Rockets — Where to Listen on the Radio

Rockets is a French space rock band that formed in Paris in 1974 and relocated to Italy in 1978. In their most successful era (1977–1982) the line-up comprised vocalist Christian Le Bartz (1951-2025), bassist and vocalist "Little" Gérard L'Her (1952), guitarist and keyboardist Alain Maratrat (1956-2025), drummer and percussionist Alain Groetzinger (1955), and keyboardist Fabrice Quagliotti (1961). Their initial genre was rock, immediately defined by the press as 'space rock' due to the sci-fi veins in the lyrics, the electronic sounds and the stage appearance. Later it was instead associated with 'disco music' and finally 'synth-pop'.

The Rockets never had any significant success abroad, except in a few countries such as Italy. Mainly responsible for the band's success in Italy was producer Maurizio Cannici, manager of CGD-Messaggerie Musicali, who, in 1978, after seeing them perform in a discotheque in Cannes, succeeded in making them celebrities in that country. In the same year, the group held their first concert in Italy, at the Pesaro Summer Show. Contributing most to their popularity in Italy was the performance they gave a short time later at the Teatro Lirico in Milan.

The group's vocals were heavily processed to sound like they were from another world. The group used distinctive spatial aesthetics of lamé suits, musical instruments shaped like stars and faces painted in silver. Already during their early concerts, the group made use of eccentric and elaborate…