>> 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.