The history of Rockhouse by Bob Plumb

In the mid 70s I was DJ at a Rock ‘n’ Roll club in Braintree called The 2Js club. The club had a group every Friday night. One of the regular Teds was Dick Keeble. I was chatting to him one Friday and he told me that he played lead guitar and that he had a semi acoustic bass guitar for sale. He asked me to ask over the mike to see if anyone was interested. I told him, if it was worth the money, I would buy it myself, which I did. After a week or two he asked how I was getting on. I told him that it was going Ok so he suggested we get together for a jam session at his girlfriends house. Also at this first session was Dick’s friend Ben Matz who played Rhythm guitar. Things went well so we decided to look for a drummer and a singer we were joined by Dick’s brother Terry on vocals and a drummer called Kevin Nolan who lived near to me. We did our first booking at the 2Js. We had several more gigs but things were not working out too well for Terry, who's wife had just had a baby. As luck would have it we knew Kenny Moorse who also went to the 2Js and was a good vocalist. We were soon on to our second drummer called Keith, but we were still striving for that driving Rock n Roll and Rockabilly sound. I contacted my old mate from the Black Raven days Driftin’ Den Board who was doing some Rock n Roll Disco work in the Southend area and I knew he was a more than competent Rockin' Drummer. Den joined us and Rockhouse hit the road again.

We kept this line up for years until Kenny decided he did not want to be our front man any more. There was no bad feeling just a change of heart. After a few shaky weeks when we missed Kenny a lot, we found he was so hard to replace that we didn't even try. The remaining four of us had always taken a share in the singing so we decided to carry on as a four piece. By this time Ben was playing a lot more sax which helped us bring in a lot more songs to our play list. We kept playing until the early 80s when we all decided to call it a day.

Two more people we should mention are the unseen members of the group, our roadies. Dicks brother in law Steve who was with us from start to finish and Ian Rolfe who was with us from about after the first year. Both for the love of the music (We never paid them any money).

What are they doing now?

Dick Keeble picked up his Guitar a few years after the break-up of Rockhouse and backed a few people. He later joined a group called the Alley Cats. Not playing now as far as I know. I've heard he drives a Taxi in the Chelmsford area.
Ben Matz works as an Auto electrician in Chelmsford. I heard he does not play his sax now but still has his Guitars.
Den lives in the Southend area and does not play as far as I know.
Kenny, I've heard he is still playing in a group, but I'm not sure what type of music he plays.
Ian lives in Chelmsford with his Family.
Steve, I think he moved to London but I'm not certain

The band reformed in 2006 and is back on the road

Bob Plumb. Double Bass, Vocals.
Dick Keeble, Lead Guitar, Vocals.
Ben Matz. Saxophone, Harmonica, Rhythm Guitar, Vocals.
Kevin Stagg. Drums