RE: Rothko

[goddard.duncan@mtvne.com]

 >> Rothko started out as a trio of electric bassists but has morphed into a variety of players centering around Mark Beazley, one of the original trio of bassists. <<

 

I've known the rothko lads since late 1997.... I went along to the "upstairs at the garage" venue in north london (to see broadcast, though rothko deny ever having supported them, which is odd) & got there just in time to see rothko putting their gear onto the tiny stage.

an SWR head & cab. another SWR head & cab. "that's odd," I thought, "two bassists..." & then jon clambered up with a fliptop ampeg.

 

no drums, no guitars, no keyboards & only the occasional durutti column style vocal contribution from jon.

 

well, about two numbers into their set, by which time I was a) dumbstruck & b) had completely "got it", crawford produced a minidisc walkman.

"a-hah," I thought, "here comes the backing track of the rest of the band!".

the minidisc was a fourth bass part, a chunk of danny thompson in fact.

 

well, the rest is history. I followed them around making bootleg recordings (some of which they released) until the trio turned into mark & some other folks. there was a side-project without mark too, a four-piece math-rock outfit called "geiger counter" with crawford still on bass but jon playing guitar.. (& mumbling). 

 

they were all three big fans of the DL4, though their main effects were three korg bass multi-effect units- AX3B perhaps, I forget now.

 

lots of reverb, lots of distortion, but in such a way that even with your back to them, you could tell who was playing what. (mark's korg was stolen, & I sold him mine which I'd only bought because crawford went on about it so much. didn't really suit me.)

 

jon played a status, I think, mostly. mark had a fretless yamaha & crawford a stingray with a "public enemy" sticker on it.

 

many great nights out when either rothko or geiger counter were paired with monsoon bassoon, a part-gong, part-renaissance prog-pop outfit. 

rothko managed several albums, but the monsoons only made one, while geiger counter just squeezed out a couple of singles.

 

I miss them all.

 

d.

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