Early Pumpkin History According Ron Roesing

Not much is known about The Marked, but as the many lawsuits begin to pile on about a band that was formed over a decade ago, more people have become interested in this facet of The Smashing Pumpkins' history. ChartAttack.com spent some time sifting through band lore, discographies and early interviews along with questioning Roesing about Pumpkin's history. Sadly, history is written by the winners and in rock n' roll much is changed and embellished to suit the needs and whims of artists.

In the September 1998 issue of Chart magazine we wrote: "The Pumpkins got off to a rocky start in early 1988. Not fitting in with any popular music scene in their native Chicago made it nearly impossible to get gigs. When they did finally land a spot at the prestigious Cabaret Metro (now just The Metro), it was as a three-piece - a simple drum machine kept time."

Roesing disputes this claim. He says the first incarnation of The Smashing Pumpkins actually came from The Marked. "We formed a band together. He was bragging to some girl about what a great guitar player he was. I was standing nearby and we kind of locked horns when he saw me. I have a birthmark on my face, which almost matches the birthmarks on Billy's wrists." They named the band after this fact and moved to Florida to find some gigs.

According to the dedicated fansite netphoria, "The music was a goth-metal style. [They] used the same kind of idea of the Smashing Pumpkins of loud music and soft music and trying to put it all together, but the band wasn't that really good and Billy's singing wasn't the greatest. The Marked played around 1986, they eventually returned to Chicago about twenty gigs later, and broke up."

Roesing remembers it this way, "It was Billy and I, then we added Dale Meiners, which alot of people seem to forget. Dale then quit at the end of '86. We then changed it [the name] to The Smashing Pumpkins in '87. There is a demo, The Nothing Ever Changes demo, which has James Iha, myself and Billy Corgan on it." According to a discography the track listing for that album is, "It Suits Me Well," "Breathe" and "Heart and Cross." This listing also claims along with the band that a drum machine played on the last two tracks. Roesing suggests otherwise, especially when it comes to the amount of material he and Corgan recorded under The Marked moniker.