Rocknee: Rocknee

In 1981 in the middle of Jimmy Driscoll’s 15th Birthday party, he got the call from Brett & Scott McMaster saying; “If you want join the band you have to come right now or forget it” Jimmy said “but I’m in the middle of my birthday party” and you guessed it, he left to their first rehearsal and never turned back. He joined Brett, Scott and Jon Barr and started a band called Blitz. After playing parties they heard there was a band called Blitz, Jimmy at their high school one day, then searching for a name with the word “Rock” in it, opened a dictionary and found “ROCKNE”. The local heroes of their high school started playing Hollywood at the Troubadour until 1983 when Jon Barr left the Band.

In the summer of 1984 Jimmy went to G.I.T. in Hollywood and met Steve Phillips, another guitar player and they returned to Brett & Scott McMaster on Drums and Bass to Re-vamp ROCKNE. Still in need of a singer they found Hollywood stand out “Doug Starr” in the winter of 1984. ROCKNE hit the strip in 1984 & 1985 topping the music connection club draw charts, becoming a fast headliner, teaming up with bands like Poison for a Two-night stand at the Troubadour and selling out their own headlining shows at Gazzarris, Roxy, Whiskey and Country Club. The popularity brought the band many accolades but also made the looming record deal buzz a point of impatience for singer Doug Starr, who then left the band to start his own project at the end of 1985.
Jimmy Driscoll now after losing two lead singers for a band he formed, named and wrote 95% of words and music for, decided to take the lead vocal position on himself and re-launch a new era for ROCKNEE with guitarist Steve Phillips. The boys went back to M.I. (musicians Institute) to some old friends to complete a new line-up, recruiting Bassist Gary Corso, Mike Russo on drums. Soon after they added Gary’s Brother Joee Corso on guitar. This new ROCKNEE also added an “E” to the name and hit the strip in 1986 where eventually without label interest, that lineup too called it quits at the end of 1987.

Jimmy Driscoll found himself once again at the helm of a top drawing, popular LA band that was dis-satisfied and disbanding. After finally establishing himself as lead vocalist jimmy not wanting to lose his headlining status was drawn back to the Hollywood Strip to pick up where ROCKNEE left off. Then going by Jimmy Rocknee, jimmy put together yet another line up, with David “Smoothie” Janssen on guitar, Tod T. Burr on drums and Frank “Dange” Cartwright on bass. After 6 months back on the scene, drummer Tod Burr left to be replaced by Rhod Marcil in 1988. Rocknee continuing to be a headlining band in L.A. went into the studio that year and recorded a 4-song E.P. called “Sex-Machine” that was a self-produced cassette for their fans and continued to play live through 1989.

Grunge starting to hit the scene 1989 and Big Rock slowing to a crawl on the strip, the band called it quits that year. Jimmy Driscoll aka “Jimmy Rocknee” finally had acquired an 8-Trk recording machine, so he and Rocknee drummer Rhod Marcil went into the Shack (which was Rocknee’s long time rehearsal studio) and decided to finally demo all of the songs which they had written and been performing over the past couple years. This self-produced effort was recorded and put away in 1990.
In January of 2014 FnA Records contacted Jimmy Driscoll and asked him if there were any un-released material ROCKNEE fans and hardcore 80’s fans haven’t heard from ROCKNEE and ROCKNEE’s final demo is what you are hearing on this CD today.