international club scene with the demented sirens, typewriter-noise percussion and dance floor pyrotechnics of Muzik Express which became an instant worldwide club hit. The three DJs, Ashley Beedle, Rocky and Diesel all from unfashionable suburbs of London, had each played leading roles in the capitals cooler, more influential club scenes. A string of club hits followed as well as worldwide acclaim both for their productions and DJ sets. Rocky and Beedle started Ballistic Brothers along with Dave Hill and Uschi Classen moving into jazzier, funkier, more downbeat arenas and further international acclaim.
In 1996 Rocky and Mark Wilkinson started producing as Problem Kids, writing 2 albums and several singles for Paper Recordins and Junior Boys Own. This continued until Ashley, Diesel and Rocky decided to give X-Press 2 another go and In April of 2000 X-Press 2 found themselves back together on the road and in the studio. In 2001 they released the mighty AC/DC. The boys were back in town. Into 2002 the singles Muzikizum and Lazy followed before the lads dropped their debut album also titled Muzikizum, the album was critically acclaimed and charted at number 15 in the national charts and Lazy reached number 02. A massive success.
They went on to develop a dazzling six deck DJ performance that used effects-ridden mic performances from Ashley, CD-players and basic samplers to send crowds wild. “We like a bit of a challenge and it certainly creates something of a potent atmosphere”, says Rocky.
Rocky hasn’t stopped! He’s been working on X-Press 2 stuff constantly, writing a second album, Makeshift Feelgood and is about to release a best of album, Raise Your Hands. He has always DJed solo and is still doing lots of these gigs around East London and further afield as well as writing underground house tracks with Terry Farley, ‘going back to the roots’.
