Country-Barn Stage (Test)

The Rock-afire Country-Barn stage was a prototype stage design that had only one known usage, which was at the North Richland Hills, TX store. It is sometimes referred to as the "Country Stage" because of the country clothes and outfits on the Rock-afire Explosion characters. The Rock-afire characters were of course given special country and western outfits to go along with the original Country Night showtape in 1983, but the outfits that went with the Country-Barn stage were different and unique from the original versions sent to all stores.

The Country-Barn stage was installed sometime around 1985, to coincide with the release of the Rock-afire Explosion's Country II Tape and it's Country Klunk counterpart. We have photos showing the stage with Rolfe & Earl installed, and video footage showing that it was also used with Uncle Klunk.

Description of the Stage

Compared to the typical Rock-afire Explosion stage, the Country-Barn had a stripped down and modern appearance. In the original incarnation, the center stage had a large barn prop behind the characters, filling the space between pink buildings. This was later removed, but the custom character outfits remained. Also after the barn backing was removed, a new Rock-afire Explosion sign was added. It was composed of a neon lettering that simply said "Rock-afire". Most of the decor in the background had a very Art Deco appearance - airbrushed pink buildings and skycrapers giving the look of a cityscape. This extended to other stage props such as the base underneath Dook and also the stage valence. Billy Bob's stage had a strange computer command center display, with an interesting skewed perspective.

The characters themselves had were given new and splashy outfits. Mitzi had a black and pink western dress and large pink bows in her hair. Beach Bear had black shorts, a bow tie, and a dark dress shirt. Dook had a gigantic cowboy hat, yellow and green country dress shirt, and belt with a large star shaped buckle. And Rolfe had a shiny metallic vest.

History / Legacy

Since this was a one-off prototype stage, there's not a lot that remains except for some photographs and videos taken by customers who happened to document the stage, most likely unaware of its significance. This stage did however make an appearance in a national advertising campaign, being featured in a series of television commercials that were recorded and aired in 1986.