Dave Rowbotham (1958 – 8 November 1991) was an English rock musician who played guitar and bass with various

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

bands in the 1970s and the 1980s, and as a studio musician.

Biography

Born in Didsbury, Manchester, he went to school at Elm Grove Primary School and then Parrswood High School. He left school to train as an electrician and in 1970 he started playing rhythm guitar with his pals in a four piece rock cover band called Flashback. He later adopted the hippie lifestyle. During the punk era, he, alongside drummer Chris Joyce, played in a band called Fast Breeder and was managed by Alan Erasmus, who later co-founded

Factory Records Factory Records was a Manchester-based British independent record label founded in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus. The label featured several important acts on its roster, including Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, the Duru ...

with

Tony Wilson Anthony Howard Wilson (20 February 1950 – 10 August 2007) was a British record label owner, radio and television presenter, nightclub manager, impresario and a journalist for Granada Television, the BBC and Channel 4. As a co-founder o ...

. In 1978, the pair, alongside Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias bassist Tony Bowers, singer

Phil Rainford Phil Rainford is a British former singer and music producer, who formed part of the Manchester music scene, in late 1970s and early 1980s. He was the original singer of post-punk band The Durutti Column who were signed to Factory Records, havin ...

(replaced after months by

Colin Sharp Colin Ainsley Sharp (5 September 1953 – 7 September 2009) was an English actor, biographer, percussionist and singer-songwriter, who was part of the Manchester music scene of the late 1970s and dedicated to arts in Newcastle upon Tyne. Car ...

), and former

Nosebleeds A nosebleed, also known as epistaxis, is bleeding from the nose. Blood can flow down into the stomach, and cause nausea and vomiting. In more severe cases, blood may come out of both nostrils. Rarely, bleeding may be so significant that low bloo ...

guitarist

Vini Reilly Vincent Gerard "Vini" Reilly (born 4 August 1953) is an English musician and leader of the post-punk group the Durutti Column. He is known for his distinctively clean, fluid guitar style, which stood out from his punk-era contemporaries in its ...

, founded the

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...

band

The Durutti Column The Durutti Column are an English post-punk band formed in 1978 in Manchester, England.Strong, Martin C. (1999) "The Great Alternative & Indie Discography", Canongate, The band is a project of guitarist and occasional pianist Vini Reilly wh ...

. However, the five-piece line-up did not last long, and after releasing '' A Factory Sample'', a compilation by various artists which contained two of their songs, Rowbotham, alongside Sharp, Bowers, and Joyce, left Reilly. Rowbotham and the latter two formed

The Mothmen The Mothmen were a short-lived post-punk band from England, formed around 1979 by Dave Rowbotham, Chris Joyce and Tony Bowers, shortly after they left The Durutti Column, including ex-Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias singer Bob Harding. History ...

. During the early days of The Mothmen, he also re-joined Reilly in Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls, with then ex- Penetration vocalist

Pauline Murray Pauline Murray (born 8 March 1958) is best known as the lead vocalist of the punk rock band Penetration, originally formed in 1976. Early years Pauline Murray was born on 8 March 1958 in Waterhouses, County Durham, England, and her parents late ...

, playing on their eponymous album. With The Mothmen, he released two albums, ''Pay Attention'' (On-U Sound, 1981) and ''One Black Dot'' (1982). By this time, he had also formed Motivation, along with ex- Buzzcocks bassist

Steve Garvey Steven Patrick Garvey (born December 22, 1948) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres from 1969 to 1987. Garvey was the National ...

. By 1981 or early 1982, shortly before the release of ''One Black Dot'', he left The Mothmen. After that and Motivation, he played on sessions for

. On 2 November 1991, Rowbotham's girlfriend found him dead in his flat on Grangethorpe Drive in

Burnage Burnage is a suburb of the city of Manchester in North West England, about south of Manchester city centre and bisected by the dual carriageway of Kingsway. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, the population of the B ...

. He was lying on the living room floor in a pool of blood, and had been murdered with a plasterer's hammer. As of March 2018, no one has yet been convicted of his murder. In his memory, the Madchester band

Happy Mondays Happy Mondays are an English rock band formed in Salford in 1980. The original line-up was Shaun Ryder (vocals), his brother Paul Ryder (bass), Gary Whelan (drums), Paul Davis (keyboard), and Mark Day (guitar). Mark "Bez" Berry later joine ...

wrote a song called "Cowboy Dave", released on the album ''

Yes Please! ''Yes Please!'' is the fourth studio album by British rock band Happy Mondays, released 22 September 1992 through Factory Records. Following the non-album single "Judge Fudge", Factory allotted the band a budget of £150,000 for their next alb ...

'', in 1992.

References

External links

A bit information about Motivation, another Rowbotham band
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowbotham, Dave 1958 births 1991 deaths 1991 murders in the United Kingdom English rock bass guitarists Male bass guitarists English male guitarists Musicians from Manchester People from Didsbury The Durutti Column members British post-punk musicians 20th-century English musicians 20th-century English bass guitarists English murder victims 20th-century British male musicians The Invisible Girls members