Hello Guys & Girls...welcome to the Memphis Rockers in Cyberspace!
The Memphis Rockers were formed around 1976 in Memphis, TN. The original members were John Lubotsky (keyboards, vocals), Tommy Browning-Iley (drums), Ray Gann (bass, vocals) and Rick Harvey (guitar, vocals). They played a few gigs in Memphis and then hit the road with Al Raitano, a Vegas-style singer/entertainer. In July 1977, Rick left the band and was replaced by Joey Arata (guitar, steel guitar, vocals). We rehearsed for a week somewhere in Arkansas, and hit the road again with Raitano. After about six months, we split from Al to do our own thing. We played hotels and bars in Illinois and Ohio (and elsewhere probably, I can't remember) before getting a foothold in Florida, and eventually moving to Florida permanently. At some point in 1978, Ray left the band to join back up with Al Raitano, and we briefly hired a fellow named Paul Foisy to replace him, before settling on longtime friend Jimmy Thornton on bass. Tommy left the band about six months later and Michael Arata became our drummer. Somewhere along the way, we morphed into Pluto Jones...
Not since '78 or '79...but who knows what the future holds? Stranger things have happened. Special memories...getting into a fist fight with an Elvis imitator, the ladies of upstate New York, 10mph on the ice all the way from Gary, IN to Louisville, KY, many other things we can't print here.
People who were making money making music. Didn't matter...Steppenwolf to KC & the Sunshine Band...if it caused people to stick around and buy another drink, we played it. We had a few original tunes, and they reflected a mixed bag of influences.
At the time...hmm...Tommy played Gretsch drums, John played a Hammond B3, Fender Rhodes piano, ARP Odyssey synth and used Leslie and Traynor amps. Ray played a Fender Jazz Bass and Joey played Gibson & Fender guitars and used Fender amps.