Rocket Rached & The Fat City 8

The Band and where it all began...Way back about 15-16 years ago an idea was born out of the mind of a then young man to play some music within the Capitals bustling blues scene. This idea was shared by another big dreamer working in the biz of promoting the local musicians thru the arts rag known as The Xpress.

The Xpress was in its second year with their anniversary show looming a couple of months away. The man in charge had an idea about how to get The Rockets dream to fruition get the gig, youll get the musicians.

It was done, May 5th 1995 was to be our 1st gig. Now all that was needed was the musicians to make up the band.

Within a couple of weeks the band was formed and rehearsal started in the drummers basement. A triple bill was what was planned the Hammerheads, The Black Boot Trio and Fat City. But we still needed another gig as a warm up to the anniversary show at Barrymores.

April 6th 1995 was the very 1st show the listing read as Rocket Rached & the Fat City 4 that number was never used again! That first night whatever could go wrong did. The Mighty Popo could not make the gig he called a half hour before showtime to say he was to sick to make it, but not to worry he lined up a sub, Steve Lauder played the first gig. And we ended up with 2 horns joining us that night and it was destined to never be The Fat City 4 again.

By the time the show at Barrymores was upon us we had 5 horns and a 6 piece string section was added we were now up to 16 musicians since that time the band was always known as The Fat City 8 but the actual number always varied.

As for the name Rocket Rached, well thats long and interesting story, the moniker Rocket has been around for many a year. Only a very few individuals thru history have been given the coveted title.Rocket Ishmael former Toronto Argonaut and Heiseman trophy winner is one, Roger Clemens is another and the one that would be omnipresent in our minds would be Rocket Richard famed Montreal Canadian hockey legend.

Throughout history there have always been Rockets dating all the way back to the time of the caveman when Rocket Arghh launched the first rock and towards a large grazing mammal which was the beginning of fast food, which was pretty slow back then. His idea became the only way to catch food and he had the best aim. So youd hear Arghh Rock It! So over time it became Rocket Arghh you get the picture. There are other examples throughout history but we dont have time to list them all, just some recent ones and the very first one.