The Rock-afire Explosion was an animatronic robot band that played in Showbiz Pizza restaurants mostly in the Southern United States from 1982 to 1991.

The concept

The idea was to have a stage with a full cast of characters sing and entertain the patrons while they ate pizza. The restaurant was geared almost exclusively to children, and had a full arcade in another section. The restaurant was frequently host to children's birthday parties.

The robots were various animals ranging from a dog to a gorilla. They would perform medleys of classic rock songs, popular current songs, as well as original numbers. The characters had limited movement and never got up from their seats. However, they could mimic playing real instruments and had realistic facial expressions, enabling them to interact with one another and occasionally address the audience. Late in their career, a device was installed that allowed restaurant employees to speak into a microphone making the characters mouth's move and their voice projected over through the PA system. The stage had three sections, with the band in the center section and four other characters on the two side sections.

The band

Billy Bob Brockali - Country Guitar. Took stage left of the band. He was the mascot for Showbiz and his image showed up on most the merchandise.

Looney Bird - Looney Bird shared Billy Bob's stage. His head was the only thing ever seen, the rest of him was supposedly in an oil drum.

Fatz Geronimo - Lead singer, and keyboardist. Fatz was a giant gorilla and wore a tuxedo.

Dook Larue - Drummer and vocals. Dook was a dog who wore a space suit.

Beach Bear - Electric Guitar and Vocals. Beach Bear was a surfer and wore beach shorts.

Mitzi Mozzerela - Vocals. Mitzi was a cheerleader.

Rolfe DeWolfe - Took the far right stage of the band. Rolfe was less of a musician, and more of a stand up comedian and ventriloquist, although he did sing and had a cymbal.

Earl Schemerle - Earl was Rolfe's hand puppet, although he had a personality of his own.

The "Break-up"

Showbiz Pizza was similar to another restaurant chain that was popular in other parts of the United States called Chuck E. Cheese. When Chuck E. Cheese filed for bankruptcy, Showbiz bought the company. For a while the corporation maintained the two restaurant chains simultaneously. Each continued their own stage shows and merchandise. However, when relations between the company that owned and programmed The Rock-afire Explosion, Creative Engineering , and Showbiz began to sour, the Showbiz restaurants began replacing the band with the Chuck E. Cheese Munch’s Make Believe Band because the company owned and programmed those robots themselves. Soon after, the Showbiz restaurants themselves were renamed Chuck E. Cheese Pizza. Although some people thought the creativity and entertainment value of The Rock-afire Explosion was superior to Munch's Make Believe Band, the company had decided to shift its focus away from animatronics and more towards video games, food, and quality of service. Discontinuation of the second robot band made sense from a business perspective, and profits did not suffer. The band still maintains a small cult following. Rock-afire records and merchandise periodically show up on EBay.

See also

• List of fictional music groups

External links

• Fan Site