A Tribute to the Fallen


The story of Betty's Clinic is long and complicated. In any lengthy campaign, some will always fall. We would like on this page to pay tribute to those who we stood shoulder to shoulder with, only for them to be cruelly taken away. Or we got rid of them...something like that.

Craig Burkinshaw was the original bass player, even though he never did play a gig with us on bass... Craig was the bass player for Shallow, and started putting new songs together with Phil at the beginning of the summer of 1999. Then, about a week before our first gig at the Farfield Inn, Craig was pulled away to Egypt to work on a boat. These things happen. So, with a week to go before the big night, a new bass player had to be found and trained up... In a surprising reversal of fortune however, Craig eventually came back to reclaim his place in Betty's Clinic as guitar player and to drink heartily during each and every practice.
(Craig, by the way, didn't like the old picture, so here's one of him caught in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle)
craighead
Enter Ian Grant. After phoning him from Chas' house, his services were procured. Sadly though Ian also ran off...to Newquay. Not quite as exotic as Egypt, but still ruling him out from playing at our next gig.
Well, cometh the hour, cometh Chris Cork. Chris managed the unprecedented feat of staying Betty's Clinic bass player for as many as two gigs. However, we never did get a picture of him and he was eventually ousted.


Craig came back again briefly at this point. And then he went away again, leaving us trying to figure out what we were going to do. And after far too long dithering about and trying to find someone, bass player #4 was procured. Chaz Salt fitted in nicely, and everything was once again fine and dandy.

...And fine and dandy things continued until we split up again, at which point Third Rail stole Chaz...so on getting back together at the start of the first summer of the new millenium, we were once again bassless. So, instead of getting one of the old bass players back, we procured Mike Handley.
mike the poseur
not the best picture of rich We did want Mike back in the winter of 2000, but then Mike had to head back to uni in Preston. So bass player #6 is Rich Pingree, who we even have a picture of now. Although it's probably best for us to teach him the songs first. He sleeps all day, he works all night, he used to play bass with Nigel in Ravish, and was at one point growing a grandaddy-style beard. Quite worryingly, he also appears to be one of those 'musicians' we've previously only heard about, being far more talented than the rest of the band put together. He also plays in the acoustic supremo act Special Moth.


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