Rocky Sharpe

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Rocky Sharpe is the pseudonym of an English rock/pop singer who, with Rocky Sharpe and the Replays, first found fame in the late 1970s. The usual line-up of the group was Rocky (real name Robert Podsiadly), Helen Highwater (real name Helen Blizard), Johnny Stud (Rocky's brother Jan) and Eric Rondo (Mike Vernon). An earlier incarnation of the group, Rocky Sharpe and the Razors, contained Den Hegarty and Rita Ray who later formed Darts.

It was in 1978 that the group enjoyed their first commercial success with "Rama Lama Ding Dong", covered from The Edsels^[1], which reached number 17 in the Top 20 of the UK Singles Chart. More chart success quickly followed with another single, "Imagination", which reached number 39 in 1979. But after this, success was more difficult to find, and Sharpe was to find greater success on the touring circuit than in the best-sellers charts.

It was not until 1982 that Sharpe would find himself with another major hit. "Shout! Shout! (Knock Yourself Out)" proved to be a success with music fans and put the singer back into the higher reaches of the chart. Although he never had another hit as big again, Sharpe retained a fan following and his music remains widely available. The group's last chart single was "If You Wanna Be Happy", which reached UK chart position 46 in 1983.