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'Some Communication'

March 2012

Welcome to 2012. For this first blog of the year, I’m picking up where I left off in December 2011 when I enjoyed an excellent weekend at the beginning of the month at The Great British Folk Festival. Friday 2^nd to Sunday 4^th  December wouldn’t be most peoples choice of dates when spending a weekend at Skegness Butlins I’d imagine but I enjoyed a great weekend of  music. I’d missed out on the festival in 2010 due to being snowed in at home but after attending the Rock and Blues Weekend in January 2011, we had such a good time that we decided to try for the folk festival again. Live music, fabulous food and chalets instead of camping… What’s not to like? We arrived on the Friday afternoon, checked into our chalet and after my evening meal of vegetable curry, salad, pasta, cake and ice cream (!), we enjoyed the evening’s live music. Walking the short distance between two indoor stages, watching some of one set before catching part of another or in some cases watching the whole set of an act when they didn’t clash with another preference or because we wanted to see an whole performance by someone. On the Friday we saw Emily Smith, 3 Daft Monkeys, Peatbog Faeries, Quill and best of the night (in my opinion) Chumbawamba. They performed a great set for both new and old listeners to the band’s music and their varied acoustic repertoire went down brilliant with the audience and featured the likes of Add Me, Buy Nothing Day, A Stitch In Time, Jacob’s Ladder, El Fusilado, Charlie, Voices That’s All, Wagner At The Opera, Torturing James Hetfield and Ratatatay. It’s another town to add to the list I’ve seen the band perform in (and I shant say how many times I’ve seen them but it’s more than any other band I’ve seen live)… After a full English (vegetarian) cooked breakfast, toast and cereal on the Saturday morning, we headed into Skegness town itself. The weather has a reputation for being bracing in that part of the world and on this day it was fffffreezing. But bright and sunny too so wrapped up against the cold was still quite pleasant. Back to Butlins for lunchtime and in time to catch the whole set (and highlight of the afternoon) by Richard Digance. I’d never seen him before and hadn’t thought much about him when I first saw him listed in the programme to be honest. For no bad reason, just that I wasn’t familiar with his music and had never taken much notice of him whenever he’d appeared on the TV over the years. I’m really glad that I saw him though, he was terrific. Funny songs, clever songs, heart warming songs - all mixed with a devilish sense of humour and the perfect start to the day’s music. Joe O’Donnell Band followed and then The Wurzels. I’d seen The Wurzels before (Guildford Live festival 2001) and enjoyed the humour and fun that went alongside their cider drinking songs. And after a few drinks, a visit to the arcades and a rest in the chalet, we were back eating for England again with our evening meal before the evening’s entertainment. Steve Gibbons (of The Dylan Project as well as Steve Gibbons Band) was first up on the centre stage on Saturday evening. I watched a few songs which were in a Bob Dylan or rock ‘n’ roll style and included Elvis Presley’s Trying To Get To You played solo on an electric guitar before checking out Merry Hell on the other stage. We returned to the centre stage in time for Cara Dillon and she was brilliant with her stunning vocal delivery of traditional folk songs. She had the whole audience captivated and for a large auditorium with two bars at each side of the room (which in itself can create a certain amount of noise), you could have heard a pin drop as she sang such well known songs as Black Is The Colour, P Stands For Paddy and The Parting Glass. I also caught a few songs by Matthews Southern Comfort (led by very early Fairport Convention member Iain Matthews) before retiring to the chalet for the night but Cara Dillon was certainly the best of the Saturday evening acts… Sunday’s music started with a session called Fairport Connections. This involved Dave Pegg and Gerry Conway from Fairport Convention and PJ Wright from The Dylan Project with a few guests who either performed solo or with the Fairport members & PJ backing them. Dave and PJ performed a few songs first, then Anna Ryder came on stage for a few songs. Bob Fox was up next and was exceptional during his short set. I’d only seen Bob live for the first time earlier in 2011 so to see him again was a real bonus. His set included some of my Bob Fox favourites such as The Song Of The Iron Road, Champion At Keeping Them Rolling and Greek Lightning (which always brings a tear to my eye with it’s emotionally charged story of a broken ex-miner in decline with little money and even less hope). Anthony John Clarke was another guest and I have to admit I’d not heard him previously though I really enjoyed his set, especially his Tuesday Night Is Always Karaoke and Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Tich songs. Steve Tilston was the last guest who unfortunately had the shortest of sets due to running out of time but what he did perform was brilliant and he kept the standards as high as they’d been all afternoon. I’ve seen Steve play 9 times since we first discovered him (by chance) as the support act to Fairport Convention in Derby in 2001 and he’s impressed on every occasion. We could have watched and listened to these fabulous singers and players for hours longer but sadly the session ran out of time. Not before we heard Steve sing Weeping Willow Replanted, Oil and Water and Slips Jigs & Reels though to make a fantastic afternoon made extra special by Bob, Anthony John and Steve… The last evening session of the weekend was again dividing our time between the two stages hoping to see as many of the acts as possible. Jane Taylor, Jacqui McShee’s Pentangle (whom I once saw on tour with Steeleye Span in Derby in 2000), Seth Lakeman, Martyn Joseph and The Dylan Project (whom I saw also as a support to Fairport Convention in Derby in 2004) were the acts I saw and Martyn Joseph was my favourite for sheer stage presence and entertainment with just one man and a guitar. Seth Lakeman was good too but I didn’t see a lot of his set due to going over to see Martyn’s. The Dylan Project ended the festival with their Bob Dylan tribute including Steve Gibbons, PJ Wright and Gerry Conway in  the band and the songs included Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You, Down Along The Cove, All Along The Watchtower and Ballad Of A Thin Man… All in all, it was a superb weekend though one thing I feel I must mention (and it is personal opinion) that I actually found the audience at the Rock & Blues weekend friendlier, more welcoming and more open minded and inclusive (to people like me unfamiliar with the blues scene)  than the folk festival crowd. I understand that anyone reading this is more likely to come from the folk tradition than be fans of the blues due to the styles and scenes that I myself perform in but I say it because I believe it to be true. That’s not to say I didn’t meet some great people at the folk festival but I met so many more ordinary working class and genuinely nice people at the blues weekend and so for that reason alone would heartily recommend both weekends to music fans…

The following weekend saw a performance of my own and my last of 2011. On 10/12/2011 I took part in a ‘half dayer’ of sorts at Derby The Old Bell Hotel with myself as the opening act at 4.30pm. It was my 55^th time in Derby and my 3^rd at The Old Bell Hotel but there was a more celebratory figure than those -  The gig happened to be during the week of my 21^st anniversary since my first live performance (on 05/12/1990). 21 years! And I still haven’t taken the hints! Or maybe I have and it’s the hints that make me keep performing! By way of a strange coincidence, one of the acts from that first gig also featured in the line-up 21 years later too! It was also 10 years since I’d lost my Dad on this recent gig date which made it a strange day in some ways and similar to the fact that my previous performance in Derby in November 2011 happened on what would have been my Mum’s birthday… But I digress… Often!… The full line-up for this particular ‘anarcho punk’ gig (of which I’m unsure where I fit in as a folk singer of sorts but hey, I’m always happy to be included in any genre who will listen!) was myself, then Luddite Bastard, Ephemeral Foetus, After The Last Sky, Addictive Philosophy, Andy T, The Astronauts, Eastfield and Zounds. The doors opened at 4pm and a few people arrived. Anthony who organised the gig had said to me when asking me to play that it was the unenviable task of opening the event and so unlikely to be in front of a large crowd! He wasn’t wrong either! I didn’t mind in all honesty, the gig was never going to be a career changing experience for me so it wasn’t a problem. The handful of people which made up the audience (which did steadily increase as my set continued) weren’t treated to a classic Butler performance in my opinion unfortunately as I really wasn’t happy with the sound of my guitar. The sound/PA guy Jay did his best but the combination of not having a sound check before my performance and my acoustic guitar only leaving its case into a different temperature immediately before playing it made it lose its tuning and gave me a hard task of trying to retune the guitar and keep in tune during my 30 minute set. I really didn’t wish to spend most of my allocated time tuning my guitar so tuned up as quickly as I was able and hoped for the best really. It was still enjoyable to play of course but maybe not the best for my uncelebration of 21 years outside of the music business! My full set was Don’t Come Back, The Biggest Party Of Our Lives, You’re Dead I’m Not, Underground Overbite and Celebrity Bus Crash. Nobody else seemed to hear the inconsistencies with the guitar as I did and I was even given a thumbs up of approval by Eastfield’s Jessi Adams after incorporating the chorus of the band’s Sharks Against Surfers song during Underground Overbite. I saw some of Luddite Bastard  before leaving the venue for a short while (and so missed After The Last Sky and Ephemeral Foetus) though was able to return by the time Addictive Philosophy were playing. My first time sharing a bill with them but the 3^rd time I’d seen them play live. Then it was Andy T. Andy’s a performance poet and had recorded on the legendary Crass Records label and I enjoyed his political poetry and monologues with rhythmic musical backing including Eastfield’s Pete on drums. The Astronauts followed Andy T and it was singer Mark Astronaut who I’d shared a gig with 21 years previously. I’d played The Robey, Finsbury Park, London on 3 occasions in 1990, 1991 and 1992 and all three gigs featured Mark (usually performing as a duo with electric guitar backing while he sang The Astronauts songs) and I’d also shared a bill with him in 2005 at Blyth Power’s festival ‘The Tallington Ashes’ but for this 5th time, it was a full band backing of The Astronauts with some newer band material being played such as Sunny Day and I’m Not Doing It as well as some older classics such as Protest Song and Gold At The Top. They were a real highlight of the night and talking to one of the newer recruits to The Astronauts line-up in Joe, I discovered he was just 3 years old when I’d played my first gig with Mark which did make me feel old! Eastfield were up next and it had been great to meet up with them again. It had been far too long since our paths had crossed and I enjoyed seeing them play live again (and even having my photograph taken with them and with Mark Astronaut). It was the 20^th time I’d played with Eastfield as well as 14 gigs that I’ve shared with their singer Jessi Adams playing solo. Headlining the evening was yet another highlight in the form of Zounds. I’d seen Zounds perform live three times previously, first when Steve Lake, Lawrence Wood and Joseph Porter reformed (for well known attendee on the London anarcho punk gig scene Father Raymond’s birthday) in 1992 at The Samuel Beckett, Stoke Newington, London. With support acts Blyth Power (which is also Joseph Porter’s band of course) and Todd’s Peace Box (which was a trio and included Jessi Adams pre- Eastfield and Tracey Curtis who went on to play solo and acoustic). It was a fantastic night, packed well above its capacity for the first Zounds gig in many years and a lasting memory I have is of being given a can of lager by ex-Crass singer Steve Ignorant (it was just a few months after I’d shared a gig with Steve, Blyth Power and Intense Degree in Derby when Steve was performing his Punch & Judy show and he’d still remembered me when we met at the Zounds gig). A couple of years later I saw Zounds when they reformed again in June 1995 for Vi Subversa’s (of The Poison Girls) 60^th birthday gig which also had The Poison Girls, Tony Allen, Eve Libertine & Penny Rimbaud of Crass and the Omega Tribe playing as well as Zounds. My third time of seeing Zounds was a more recent line-up fronted by Steve Lake and included ex Blyth Power bass player Protag/Martin in Derby in 2003.  I also saw Steve Lake with a backing band under his own name playing Zounds songs again in Derby in 2010. Regarding my own gigs, I’d myself shared a stage with Steve Lake playing solo (or with some musical backing) on two occasions when he’d played in Derby in September 2002 (with myself and Contempt) and at the Rebellion Festival 2009 when we’d both played on the Almost Acoustic stage on the same day…This new incarnation of the band who in 2011 released a new album too were excellent and their set included both old classics (More Trouble, New Band etc) and new album material and featured mainstay Steve on vocals and guitar along with Paul O’Donnell on bass and Paul Gilbert on drums. Many thanks to Anthony (for the gig), Jay and Paul (at The Old Bell Hotel), Nick, Mat, Gaz &  Shaun and Eastfield and The Astronauts for the support and good time shared.

The last gig I attended in 2011 was Dr Feelgood at The Flowerpot in Derby for the second time in 2011. The gig on 16/12/2011 was just as good as their earlier performance in April of that year though this time they had a support act in the form of Manchester based blues band Fuschi4 and the gig was probably even more packed than last time. Dr Feelgood were on excellent form (as they have been on all 4 occasions that I’ve seen them), the sound was spot on and after starting their set with All Through The City, they carried on with a formidable set of classics which included Roxette, She Does It Right, Down At The Doctors, Down By The Jetty Blues, Back In The Night, Going Back Home, Nadine, Who Do You Love? Milk And Alcohol, I Can Tell, Rollin’ And Tumblin’, If My Baby Quits Me and a seasonal addition to the encore of Run Run Rudolph! A brilliant live band that I really can’t recommend enough and a lovely end to 2011’s live music!…

The 2011 Xmas time and New Year weren’t really anything to celebrate with hospital visits with relatives, flu bugs for Mrs Butler and myself, news of illness by other friends and relatives and the final straw of Mrs Butler being hospitalised also made for a festive season to forget… There was also some very sad news of a relative passing away during the first week of January which only added to the prolonged and wretched few weeks of bad news and illness… Though one bit of good news when Mrs Butler and myself became grandparents on 03/01/2012 to a new arrival! Hopefully, we’re the coolest of grand parents  but time will tell…

Right, let’s review my favourite culture of 2011: Live Music: It was a particularly good year for the live acts I was lucky enough to see and 2012 will have a lot to live up to if it’s to better 2011. My favourites were John Jones and the Reluctant Ramblers (in Matlock Bath), Mark Chadwick of The Levellers (in Derby), Dr Feelgood (twice in Derby and at Skegness Butlins Rock & Blues Weekend), Bob Fox (in Nether Heage and Skegness Butlins) and Steve Tilston (in Belper and Skegness). The Skegness Butlins Rock & Blues Weekend was excellent and as well as Dr Feelgood, it featured some impressive performances from the likes of Climax Blues Band, The Pretty Things, The Heavy Metal Kids (which featured John Altman, Eastenders TV soap’s Nick Cotton on vocals!), Gwyn Ashton’s Two Man Blues Army, Sandi Thom and John Coghlan’s Quo. The Great British Folk Festival at Skegness Butlins (as mentioned earlier in the blog) included some of the best live music also and as well as Bob Fox and Steve Tilston, there was Chumbawamba, Richard Digance, Cara Dillon and Anthony John Clarke to mention a few again. A couple of other outdoor gigs I enjoyed were the Splendour Festival at Nottingham Wollaton Park which saw great performances by Scissor Sisters, Blondie, Eliza Doolittle, Cast and Justin Currie (of Del Amitri) and the Lytham Proms on Lytham Green, Lytham St Anne’s which featured a great performance by Status Quo. Some other acts I really enjoyed seeing in 2011 were David Rovics, The Re-entrants, Lucy Ward, Uiscedwr, Ruberlaris, The Selecter, The Beat, The Little Pigs, The Stance, and Andy T, The Astronauts, Eastfield and Zounds at the Derby gig I played at and also mentioned earlier… Recorded Music: My favourites of 2011 was Nick Lowe’s The Old Magic, Steve Tilston’s The Reckoning, Eastfield’s Detonation Junction, Dolly Parton’s Better Day, June Tabor & Oysterband’s Ragged Kingdom, Robb Johnson’s Some Recent Protest Songs, Christy Moore’s Folk Tale and Zounds‘ The Redemption Of Zounds. I also enjoyed David Rovics’ Big Red Sessions (download album) and The Re-entrants’ Albumen. Others that were released before 2011 but I’ve only recently caught up with (or have re-visited on CD!) include the entire back catalogue of The Astronauts, Dr Feelgood’s Chess Masters, Robb Johnson’s Maximum Respect, Robb Johnson’s Clockwork Music, Shudder To Think’s Funeral At The Movies, Shudder To Think’s Ten Spot, Poison Girls’ Statement (4 x CD box set), Bob Fox’s Thirty Years On, Bob Fox’s The Blast, Bob Fox’s Dreams Never Leave You, Scissor Sisters’ self titled CD, Scissor Sisters’ Ta-Dah, Scissor Sisters’ Night Work, Oysterbands’ Ride, Oysterband’s Holy Bandits, Oyster Band’s Deserters, Dick Gaughan’s Gaughan, Nick Lowe’s Quiet Please - The New Best Of and Anthony John Clarke’s A Sideways Glance as well as songs by a whole host of others… Knox and the Trailer Trash Orchestra, Eliza Doolittle, Cast, Blondie, Status Quo, Single Bass, The Corrs, Ska-Boom, The Cranberries, The Lightning Seeds, Ruberlaris, The Selecter, The Beat, Seth Lakeman and Cara Dillon to mention a few…TV: The best stuff I saw on TV was seeing Wilko Johnson and Steve Tilston making appearances on Later With Jools Holland and Paul Brady and Nick Lowe make appearances on Songwriters Circle. It was also good to see Billy Bragg and Benjamin Zephaniah on Question Time, Christopher And His Kind, football, The Animals Guide To Britain, Springwatch, Psychoville, Christy Moore & Declan Sinnott -  Come All You Dreamers - Glasgow Barrowland 2008, Coast, Gilbert O’Sullivan - Out On His Own, American -  The Bill Hicks Story, Rugby World Cup 2011, Autumnwatch, Billy Bragg on Alan Davies’ Teenage Revolution (from 2010), Bert Jansch BBC4 Sessions (repeat), Oysterband’s 25^th Anniversary Concert (on DVD) and Top Of The Pops 1976 repeats (The Wurzels, Kiki Dee, Status Quo, Showaddywaddy, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Jethro Tull, Climax Blues Band etc!)… Film: My film of the year was Jane Eyre. I didn’t catch many other new releases but did enjoy some older stuff; Lemmy (2010), Another Year (2010), American Beauty (1999) and Slade in Flame (1974)… Books: I very rarely keep up to date with the latest books published so although not all from  2011, I still enjoyed Andy Kershaw - No Off Switch, Karen O’Brien - Kirsty MacColl -  The One and Only, Will Birch - Ian Dury -  The Definitive Biography, Roy Palmer - The Sound of History - Songs and Social Comment, Steve Tilston -  All For Poor Jack, Alan Sillitoe -  Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Alan Sillitoe -  The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Pauline Black - Black by Design, Mark Steel‘s In Town and Owen Jones’ Chavs - The Demonization of the Working Class…

2011 for ‘Chris Butler music’ was a quieter one with just 12 performances or recording dates of note (as I reflect on last year’s diary). I made 3 ‘private house performances’ in Derby and played on another 3 occasions in Derby (twice at The Victoria Inn and once at The Old Bell Hotel. One of the gigs at The Victoria Inn was playing as one of the supports to Derby band The Stance who were playing their last ever gig and my set at The Old Bell Hotel as part of the anarcho punk half-dayer which included Zounds, Eastfield, The Astronauts and Andy T as mentioned above were both really enjoyable gigs). I played 2 gigs in Belper (one as support to David Rovics and one with The Re-entrants as a special ‘NOT The Royal Wedding’/’Folk The Wedding’ gig on the day that Prince William and Catherine Middleton were married. Both of which were really good gigs too). My only other public performance (and only one outside of Derbyshire in a new venue, town and county for me) was in Burton-Upon-Trent, Staffordshire. I’ve since heard that the venue (The Appleby) closed in  late 2011 which is a shame as I’d enjoyed the feel and vibe of the place. They were enthusiastic about live music and to see another decent live music venue close is sad. This left just 3 other occasions out of the 12 which weren’t public performances but recording sessions in the hope of releasing a new CD of music sometime in 2012. More info about this project next time hopefully. Also, Under The Pavement show on Manchester’s ALLFM 96.9FM and www.allfm.org played my song Lucky Escapes (from the session I recorded for them) again on their show in January 2011. Another couple of items from 2011 are a mention I received in Robb Johnson’s Tour Diary (from the gig I played with him in 2010 in Belper) for the Stick It In Your Ear website which includes the Caught In The Act online magazine and was published in March 2011 and an interview/conversation conducted between myself and Robb Johnson which was printed in the Anarchist Voices magazine, issue Spring/Summer 2011.

Referring back to the Stick It In Your Ear website and its online magazine Caught In The Act, you can read an interview which I conducted in March 2011 with David Rovics when we both played in Belper during David’s UK tour of Spring 2011. The interview complete with pictures from the gig taken by my friend Nick Bliss (more about whom in the next paragraph) is in issue number 9, January 2012 and available to read free on-line at www.siiye.co.uk

My first performance of 2012 was on 04/02/2012 and my second time playing in Lancaster (the first was back in 2007). After hearing weather reports of heavy snow forecast for much of the country including the north west of England, I decided travelling by train may be a little easier than risking the motorways so I left a freezing cold Derbyshire with a train from Derby to Crewe. My first glimpse of snow came as early as the first stop after leaving Derby of Tutbury & Hatton. The snow increased from then onwards until I reached Wigan during the second train journey where it had now turned to rain. By Lancaster it was heavy rain so I kept dry with some food and a pint after stumbling across a weatherspoon’s pub called The Green Ayre. I realised I could have been in any weatherspoon’s pub in the country as the pub chain’s bars all seem so similar wherever you are in the UK. With the rest of the afternoon drinkers I watched the England versus Scotland 6 nations rugby game before making my way to the evening’s venue of The Yorkshire House. It was my first visit to the venue which has become a regular haunt for some touring bands on the circuit when visiting the north west. I arrived early while Nick (great friend and promoter, organiser, and activist with Red & Black Collective who’d organised the night’s gig and whom I mentioned earlier for the use of his David Rovics photos) and Kev (in charge of the sound/PA at The Yorkshire House) were busy sorting the lights, PA and room for the evening. I was able to provide a sound check for them and everything sounded excellent… However, five minutes later, everything went pitch black. No lights, no sound, no electric… Kev checked everything from trip switches to fuse boxes and  other buildings next door to see if it was an isolated power cut amongst the street and could find no identifiable problem. Time raced on and things started to look a little bleak. People started to arrive and the pub downstairs was bustling with an audience waiting for music. The music room is situated upstairs with separate bar and nice sized stage and I wondered how we were going to get around the lighting problem to get people up the stairs in total darkness even if we were to perform totally unamplified and acoustic. The doors were wedged open to reveal enough light from the emergency lights to see people up the stairs without any danger and candles were supplied for the tables and the room suddenly had quite an atmospheric and ambient look to it. I’d by now met my fellow performers in the darkness downstairs who were Robb Johnson and Tracey Curtis. Robb was very keen to keep some music happening and I was quite looking forward to the challenge of playing without any amplification to a good sized audience number. So while Kev from the ‘Yorkie’ (as the venue’s  known in Lancaster) did his utmost to try and provide heating, lighting and everything else we’d benefit from the power returning and someone form the electricity company had arrived to help solve the problem, the gig with all the spirit of defiance against being silenced started to happen! Nick had invited some people from the Occupy Lancaster group to come along with the intention of a couple of them playing a song or two. To help them create support and interest in their activism and campaigning, it was a pleasure to have them involved and James Stewart of punk/ska band Bad Transmission kicked off the evening  with a song before I became the first ‘official’ act on the bill to step up and play. Playing under emergency lighting at the back of the stage, I stood at the very front of the stage to project my voice to the back of the room as best I could. I’m not a natural at totally acoustic singing and playing and I worry on the occasions that I have performed this way that my guitar may drowned out my vocal delivery but I certainly don’t mind performing in this manner. It may expose some of my limited singing and playing abilities somewhat without any amplification to help or enhance my performance but I really found it totally exhilarating and refreshing to play. The audience listened to my songs, I was enjoying performing and then like magic, a couple of songs before the end of my set, the lights came on! I thought that I may as well take advantage of the excellent sound that had been prepared earlier by Kev so (having my guitar lead at the ready from earlier and with the levels already set) I simply plugged in, moved to the microphone and introduced my 2^nd to last song. My full set was Don’t Come Back, The Biggest Party Of Our Lives, You’re Dead I’m Not, Celebrity Bus Crash, An Evening With Michael Portillo, Lucky Escapes, Underground Overbite and Phone In Well. Tracey Curtis followed my set (for my 3^rd time of sharing a bill with her) and took advantage of the glorious returned lighting and electric power to perform a lovely set of songs including I Wont Wear The Union Jack, Shell Shock, Snow Is Freedom, If The Death Penalty Were An Olympic Sport and Miners Against Fascism. Before Robb Johnson took to the stage, another from the Occupy Lancaster support group took to the stage and performed a couple of songs. Kristi Michele and her acoustic guitar sang a self penned song and Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A Changin’ before Robb then rounded off the night with his topical storytelling in fabulous acoustic song. A set which included some of his older songs but mostly newer compositions that covered his thoughts and concerns about things that are happening around the world right now including songs from his Some Recent Protest Songs CD such as The Cream Of The Nation, Deep Down Underground, The North West Frontier, Little Vinnie Jones and Everybody Loves (A Royal Wedding). Robb was exceptional, Tracey had been great too and I was grateful to be part of a wonderful (and at times very different from what I’d expected!) concert. Many thanks to Robb, Tracey and the other performers for making a great night of it. Thanks to Kev at the Yorkie, to all those who listened and took an interest in my songs afterwards and especially to Nick and Blanche for the hospitality, food and lodgings. It was really appreciated. I said farewell to Nick at the station on the following morning and to Robb on the platform as we both headed for different trains to make our long journeys home (For me, three different trains changing at Manchester Piccadilly and Sheffield and not getting a seat on any of them) before picking up my car in Derby to make the rest of the journey home and through a considerable amount of snow that had fallen over Derbyshire… It seems even power cuts can not silence our voices and stop our songs ringing around the world (or at least the Lancaster area)…

Thanks to Mat, Gordon, Keith and Notts Gaz for a great afternoon on 17/02/2012 spent at the Derby CAMRA winter beer festival, held at the city’s ex-British Rail Roundhouse building. I took it very steady on this occasion (after not feeling too great earlier in the week) and enjoyed the Derby pubs afterwards too while still being very sensible… Here’s to the next one… (I’ll drink to that!)

 Updates to the website are here, on the Fave Things page and on the Gigs pages which as well as new gigs being added as and when, geek that I am, I have been giving the past gigs details a complete overall to include dates, venues, running order of acts and set lists… Also, if you are inclined, keep an eye on the other websites I have:  www.facebook.com/chrisbutlermusic or www.myspace.com/chrisbutlermusic

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