WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Freeez

Have you kept in touch with Freeez? Is there an IOU owing?(!)

British group Freeez formed in 1978 of John Rocca (b.1960), Andy Stennett, Peter Maas and Paul Morgan aka Everton McCalla with Jean-Paul Maunick (b.1957) joining the following year. The group were signed to Pye Records and in 1980 released their debut single, “Keep In Touch”. The track made it to No.49 on the singles chart, but a follow up, “Stay”, failed to make an impression. The group released their debut album, “Southern Freeez” in 1981 along with the title track, which broke the UK top ten and peaked at No.8. A second top 40 hit followed with “Flying High”, while the album got as far as No.17. After another flop in 1982, Freeez made an even bigger impact in 1983 with the song “IOU”, which went top ten around the world and topped the US Dance chart, largely thanks to production by Arthur Baker and mixing from future Madonna hitmaker John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez.

The group achieved further UK album chart success with “Gonna Get You” that same year as well as the single “Pop Goes My Love” (UK No.26) but after two more flops, the group in its original form, disbanded. But after just a few months, Peter Maas revived the Freeez name with a new group of musicians and released the singles “That Beats My Patence” and “Train Of Thoughts”, though both were not successful and neither was the album “Idle Vice”. The new Freeez was quietly wound up but John Rocca was not done yet. In 1986, new mixes of “IOU” were released on white label. Further mixes were commercially released in 1987 and “IOU” returned to the UK singles chart, peaking at No.23 and would also enter the US Club chart top twenty that same year. Paul Morgan and Peter Maas revisited the Freeez format in the mid-1990’s with the new name of The Dazzling Urbanites, but after a number of live shows, time was called.

After Freeez, John Rocca pursuded a solo career and achieved a second US Dance chart number one in 1984 with “I Want It To Be Real”. He released a number of other singles in to the early 90’s, but did not gain any further success until 1993, when he again topped the US Dance chart with “Shine”. He also worked as a freelance mixer most notably for Tim Simenon’s project, Bomb The Bass. John ‘retired’ from music shortly after “Shine” and moved into the IT and telecomms industry and starting his own company. Little is known of the other members of the group apart from Jean-Paul Maunick, who founded the group Incognito. They achieved chart hits with “Always There” in 1991 and “Don’t You Worry ’bout A Thing” in 1992, and continue to perform and record music with their most recent album, “Into You”, coming out in 2023.