Bernard Butler

darthed1981

Anyone else a fan of Mr Bernard Butler?

One of my genuine rock idols!

Started his career as the guitarist in Suede, turning out classics like "Animal Nitrate" and "Metal Mickey" on their first album, before doubling down on his musical ambition and breaking up the band while putting together follow up "Dog Man Star", which has the amazing "New Generation", "Wild Ones" and epic "The Asphalt World" on it.

Then off he went to make records with David McAlmont's fantastic vocals as "McAlmont and Butler" ... where they fell out before even finishing an album.  The singles "Yes" and "You Do" plus B-sides and studio scrapings somehow made another classic "album".

His career has also included last year's brilliant "In Memory of my Feelings" with the Anchoress, and a lot of production work...

...and a brief solo career, the first album of which is re-issued later this month, with new vocals and the usual demos etc.  I personally think "People Move On" as it is titled is something of a lost classic, pairing some genuinely brilliant indie-rock pop singles "Not Alone", "Stay", "Change of Heart"... with some extended bits of musical genius which almost all hit ("Autograph", the 8-minute opus in the middle of the album is hard not to love).

As a player, from his early days in Suede, while wearing a big Johnny Marr influence happily on his sleeve (as do all indie rock guitarists who are any good) he has a broad range of influences, and for me is one of my favourites because somehow out of a few chords melodic riffs and lead lines just sort of... appear.

Anyone else a fan????

PS - Bernard is one of the well-known guitarists who I often wonder if he lurks here, if so, Hi Bernard!!

EricTheWeary

TBH not a guitarist I thought about a lot but listening to Richard Osman on R4 talking about his brother (the bassist in Suede) I then watched a bunch of early Suede on YouTube and what a great rock band I was missing out on back then. 
Bernard also on the 9-42 podcast last year where I liked him a lot ( IIRC it was across two podcasts, I don't know if that's been tidied up now). 
That's most of his career I've missed ( apart from having to learn that Duffy song for a band) but some ideas from @darthed1981 for some catching up. 

munckee

Aside from Suede and McAlmont and Butler I've not really paid a lot of attention, I think he is a great guitarist though and suede in particular produced some really awesome stuff.

joetele

I was talking about him the other day. The first Suede album is one of my favourites for nostalgic reasons, and it's just full of great songs. His guitar work is one of the main aspects of this - these swirling riffs that somehow still give the impression of chords running throughout. 

darthed1981

joetele said:

these swirling riffs that somehow still give the impression of chords running throughout. 

That's a great way of putting it - he sort of runs off to the hills but somehow remains grounded to the song and the chords.

Not flashy or wanky or anything other than a musician, I love the way he plays.

monquixote

I really enjoyed his first solo album at the time although I haven't listened to it for ages. 

It's probably worth mentioning that he's been very successful as a producer and to the world at large producing Rockferry by Duffy and winning a Grammy is probably his greatest achievement.

Jason

EricTheWeary said:

TBH not a guitarist I thought about a lot but listening to Richard Osman on R4 talking about his brother (the bassist in Suede) I then watched a bunch of early Suede on YouTube and what a great rock band I was missing out on back then. 
Bernard also on the 9-42 podcast last year where I liked him a lot ( IIRC it was across two podcasts, I don't know if that's been tidied up now). 
That's most of his career I've missed ( apart from having to learn that Duffy song for a band) but some ideas from @darthed1981 for some catching up. 

Cheers

I've left it as two. We recorded the podcast and then Bernard said "err... I don't think I should have said all that"

So we had to cut about 20 mins out, as soon as we got PR clearance we put out the whole thing. He's great, we both work part-time for BIMM (he is London, I'm Brum). Can you imagine having BB as your lecturer, it would be amazing. Although I'm pretty certain not many 18-year-olds really know who he is.

darthed1981

Jason said:

EricTheWeary said:

TBH not a guitarist I thought about a lot but listening to Richard Osman on R4 talking about his brother (the bassist in Suede) I then watched a bunch of early Suede on YouTube and what a great rock band I was missing out on back then. 
Bernard also on the 9-42 podcast last year where I liked him a lot ( IIRC it was across two podcasts, I don't know if that's been tidied up now). 
That's most of his career I've missed ( apart from having to learn that Duffy song for a band) but some ideas from @darthed1981 for some catching up. 

Cheers

I've left it as two. We recorded the podcast and then Bernard said "err... I don't think I should have said all that"

So we had to cut about 20 mins out, as soon as we got PR clearance we put out the whole thing. He's great, we both work part-time for BIMM (he is London, I'm Brum). Can you imagine having BB as your lecturer, it would be amazing. Although I'm pretty certain not many 18-year-olds really know who he is.

Do you have a linky to the podcast with BB @Jason I'd love to give it a listen?

If I had BB as a teacher he'd tell me to practice more, and he would be right.  He's offering personalised signed copies of the PMO reissue on his website, and I'm thinking of buying one with Bernard writing on it "Ed, you should be practising!"

Also I suspect "How do you start with Bm A G Em and then end up with Animal Nitrate...?" can become a tedious question after a while!

Jason

@darthed1981

Here is the Spotify link https://open.spotify.com/episode/5BejL1SE7veWuX6s95bHXv?si=Trbc19TPRliDFpIRkV8Hnw

but it's on Apple, Amazon etc too

I think he would probably say that to us all :-))

MagicPigDetective

Yes, I was and still am a huge fan of the first two Suede albums, I love his guitar style. It used to baffle me, going beyond my basic knowledge of pentatonic scales etc, but recently, with a better handle on major scales and playing over chords, I've a better understanding of his solo style. I love those double stop bends at the end of a a bar or solo. 

The Tears, a partial Suede reunion, were also pretty good:

lustycourtier

A real guitar hero of mine, for all of his work, and I tell people on at least a monthly basis that Yes is probably the greatest song ever written. 

darthed1981

MagicPigDetective said:

The Tears, a partial Suede reunion, were also pretty good:

They were indeed, forgot them in my little run through!

lustycourtier said:

... I tell people on at least a monthly basis that Yes is probably the greatest song ever written. 

Quite right too!

Kittyfrisk

I'm still a big Suede fan & Bernard Butler has a great style & sound.
Loved McAlmont & Butler from first hearing 'Yes' as a single. The album 'The sound of McAlmont & Butler' is a little gem too, with great production values.

darthed1981

Kittyfrisk said:

I'm still a big Suede fan...

Of course Suede are still great even without Bernard, with Richard Oakes filling his shoes superbly, and developing his own style over time.

Their three albums since their reformation are really far better than you would ever imagine from a "comeback".

Redlester

He's okay. I had largely forgotten until seeing this thread that I did ssem to follow his career. Suede had some decent tunes. McAlmont and Butler were good, and stood out among the Britpop dirge-y stuff around in the mid 90s. I had his first two solo albums. The first was alright and I went to see him live. The second was not as interesting. 

I found his voice weak and uninteresting- sort of the same problem Johnny Marr has, although to be fair Marr has put a lot of work into his voice. Not surprise Butler drifted back into sideman/ production work really. 

So yes, he's alright, although as you can tell from my lukewarm adjectives, he doesn't really retain much interest for me. In the pantheon of British players, I'd put him in the sort of Will Sergeant/ Tony Hicks/ James Honeyman Scott bracket- really good side man, really knows how to embellish a song and has played on some really good pop songs. Not talents to be sniffed at. 

drpbier

His work on the first 2 Suede albums is absolutely top drawer as far as I'm concerned. The intro to Moving still blows me away

ewal

I sometimes think I was possibly slightly too old to be able to appreciate Suede. Also the singer is very much one of these 'you either love or hate' type performers.

DannyP

Absolutely one of my favourites.

He came along when I was 15 and listening to Neds Atomic Fucking Dustbin and showed me there was another way............

mudslide73

I'm a big fan of pre and post Bernard Suede - I went to see them in November and they were magnificent (Brett was incredible). I really like McAlmont and Butler and the solo stuff. He's even made me seriously consider a Bigsby before I've come to my senses. 

Greatape

Jason said:

@darthed1981

Here is the Spotify link https://open.spotify.com/episode/5BejL1SE7veWuX6s95bHXv?si=Trbc19TPRliDFpIRkV8Hnw

but it's on Apple, Amazon etc too

I think he would probably say that to us all :-))

Subscribed. Merci

euan

mudslide73 said:

I'm a big fan of pre and post Bernard Suede - I went to see them in November and they were magnificent (Brett was incredible). I really like McAlmont and Butler and the solo stuff. He's even made me seriously consider a Bigsby before I've come to my senses. 

I saw them in summer 2019. Brett’s drunk uncle at a wedding dancing was hilarious. 

Made me wonder at what point he went from Brett Anderson in Suede to Brett Anderson playing the character Brett Anderson in Suede though.