Steve Rothery
| Steve Rothery | |
|---|---|
Steve Rothery onstage with Marillion at their 2009 weekend festival in Montreal, Canada.
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| Background information | |
| Born | 25 November 1959 |
| Genres | Rock, progressive rock, neo-progressive rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Associated acts | Marillion, The Wishing Tree, Enchant, Edison's Children |
| Website |
steverothery.com Marillion.com |
Steve Rothery (born 25 November 1959) is an English musician. He is the original guitarist and the longest continuous member of the British rock band Marillion, which is the most successful band to emerge from Britain's 1980s neo-progressive rock scene, having sold over 15 million albums. Outside Marillion, Rothery has recorded two albums as part of the duo The Wishing Tree and an instrumental solo album, The Ghosts of Pripyat, released in September 2014. According to Guitar Player, Rothery "specializes in crafting lush sonic atmospheres with layered guitars and effects processing". In 2001, Rothery was voted Yorkshire and Humberside's best guitarist in a poll in Total Guitar magazine. He has been hailed by MusicPlayers.com as one of the great progressive rock guitarists, describing him as "never one to go for major flash, he always plays for the song and not his ego, but when he shines, he shines brightly", and comparing him favourably with John Petrucci, David Gilmour and Alex Lifeson.
Rothery was born in Brampton, South Yorkshire, England, and from the age of six he lived in Whitby, North Yorkshire. He began to play the guitar at the age of 15. In an interview for Johnnie Walker's Sounds of the Seventies on BBC Radio 2 in 2013, Rothery revealed that his musical tastes always differed from his friends, who were getting into punk rock while he preferred progressive rock, which he had been introduced to through the Alan Freeman show on BBC Radio 1.
In 1979, he saw an ad in the music press for a band called Silmarillion that needed a guitarist. He auditioned successfully for the band (19 August 1979). From this point he concentrated more on melody, composition and mood in his playing, and less on his technique, although he revealed in 2013 that when he is not touring, recording or rehearsing, he still practises guitar for an hour a day, part of which will be scales and finger exercises. Later, Silmarillion shortened its name to Marillion.
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