Where Are They Now? - Rosanna’s Raiders

By Jeff McCormack

Back in the late 1980s, when Christian metal was making leaps and bounds in the music scene, many great classic metal bands were being pumped out by the now defunct Pure Metal Records. In 1988, they brought us the first release by Rosanna’s Raiders. Many people (like me) snagged it up quickly due to the affiliation with Pure Metal, only to find a band that was more rock than metal. Many people fussed and complained about this, which caused mixed reviews from the metal crazed audience. The band was a hard rock trio made up of Rosanna Palmer on lead vocals and guitars, husband Dave Palmer on bass and Johno Zaffarese on drums. Though the band was one that it seemed you either loved or hated, they nevertheless made an impact on the movement—to this day their two CDs are sought after and paid top dollar for when found. So, now almost twenty years later, where are they … and where have they been? Well, we caught up with Rosanna recently and here is their story.

JM: So, tell us a little about the early days of the band.
RP: The very beginning of the band was a couple of guys on a school bus talking about forming a heavy rock band—a female free zone. Dave didn’t share this view as he had seen me performing at a school assembly during my first year of high school—and yes, we did eventually get married and are living happily ever after. My brother Henry was the drummer. We later formed a three piece band and traveled around Australia and recorded with Festival Records. The first single, “Loving Only You” made it to the charts in a few country regions. Our second single, a rock version of the 1980 Olympics theme “Moscow,” had joint top position on the charts in Melbourne.

As we changed direction, Johno Zaffarese joined the band, and on the rare occasion that we get together, the same energy still sparks between us. Although Dave and I had a nominal church background, our drummer and sound crew had quite a different background; their lifestyle included many of the trappings of a typical rock band. Our sound guy had a radical transformation when he was born again and set free from drug addiction in our brother-in-law's lounge room. As we witnessed it, God radically changed our lives. Basically, Jesus burst onto the scene, transforming the whole band. Dave and I instantly knew that we had to use our music for God … we had read many books and always felt we would be working with street kids, as we read and were impacted by books such as the conversion of Nicky Cruise … we just didn’t know how it would come to pass. We changed our original songs to be about Jesus and continued playing in pubs and clubs for twelve months. We then began to record our new material and tour Australia with many overseas Christian artists including Petra, Whiteheart, Phil Keaggy, David Meece and others.

As well as Rosanna’s Raiders, we also formed a seven piece praise band, Power Praise, and released a couple of albums which were very successful in Australia. Dave and I traveled to the UK, Malaysia, and Singapore and more recently to Estonia, usually using a local drummer.

Tell us how the record deal Pure Metal/Refuge Records happened.
The record deal with Pure Metal came about when someone in Australia released one of our songs on a compilation album in America. Ray Nenow, owner of Refuge Records, turned up in our church office in Australia and said “I want to take you to America,” so we said okay.

With an international release, were you able to tour outside of Australia?
At the very point of releasing our album in America we thought we would probably tour, but God had a different plan for our lives. At the point of release, God called us to pioneer a church in the “red light” district of Melbourne. We had gone through a time of playing in schools and prisons with many street people living in our home—some from the detention center being released to our care. So, when it looked like our music was about to take off, God called us both to become pastors. The church in St. Kilda was called “Church of the Rock” … and yes, we wore leather jackets, at first, while preaching to mostly a street and rock culture. Meanwhile, God had His way of promoting the albums as they sold very well … and one of the songs, “Breakaway,” was nominated for a Dove award.

You released your second album Calling Down Fire in 1989, then you kind of fell off the radar. Where has the band been these past 18 years or so? Have there been any of recordings that never saw an international release?
We were pretty naïve when working with record companies and didn’t really know how to negotiate or deal with them … so, after the two releases we basically just kept doing what we were doing, as well as continuing to do concerts in high schools, prisons and Christian festivals, etc. We were now pastors and trying to balance this all out. We were involved in running the music for “Youth Alive” Victoria with Mal Fletcher, a major youth movement, as well as then helping to organize music for pastors’ conferences. We did continue to record albums, mostly solo, although Changes was recorded with the exact same members. I called it a solo album, as it contained more of a variety of styles than the original Rosanna’s Raiders. I recorded a worship album as I had many worship songs written and it seemed like a good idea to lay them down. I also sing and speak in churches, which caused me to write many songs suitable for acoustic guitar.

When involved in another church, Dave and I set up a studio in our home and helped them record worship albums which contained a lot of my worship songs. I continue to write songs and hope to be able to focus a lot more on recording in the next few years as it is still very much the passion of my heart to see people become all that God has called them to be … and, in turn, to become worshippers of the living God who created them and has a great plan for their life.

Today, Dave is the principal of Surfcity International Bible College at Surfers Paradise and I am the Worship Pastor at Surfcity Christian Church and we are in the midst of recording a church album for the opening of our new building. Johno (drums) has been busy raising his family of six kids and running his own staging business.

I understand your two CDs are in the process of being reissued soon; how did that come about and will there be any bonus tracks included?
Yes, Retroactive/Watergrave Records are reissuing our old CDs and yes, they will include bonus tracks. It has been a pleasure to get to know Matthew (Hunt); it is always good to meet people who are using the gifts God has given them to serve God. Any way that we can continue to get the Word of God out is a good thing, no matter what shape or form we must get it out there. We serve an awesome God and people need to know Him and know that He also has a great plan for their life.

I don’t really know a lot of detail of how Matthew got our material, but I know that he is a historian of Christian rock and metal who grew up listening to the music and still loves it … and through his label, he reissues those albums begging to be resurrected and reissued. We just happen to be one of the blessed recipients of his willingness to serve God in this area.

Do you have a website or some way fans can contact you?
We did have a website for a while, but I don’t think it is happening anymore. If it is, we haven’t updated it for many years. People can email us at davidandropalmer@hotmail.com.

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