About The Moon Rocks
The Moon Rocks, a highly talented extended musical family, fell to Earth in the West of Scotland in 1979.
At that time, Happy Moonrock, Lefty Moonrock and Johnny Moonrock, decided to indulge their love of classic rock and soul music.
The years since have seen four acclaimed albums; The Moon Rocks, Happy Parting, Private Land, and Solar Wind; as well as countless legendary live shows. The Moon Rocks have led a wild existence, peppered with controversy, intrigue and inexplicable incidents.
Happy left in July 2010 amidst increasing concerns for his health, and was replaced by Lenny Moonrock in August 2010, although the controversy and intrigue has never been far from the headlines. Lenny retired from the scene in 2022 and was replaced by cousin Henry.
Lefty also had to retire due to artistic commitments elsewhere and was replaced by Ricky, a second cousin by marriage. Ricky has taken over the bass and vocal duties of the Leftist, and has taken up where Lefty left off in the online, “Audio Connections for Bassists” correspondence course.
Cosmic time has finessed the band’s rough edges and we are now left with three highly polished musicians whose rock credentials are second to none.
With pedigrees very much steeped in the rock and blues of the 60s and 70s, the guys are anxious to dedicate themselves to those traditions.
“Bands who do some covers like us tend to be in two distinct types”, says Ricky, “Either you are a tribute band or you play chart stuff”. “We wanted to have a bit more flexibility than the tribute bands, and avoid doing crappy ‘New Pop’ altogether”.
Lead guitarist Johnny Moonrock, expands further; “Although the main driving force of what we offer is in the great traditions of the sixties and seventies, we didn’t want to be so narrow as to exclude the great music from before or after that time. We are great admirers of Buddy Holly, Eddy Cochran and Roy Orbison; and newer acts like the Foo Fighters, REM, Radiohead and the Kings of Leon”.
The result is The Moon Rocks, a band dedicated to, but not exclusively the servant of classic rock and soul.
A look at the setlist HERE will demonstrate also that The Moon Rocks are adventurous in their choice of covers. “Songs like ‘Message in a Bottle’ and ‘Comfortably Numb’ for example are not usually to be found in setlists of three-piece bands,” says bassist and lead vocalist Ricky Moonrock; “but we found it to be a challenge musically – and even more interesting to see the reaction of knowledgeable audiences when we managed to pull it all off.”
Setlists are planned to have maximum impact on the audience, event and venue types. The band have a huge sound which belies their three-piece status, and use state of the art music technology allied to prodigious musical talents to deliver a studio-quality sound at live shows.
The current band setlist is around sixty songs and the band’s road crew carry with them a mobile DJ rig which can be used to play out lists of songs whilst the band is offstage, thus maximising the musical activity throughout the gig.
You can contact The Moon Rocks HERE
The Moon Rocks are…
Henry Moonrock: Drums, Vocals
Henry has a couple of decades behind him working as a musician all over the world, playing in bands in the UK and Europe during his career. Henry’s pre-Moon Rock credits include The Bad Eggs.
Now the main driving force of The Moon Rocks legendary mesmerising momentum, Henry’s musical homeland is in alternative rock and soul music; The Unwinding Hours, Wilson Picket and Isaac Hayes being among his musical heroes.
Ricky Moonrock: Bass & Vocals
The engine-room, and lead vocalist of The Moon Rocks, The Rickster has been playing in bands in Scotland and Mesopotamia for over thirty years. His unique bass-playing style is uncompromising and brings a relentless and hypnotic impulse to the band.
As well as his Moon Rock writing and production credits, Ricky co- wrote and produced The Assassins’ Missed Again album. Ricky’s musical preferences are varied. “I’m a great fan of 70s bands and artists like Thin Lizzy and Frank Zappa, but I also love Badfinger: Great pop band they were!”
Jonny Moonrock: Guitars, Vocals
Jonny has been playing in bands in and around Glasgow for ever, alongside a career as a producer, session musician and teacher of Mathematics. Notable side projects include, Haarlem, The Assassins, and Tons of Sobs.
He also co-wrote all of the songs and produced The Assassins; Missed Again album. Johnny’s influences as a musician are firmly in the blues/Rock school, being Free, Led Zeppelin, SAHB and Rory Gallagher.
“Paul Kossoff, Jimmy Page and Rory are for me the best and most innovative of that great generation of guitar genius”, says Jonny. ” and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band are a study in musicianship, theatrics and stagecraft”
“You can’t ignore good pop either, and I’m a big fan.”
“The 60s and 70s were full of groups who produced well crafted songs, and we try to recapture that faithfully in the set”.
Jonny’s Gear
- 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard ‘RedEye’ w/ OX4 PAF Pickups
- 1955 Gibson Les Paul Refin
- Hamstead Artist 60 Amp and 2×12 Cab