John Rocca

John Rocca (born January 23, 1960 in London ) is a British musician , singer and record producer who was successful in the funk and house scene in the eighties .

Life

John Rocca started out as a record seller in London and specialized in importing jazz and funk records from the USA . One of his regular customers was a musician and Rocca pushed him until he was allowed to sing in his band . They performed together for half a year in the afternoons at an Afro hairdresser's. After that, Rocca felt ripe for her first band. With the musicians Paul Morgan , Peter Maas and Andy Stennet he founded the formation Freeez in 1978 .

Rocca came up with the group name Freeez through a funk instrumental by Rodney Franklin called The Groove . This song had sudden pauses in which everything froze as if frozen. Freeez! American police officers also call out when they stop suspicious people. Southern Freeez was the name of the first single, which became a top ten hit in the UK in March 1981 .

Two years later the producer Arthur Baker signed John Rocca and Peter Maas after Paul Morgan and Andy Stennet had already left the band and wrote the hit for Freeez : IOU This title reached number two in the British charts . In Germany , the single climbed to number eight in August 1983. Rocca and Maas tried to build on this success, but the follow-up single Pop Goes My Love only ended up being furthermore. In 1987 IOU reappeared as a remix, but after that Freeez finally disappeared into oblivion . In 2001, however, the title was covered again by the Phonkillaz on the occasion of the RTL 80s show . In 1985 Rocca tried together with Andy Stennet with the formation Pink Rhythm again to build on the success of Freeez , but quite unsuccessfully.

In the 1980s, John Rocca also had some successes as a soloist. In 1987 he had a number 1 hit on the US dance charts with the piece I want it to be real . In 1993 he also had a successful title in the US dance charts under the pseudonym Midi Rain with Shine .