Borderline - London, 22nd November 2017
Oliver Hunter writes:
I was really fortunate to be able to attend Tony Butler's debut solo gig on Wednesday evening this week. Arriving at The Borderline just before 5pm,
I met Gaz Barrett outside, shortly joined by Kjartan Nystad. We went in and watched the band going through their soundcheck. They were some issues
getting the levels right, mostly because Mark's drum kit is very LOUD! So loud that Tony took us backstage to chat while Mark went through checking
his kit.
Once the soundcheck was completed, the three of us went and sat with Tony in the dressing room. He took the time to talk to us all, telling us some great stories and discussing the background to his current solo project. We had photos taken with Tony and the rest of the band and they signed everything that we had brought with us. The whole time, Mark was listening to a CD of the tracks through headphones, in order to learn them & finalise his performance. He occasionally 'interrupted' us to ask things like: "in song 'X', when it's the 'lyric' section, is it 'boom-boom-tish', or 'bah-boom-boom-tish'?" Behind the scenes 'secrets'! :D
With the support band (The Severs) nearing the end of their set, we left the band to get ready and came back out in the venue to await the main event, where we got a pint and met Tony Greco, with Mazz & Graham Nicholas.
The band came on almost bang on time and Tony gave a brief intro before getting into the set of new songs, starting with "I'm Getting Old":
"I'm Getting Old" by Tony Butler, uploaded by Oliver Hunter
The rest of the band, by the way, are: Tony's son Jake Butler on guitar/bass, Mark on Drums, Josh Philips on keyboards & Malcolm Bruce (son of Jack Bruce [Cream bassist]) on guitar. I think the mix wasn't perfect and certainly not as good as it was by the end of the sound-check. Tony's voice was not as prominent as it should have been, which is a shame as he has worked hard on his vocals, with his voice having matured and become deeper a little since recording "The Great Unknown".
"Here Comes The First One" by Tony Butler, uploaded by Oliver Hunter
The songs are all drawn from Tony's personal life and experiences, with songs referencing himself, his parents and his grandparents. As mentioned before, Mark's drums were very loud and his drumming was, as always, incredible. Tony and Jake alternated between playing guitar and bass on different songs, whilst Malcolm provided some tight melodies, with more than a hint of BC here and there, and Josh added a layer of keyboards on either the Hammond or the Yamaha, or both. Jake and Josh also provided backing vocals, which you can see and hear on the various videos that have been posted.
There was an amusing moment, when Tony started to count in a song and then realised that he was holding the wrong guitar and had to quickly swap over. The songs were well received by the crowd of around 100 or so people and the set concluded with a great reggae version of "Pink Marshmallow Moon", which ended to great applause and cheers. I was disappointed that "One In A Million" wasn't played, as it was on some of the set lists but perhaps that will be a bonus track at some point?!
"Pink Marshmallow Moon" by Tony Butler, uploaded by Oliver Hunter
All the new songs sounded great and I look forward to hearing the properly mixed versions on the CD after Christmas. As the evening drew to a close, I bumped into Mike Lynd, who I've not seen for nearly 20 years!
All in all, a great evening, meeting up with fans from years gone by, fans from cyberspace in the flesh, previously unknown fans, and the opportunity to spend some quality time with our Big Country heroes and having the privilege of being among the first people to hear Tony's new songs live. Bring on the book, the CD and the tour!! Huge thanks to Tony Butler.
I'd also like to say "Hi!" to everyone who was at the event, those that I spoke to and those who I didn't find out until later that they were there:
Gaz Barrett, Kjartan Nystad, Tony Greco, Mazz & Graham Nicholas, Johnny McKinstry, Roger Millington, Barry Gray, Patrick Marchant, Stuart Menzies.
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