Roxus

History

Roxus formed as Bah Ragah in 1987 in the Melbourne south-eastern suburb of Springvale with Joseph La Ferlita (Joe Cool) on guitar; Darren Danielson (ex-Windsor Jamm) on drums; John 'Stones' Nixon (Windsor Jamm) on bass guitar; Juno Roxas on lead vocals (Party Pies); and Andy Shanahan on keyboards. Roxus gained a considerable live following. Australian rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, found the group played a "blend of tuneful, Van Halenesque hard rock and Living Colour-inspired funk around the Melbourne pub circuit ... [with their] carefully cultivated image of black leather, ripped jeans, cowboy boots, bandannas and big hair". In 1989 Roxus supported international bands, Poison and Bon Jovi, on their respective Australian tours. Also that year Dragan Stanić replaced Joe Cool on guitar. The band came to the attention of music commentator and promoter, Ian (Molly) Meldrum, who signed them to his Melodian label via Mushroom Records. The group issued two singles in 1989, "Stand Back" in July and "Body Heat" in November. In 1990, they released a live EP, including live versions of the tracks "Stand Back" and "Body Heat".

In April 1991 Roxus supported US band, Warrant, on their Australian tour. In September that year their debut album, Nightstreet, was released, which reached No. 5 on the ARIA Albums Chart. In July they issued their most successful single, "Where Are You Now?", which is a power ballad that received considerable radio airplay and peaked at No. 13 on the ARIA Singles Chart and No. 11 on the AMR Singles Chart. In August, they followed up with "Bad Boys", which reached No. 39 on the ARIA chart, "Jimi G" was released in September.

In 1992, American AOR maestro Jeff Paris was hired to produce what was to be Roxus' second album. Recorded at Platinum recorders in Melbourne, the sessions engendered four tracks; "Invisible Man", "What You Don't Know", "Stop Playin' With My Heart" and "All The Way". The recording were cut short with unanimous decision to replace Danielson with a drum machine after time restrictions became an issue, with Danielson unable to provide adequate rhythm tracks.

Roxas and Stanic returned to Los Angeles with Paris, to mix the four completed songs. The album however, was never completed and on New Year's Eve, 1992, Roxus played their last show before disbanding early in 1993.

Afterwards

After Roxus had disbanded, Juno Roxas went solo and recorded the album, Far From Here, on Melodian in 1994. He has worked as a musician and producer in both Los Angeles and Melbourne. Stanić continued playing locally in a range of projects including De-Arrow, Among Thieves and Kream. By March 1993 Danielson and Nixon had joined Melbourne rockers, Chocolate Starfish. Shanahan became a lecturer at RMIT University in Sound Production.