Artist

ROCKY'S FILJ

Roberto "Rocky" Rossi (vocals, sax, clarinet)
Roby Grablovitz (guitar, flute)
Luigi Ventura (bass, trombone)
Rubino Colasante (drums, upright bass)

With a five-piece line-up, Roky's Fily issued a single in 1971, Ingrid, for the small Cobra label. The group included some very good musicians from Parma, but singer and sax player Rocky Rossi, who gave the name to the band, came from Vicenza.
The name was later modified to Rocky's Filj and, now as a four-piece, the group gained a contract with Ricordi after a positive tour with Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, and their album was produced by Sandro Colombini, who had worked with Banco on their first albums.
The album is in a rock style with strong jazz influences, but all the tracks have vocals, and Rocky's voice is very original even if not always convincing. 
Instrumental parts are very well made, all the band members could professionally play various instruments and the album is always very enjoyable. The long opening track, L'ultima spiaggia, with dramatic vocals and long guitar and sax solo parts is a fine example of their music. 

A band that deserved more consideration, Rocky's Filj broke up soon after the album was recorded, as one of them was jailed.
Rossi and Grablovitz kept playing together, since 1975 they had a stable line-up with Franz Dondi and Pier Emilio Canavera from Acqua Fragile, adding later a second guitarist, Beppe Ugolotti, but a new album, entitled Brivido rock, was never completed.
After many years as support group of popular artists like Franco Califano, Iva Zanicchi, Bobby Solo, they came back in 1979 with their old name for a commercial single .

Rocky Rossi sadly died in 1985 in a car accident. Under the name Rocky Di Palma he had released a single entitled Mare a Milano, for the 1984 Festivalbar contest.
Drummer Colasante is probably the same which appears (with the name Roby) in the records by Delta Blues Band, in 1979, and the funky-disco Midnight Band in 1980.
Guitarist (from Mantova) Roby Grablovitz has kept playing especially in Northern Italy and released a solo CD in 2005, entitled Speranze d'artista (Acid Studio RG001).

Original album on Ricordi label has recently gained a high value. The nice gatefold cover contains a lyric inner and was designed by Caesar Monti. A picture from the same photo session was later used in Angelo Branduardi's Alla fiera dell'est booklet.
As in other records released by Ricordi, at least two different label variations exist, both with black/orange design. The most common has the STEREO writing in black letters, but some copies have it repeated twice in white letters, with a darker orange background and narrow type in the catalogue number. This kind of labels were used around 1970.

It has been reissued on CD in March 2003 by BMG with mini-LP gatefold cover and obi, as part of their "Dei di un perduto rock" series, and later repressed in October of the same year when a second batch of those CD's came out.
The CD was announced by BMG as being also available with standard jewel case (cat.no. 74321-98159-2) but was probably never issued in this form.
A bootleg CD reissue on the Japanese Neverland label had previously come out with a mini-gatefold cover.

The first vinyl reissue of the Rocky's Filj LP has been made by Sony/BMG in 2009, in a limited pressing and with the same gatefold cover as the original.

No counterfeits or foreign vinyl issues exist.

Storie di uomini e non - LP
Storie di uomini e non - inner gatefold
Storie di uomini e non - label variations
Ingrid - 7" single cover	Astro car - 7" single cover

Thanks to Milan Vyskocil and Luiz Claudio Cals Brügger for information and pictures