San Diego Reader

Joyce Rooks: Guitar (acoustic), Guitar (electric) | Y-Lee: Vocals | Richard Cracknell: Guitar (acoustic), Guitar (electric) | Sue DelGuidice: Vocals | John Aguirre: Bass guitar, Drums

Genre: Reggae & Ska, Rock

RIYL: The Dinettes, the Cockpits

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Synoposis

Inception: San Diego, 1979

Background:

Trowsers was an early 1980s group which released a single and two albums, Solitary Confinement and Drop ‘Em. Members included Joyce Rooks, from early San Diego punk groups like the Dinettes (an all-female ensemble for much of its existence) and the Cockpits, and Richard Cracknell, who doubled as a strip club DJ at the time.

“I joined the Cockpits in 1978 by answering a Reader ad,” recalled Rooks in 2010. “I had a guitar and amp and a cello which I kept hidden, as it didn’t seem punk rock enough at the time.” The Cockpits played their first gig at Porter's Pub at UCSD; after several membership changes, including latterday male players like future Beat Farmer Country Dick Montana, the group essentially morphed into the Dinettes.

Rooks next joined Trowsers, a ska/reggae band which Runaways mastermind Kim Fowley had a fleeting interest in. “After the Trowsers, I hooked up with the Penetrators as a backup singer. Along the way, I would sing with the Country Dick Montana’s Pleasure Barons Revue and record with the Beat Farmers.”

Discography