David Rotheray

David Rotheray (born 9 February 1963) is an English rock and pop musician, best known for being the lead guitarist of Hullensian band The Beautiful South.

Rotheray was born in Hull. His parents were both intellectuals and had met through the Young Communist League. Having much older brothers and sisters sped up his musical progress; by the age of 10 he was listening to rock and imagined being in a band. His chosen instrument at the time was the bass guitar. He has 4 siblings.

Rotheray joined his first band when he was aged 13; it was called Mammoth, at one time performing the then-current Sex Pistols song, "Pretty Vacant" at a school concert, without any microphones. At that time Rotheray's musical tastes were for progressive rock, his favourite being Pink Floyd. His parents were worried but still allowed him to play and drove him to clubs to perform. Eventually, Mammoth evolved into a band called The Newpolitans. Both Mammoth and the Newpolitans featured Hugh Whitaker on drums, who later became the drummer for The Housemartins. The Newpolitans also later featured Dave Hemingway on drums, who also became drummer for the Housemartins and then a singer with the Beautiful South.

The Newpolitan style was a mixture of the current musical styles, from the Style Council to the Gang of Four. Band members included temporary additions, mainly for demo recordings, were saxophonist Kev Christian and the trumpet players Andrew Nicholson and Andy Russell. The Newpolitans recorded a self-financed single, but the failure of the single provided the catalyst for the band's demise. Rotheray and Hemingway then went on to form the Velvetones with other musician friends from Hull.

Whilst living on Grafton Street and studying for a PhD at Hull University, Rotheray met Paul Heaton with whom he formed the Beautiful South and began writing songs.

In 2001, Heaton released the album, Fat Chance. However, as the bulk of the tracks on Fat Chance were written by Heaton, or with collaborators other than Rotheray, it was decided that Rotheray too would have a side project whilst The Beautiful South were on a recording hiatus.

Homespun originally featured Rotheray and Sam Brown. The band released three albums. Brown was replaced by Helen 'Aitch' McRobbie as lead vocalist before Homespun split up in 2008. Rotheray concentrated on a solo project involving different singers from the contemporary scene.

Rotheray announced the release of his first 'solo' album, The Life of Birds for 16 August 2010, on the Proper Music label. Although ostensibly a solo effort, the record featured collaborations with ten different singer/songwriters including Alasdair Roberts, Jim Causley, Eliza Carthy and Camille O'Sullivan.