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'Some Communication'
September 2009
Thinking back to the beginning of June and with council elections and European parliament elections happening, all eyes were on the fringe parties with Labour being at an all time low in both credibility and support. Recession, MP’s expenses and a leader unpopular in his own party never mind with the electorate… And with all the distrust of the main parties offering neither any choice nor hope, some people did vote for the BNP. Enough people in fact to gain two M.E.P’s who will be representing the UK in Brussels, Belgium at the European parliament. A scary thought indeed…
Thanks as always to David and Spike of Manchester’s Under The Pavement radio show on ALLFM 96.9FM (and online at www.allfm.org) for continuing to feature songs from my Irritant CD. They featured ‘Phone In Well on their 04/06/2009 show, Celebrity Bus Crash on 09/07/2009 and ‘Phone In Well again on 23/07/2009. Also, Welcome To Hell from my Protest Folk Singer CD was played on 27/08/2009.
The first gig to tell you about was on 07/06/2009 when I opened the Free Fest Weekender at Sawyers in Kettering. The event was a free acoustic day held in the beer garden of Sawyers on the Sunday of this particular weekend (with the Saturday being Heavy Metal and Rock music) and the weather just about stayed dry enough for me to play my 11th gig at Sawyers. The rain was terrible on the (just under) 80 mile drive to Kettering but luckily brightened up as we hit Northamptonshire and stayed dry enough to hold the event outdoors. I started the live music with 30 minutes of songs, some of which (although I say it myself) have never seemed more topical with fascist parties gaining votes in elections and uncaring/incapable politicians making the media headlines. I must have looked quite nervous as the sun went behind the clouds and I shivered through the first couple of songs! I warmed up as my set went on and enjoyed playing as the beer garden began to fill up with people. My set was Lucky Escapes, An Evening With Michael Portillo, Don’t Vote BNP, Celebrity Bus Crash, Don’t Come Back, ‘Phone In Well and Strike! After my set was performance poet RevPorl and then stepping in at the last minute after one act pulled out was Dun 2 Def. A band I’d shared a bill with at Sawyers once previously, they’re usually an electric punk band but on this occasion borrowed mine and Paul Carter’s acoustic guitars to play a short acoustic set. It must be the first time that my guitar has had a UK Subs song played on it and I’m not sure it’s recovered yet… I’ve noticed when someone who usually plays an electric guitar has borrowed my acoustic guitar, they seem to have trouble with the strap on the guitar and it somehow impedes their playing. I think the reason is that they forget it’s an acoustic guitar and that it is suited for my style of playing and while they ‘strike a pose’ in the likes of Sid Vicious or James Hetfield or whoever, the acoustic guitar and guitar strap fitted to it doesn’t really suit that ‘guitar hero’ stance leaving them struggling to perform… You never see Dick Gaughan with the guitar slung low and his legs apart and rightly so I think! Though perhaps my lack of showmanship isn’t something to be proud of!...Monica (of Monica and the Explosion) followed and then the Liam O’Kane Trio. I’d seen Liam and the guys once before at Derby The Victoria Inn supporting Eastfield with a couple of other acts and had been impressed with them then. They fitted the bill and the mood of the day at Sawyers well with their acoustic ska songs. Steven Cooper followed with a great set as always mixing his own fine compositions with songs by the likes of Shane MacGowan. Paul Carter then followed Steven for more acoustic songs and bad language and it was after Paul that I unfortunately had to drive home but the entertainment continued with The Balsall Heathens, Ed Ache (of I.C.H) and The Deportees. Thanks to everyone who took an interest, to Rich and Lianne and the Sawyers regulars, to Loretta, Bambi and Steven, Dan for the great sound, Mat for the travelling company and most of all, to Trina for the gig. There is some video footage of the event on the ‘You Tube’ website where the song Don’t Vote BNP from the gig has been uploaded along with some songs by other acts from the day. It’s worth checking out the footage of my song purely to see the comments which some people have left after viewing it. From the irate to the ridiculous, it’s nice to know that I must be doing something right if these nasty little racists are finding time to send in their comments after working themselves into such an angry frenzy after watching the video! It’s quite bizarre behaviour really as I wouldn’t dream of trawling the internet looking at stuff I didn’t agree with only to then send my monosyllabic rants in reply! I perhaps just don’t have enough time on my hands!
The following Thursday (11/06/2009) I performed for the 21st time at The Victoria Inn in Derby. It had been a while despite those statistics and was in fact 2 years since my last appearance at this popular Derby venue. Also appearing were Paul Carter, Eastfield and Garden Gang and I was the first to perform playing a short 20 minute set as things had run slightly behind schedule due to bands and their equipment not arriving until after the gig should have started! It was a lovely sound in my opinion, my guitar had never sounded better thanks to an old friend from my school days, Kev who was working the PA desk. My set was An Evening With Michael Portillo, Don’t Vote BNP, Lucky Escapes and Celebrity Bus Crash. Garden Gang followed my set with quick changeovers between bands due to the late running of the gig and the commitment by those organising the gig to have Garden Gang and Eastfield perform early enough so that people travelling by train would be able to catch the last trains out of Derby. It was the first time I’d seen Garden Gang from Munich, Germany and they were really entertaining. Eastfield followed with Jessi, their singer and guitarist not being in the best of moods after an unfortunate incident on Derby railway station on the way to the gig. I’m sure Jessi wont mind me mentioning it (after all, he’d spoken about it on stage to the audience at the gig) after he was stopped and searched by the Derby transport police with sniffer dogs whilst looking for the toilets on the railway station. Under the suspicion of drug dealing, I can only presume it was because of his red dreadlocks and punk style clothing and wonder whether he’d have had the same treatment had he been wearing a suit and tie and carrying a briefcase? Of course the police didn’t find anything as Jessi is not a drug dealer but there was no apology, just a copy of the form handed to him afterwards with the box ticked ‘No’ for whether any items where found on his possession… And of course, Eastfield’s song Port Talbot Transport Police became Derby Transport Police for the evening. It was a great set from Eastfield, an excellent sound and the best I’d seen them play in a long time. Paul Carter ended the evening with the unenviable task of performing after some people had left to catch trains home but with an audience still in attendance, Paul didn’t waste playing late in the evening with a chance to sing some rude songs with plenty of swearing! Thanks to all who had a listen to my set, those who bought and swapped CD’s, to Mat, Pete, Kev for the excellent sound for my guitar, Eastfield for being great mates and of course, Anthony and Mark of Nappy Rash Collective for the gig. There is a review of the gig (with some lovely comments, thanks Limur) on the www.livemusicreview.co.uk website should you wish to read more. The part of the review about my performance is on the Reviews page of my website too.
My next performance was in Derby again on 19/06/2009 and was for the third time a private house performance as part of my day-job. We had a sing-song again with me playing such songs as Dreaming, Breaking News and my instrumentals The Samaritans Were Engaged and Freedom Of Speech. Like the previous occasions when taking my guitar to entertain during the evening, one of the residents took my guitar to make their own sounds and enjoyed that far more than listening to me play. The highlight of the evening though was standing on the back garden at the house and watching a fox and its cub play together! That was far more entertaining than my singing and guitar playing will ever be!
A welcome break from my day-job was the next thing to look forward to at the end of June as we celebrated our wedding anniversary with a chance to get away for a few days. Our anniversary fell on a Saturday and the following day (28/06/2009) we went to Belper Music Festival in Derbyshire. Our good friends Phil and Ian, better known as The Re-entrants were playing and they went down brilliantly with the crowd with their ukulele versions of famous songs. They even dedicated their version of It Must Be Love to Mrs. Butler and me for our anniversary which was really nice of them. Chumbawamba followed The Re-entrants which was a perfect ending to the festival and always a pleasure to see them live. There were a couple of other acts before The Re-entrants played their set (Tramps & Horses and Graham & Panda) but I didn’t see much of those acts though could listen to them through the marquee tent while catching up with some friends in the lovely sunshine. We headed out of Derbyshire on the next morning to drive the 110 miles to Bridlington in order to do some walking and bird watching around that area. Our main place to visit was Bempton Cliffs which was truly incredible. Colonies of birds in their thousands nesting on the cliffs, circling the sky or down in the water below as we walked around the cliffs and viewed many of them up close. Some were birds we’d never seen before such as Puffins, Gannets, Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Razorbills and my favourites, the Guillemots. We even managed to spot a Bridled Guillemot which we were very lucky to do. And it was just the one we spotted amongst the thousands of birds and the difference is very subtle, believe me. If you ever find yourself in the East Yorkshire area, I do recommend you visit Bempton Cliffs. It really is the most amazing place and sight I have ever witnessed. We visited Flamborough Head and Scarborough also and managed to see a Ringed Plover for the first time which was good spotting on our part. I hadn’t visited much of that part of England before this trip having only been to Scarborough in that area and that was only once previously and back on 05/04/1992! It was for a Chumbawamba gig strangely enough at a venue called The Lemon Tree with a support act called Indian Dream and it was 2 pounds and 50 pence admission. How’s that for a good memory!... Anyway, we have now started to encourage the birds in our garden again (after taking down all of our feeders when we acquired two cats) realising that you can get some sort of balance to enjoy having both cats and birds in your life without any harm coming to the birds. (You just need to be sensible with where and how you put the food out for the birds in your garden without the cats getting to the birds first). It’s been nice seeing the return of birds like Goldfinches and House Sparrows to our garden and some more unusual visitors like Dragonflies and a Grey Heron in flight also.
There was a lot of media interest in the death of popstar Michael Jackson recently (and still the interest and over-the-top tributes continue as I type this). He didn’t mean anything to me though it did mean there was a seat to be filled on the Celebrity Bus Crash song of course… and the annoying (to me at least) Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles seems to have taken his place at present…He seems to be the complete opposite of the late John Peel who was a DJ because he loved music, loved introducing people to music that he liked and wanted to share his passion to inspire others. John Peel would sometimes play a few records one after the other without the need to talk that much between songs and when he did, would usually talk about the band or song he had either just played or was about to play rather than himself. Chris Moyles has none of these qualities.
Some more information regarding a gig I played on 08/05/2009, a benefit concert in Belper to raise money for the Breakthrough breast cancer charity: As well as a raffle on the night, there was a quiz sheet for sale and guess what? Me and Mrs. Butler won the quiz! Admittedly, we were the only ones to send in a completed quiz sheet with all 50 answers to the initials quiz and with a score of 46 out of 50, we were the winners!
There was a short but very welcome mention in the July/August 2009 issue (Volume 2 Issue 16) of R2 magazine (formerly Rock ‘N’ Reel) regarding the Irritant CD so thanks to Sean for that.
I enjoyed a lovely day out at the Derby CAMRA beer festival at Derby’s Assembly Rooms on 10/07/2009. Another 4 pubs in Belper were visited after the festival and thanks to Mat, Gordon, Adam and Keith for an excellent day of drinking beer!
I was performing yet again in Derby for my 44th time on 15/07/2009 but at a new venue for me: The Old Bell Hotel. An old, large and established pub in the popular drinking area of the city, I’d been to a couple of gigs in the pub but this was many years ago (John Otway, Attila The Stockbroker and The 2 Cranes (two members of Derby folk-rock band, The New Cranes) on 26/03/1991 and a local reggae band called More About Pelicans on 07/07/1992 because I knew their drummer) and I can’t recall having been in the pub many times since! It was a lovely room to perform in with a large stage, fantastic sound and on this recent occasion was a very enjoyable night. The gig was part of a tour by Ed Ache of punk band I.C.H, Billy Liar and Tragical History Tour. Added to this bill were myself and Jessi Adams of Eastfield playing solo. I was the first to perform to a small audience as people steadily arrived throughout the evening (the audience being at it’s largest as I was leaving late in the evening after quite a few people who’d been to see activist and comedian Mark Thomas at the near-by Assembly Rooms came over to enjoy the rest of our free concert afterwards) and it was an absolute pleasure to play my 30 minute set. Playing in Derbyshire just a few weeks before the BNP’s annual festival was due to take place in the same county meant that I had to make some comments and play some songs around this fact and this I did. I even worked the recent ‘slagging’ comments from the You Tube website into my Don’t Vote BNP performance which was quite fun to do! My full set was Don’t Come Back, Lucky Escapes, An Evening With Michael Portillo, Celebrity Bus Crash, Don’t Vote BNP, ‘Phone In Well and The World According To Bono. With a projection screen behind me showing the Irritant CD cover and the excellent sound for my performance, I enjoyed it loads. Tragical History Tour followed my set (which was singer/guitarist Deek (or Deke, depending on the spelling) who usually fronts a punk/ska band in his native Scotland) and Jessi Adams followed next with his mixture of Eastfield songs played solo and some new songs from his recent ‘Eastfield Derailed’ solo release. It was my 14th gig with Jessi solo as well as the 19 gigs with the full Eastfield band. Next to perform, Billy Liar was another punk influenced singer songwriter and then it was unfortunately while Billy was playing that I had to leave and so for the second time, didn’t get to see Ed Ache. Many thanks to Anthony and Mark of Nappy Rash Collective for the gig, Paul (the landlord) and the PA guy for the hospitality, all the acts for being really friendly despite me only knowing Jessi already and Mat, Mike and Wayne (amongst others) for coming along also.
Sad news for the world of football at the end of July was the death of Bobby Robson in my opinion. Whilst never having followed any of the club teams he managed, I was aware of his class as a manager and certainly during my lifetime, England’s best efforts in the World Cup to date have been reaching the semi-finals during his time in charge in 1990. I also remember his Newcastle sides being difficult to beat including seeing Everton at home to Newcastle on 19/03/2000 when we were beat 2-0. Everton at that time were struggling with Joe-Max Moore up front and Mark Hughes on his way to retirement. Newcastle on the other hand had Alan Shearer, ex-Everton players Gary Speed and the mighty Duncan Ferguson playing and the two goals came from Aaron Hughes and Kieron Dyer. The same fixture for the following season on 03/03/2001 was a 1-1 draw as I recall and Everton’s David Unsworth scored both goals! We did have an improved team with Kevin Campbell, Thomas Gravesen and (the highly rated at the time) Francis Jeffers as well as Paul Gascoigne too before his playing career ended far too soon for a man who started out with so much talent… I do recommend Robson’s autobiography Farewell But Not Goodbye. Having read a few pointless books written by people involved with football, Robson’s was probably one of the best and most interesting to me. Some of these ‘life’ stories are written by people in their early twenties who haven’t even lived yet and by people who spend most of the year sitting on a bench at Chelsea etc which can’t be an interesting read in my opinion but Bobby Robson’s is one to look out for…
A new song called No, Minister has been uploaded onto my myspace site. The song (and accompanying video!) was recorded on 03/08/2009 and is on the videos section of www.myspace.com/chrisbutlermusic and I’ve also put a link to the video in my myspace blog where I’ve also listed the lyrics to the song for anyone who thinks the words lose some clarity slightly through the recording. Please do check out the song if you get a chance. The song is about MP’s and the expenses claims that were revealed and published for all to see earlier this year.
On to 07/08/2009 when I took part in the Rebellion festival in Blackpool. What started out 14 years ago with the Holidays In The Sun festival (changing its name to Wasted festival a few years ago and now the Rebellion festival) is billed as the biggest punk festival in the world. This was my third time appearing (Wasted 2006, Rebellion 2008 and this year’s) and I appeared on the ‘Almost Acoustic’ stage on the Friday as the festival ran from Thursday to Sunday with 4 stages at The Winter Gardens. I wasn’t able to drive up to Blackpool until Friday morning but set off early on the 135 mile drive as my performance was at 2.30pm and I had to report to the stage manager 2 hours before my performance. Mrs. Butler and I got to Blackpool in good time and I was able to check in at the festival, have a look around and get something to eat before my set. I saw the opening act of the day which is the traditional opener at Rebellion of Bingo with Max Splodgenessabound. This was the third time he’d started the day off when I’ve played but the first time I’d seen him calling the bingo. Some very dodgy prizes were up for grabs though Max as the bingo caller kept everyone entertained. First music of the day was Ed Ache of I.C.H who at the third time of sharing a bill with, at last I have seen him play and he went down really well with the audience. James ‘Bar’ Bowen followed Ed and then it was time for my 30 minute set. It was a lively crowd and as always at the Rebellion festivals, really enjoyable to play to. I even played the new song No, Minister and my full set was Don’t Come Back, Lucky Escapes, An Evening With Michael Portillo, Celebrity Bus Crash, Don’t Vote BNP, No Minister and The World According To Bono. Thanks to everyone who took an interest and to the Eastfield guys and gal and Paul and Loretta amongst others for some great support. Thanks also to the stage/PA manager and to Daz and Jennie for having me along again. The courtesy and genuine help from all the organisers and crew was so very much appreciated. Special thanks to Loz too for being with me over the weekend. The full line-up of the Almost Acoustic stage (should you be interested) for the day I performed was: Steve Lake (of Zounds), Paul Carter, Arturo Lurker’s Punktry And Western Bonanza, Ben Childs (of Sonic Boom Six), Knox (of The Vibrators) with guest Charlie Harper (of UK Subs), The Balsall Heathens, Chris Butler, James ‘Bar’ Bowen, Ed Ache (of I.C.H) and Bingo with Max Splodgenessabound… I still haven’t seen The Balsall Heathens despite this being my third gig with them! Knox and Charlie Harper I’d shared the festival bill with before in 2006 when Knox had played solo and Charlie had performed with his other band Urban Dogs. This was my 8th gig sharing a bill with Paul Carter though unfortunately I didn’t get to see his set on this occasion. The next act I caught after my own performance was Steve Lake headlining that stage and he was excellent. I’d supported Steve once before at Derby The Victoria Inn on 27/09/2002 and I’d seen Zounds a few times over the years too and this latest performance was just as wonderful and the highlight of my day. Some other acts I saw as I wandered around the festival were Multi Coloured Pop Shop, Abrasive Wheels, Subhumans and Babar Luck. The following day (Saturday) was a chance for me to enjoy Blackpool, its good weather, the beach and the festival too having played my performance on the previous day. I was able to check out the punk art exhibition and the stalls some more and have a few drinks of course (with not having to perform music that day!) and saw quite a few bands as I moved both in and out of the festival and between some of the stages. A-Heads, Craig Temple, Los Fastidios, UFX, Tom Hingley (of Inspiral Carpets), Newtown Neurotics (whole set), TV Smith (caught his last 4 songs as the room was so packed but luckily saw him perform Gary Gilmore’s Eyes), Channel 3, Captain Hotknives, The Freeze, Stza Crack, Anti-Nowhere League (For You, I Hate People and We Will Survive) and The Cravats (whom I’d never seen before and were my highlight of the day) were the bands I saw on the Saturday with some being just an odd song or two as I browsed round the festival. I had to drive home on the Sunday but I’m sure the rest of the weekend was just as diverse and enjoyable for those attending.
The BNP held their annual Red, White and Blue festival in Derbyshire again this summer to a lot of protest and resistance. There’s talk of the event moving to another county next year (which is great news for the people of Derbyshire) due to the rising costs of policing the event and the amount of protestors that descend on the villages nearby to let their feelings known. Hopefully wherever the festival moves to next, people will let it be known that they don’t want their towns and villages used to peddle mis-information and lies either. One of the speaker’s at the Derbyshire event was Roberto Fiore who was once happy to be described as a neo-fascist, is leader of the Italian party Forza Nuova and a friend of the BNP’s Nick Griffin. Fiore spoke about ‘the threat of Islam to Europe’ in a hope to stir up some hatred and intolerance. Another bastard invited to speak (but banned from entering the UK) was U.S white supremacist Preston Wiginton and if the News of the World tabloid newspaper is ever to be believed, they had an undercover reporter at the festival who claims to have witnessed a mock trial where a young girl set fire to a gollywog doll. The BNP managed to disgrace themselves further when one paid-up party member was fined by Derby magistrates court after giving Nazi salutes to protestors outside the festival…And still some people claim that the BNP are not intolerant!
A trip to Rutland Water for some bird watching on 19/08/2009 was fantastic. If you think of Rutland as the Rebellion festival for bird watchers (you may need to use your imagination here a bit!), then the Ospreys were the headliners. We saw a Yellow Wagtail for the first time amongst some other great sightings such as the Ospreys, Little Egrets, a Green Woodpecker and a Hobby. In fact, we saw a record (for us) 46 different species in one day!
My last gig to tell you about was my appearance at this year’s Blyth Power Ashes. For the second consecutive year, the festival was held in Derbyshire at Lumb Farm in Marehay near Ripley and it was a fantastic weekend and everything we have come to expect from this fabulous event organised and headlined by Blyth Power. You can read my diary of the weekend and see some pictures also on my Blyth Power Ashes 2009 page of my website (where you will also find a link to the previous 7 Ashes weekends that I have played and written about too!)
Updates are here as well as on the Pictures, Fave Things, Reviews, Recordings and The Blyth Power Ashes 2009 pages. The Gigs page will be updated as and when of course and I am currently working on putting some dates together as I type… and don’t forget my Myspace site also where you can watch and listen to various videos uploaded onto the site.
Keep misbehaving!
Love,
Chris
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