Why I will always have time for Bernard Butler |
Bernard Butler has popped up a couple of times in this column, but not alone – once, with two fellow songwriter-guitarists as Butler, Blake & Grant; but also writing and performing with Jessie Buckley, to sublime effect. Over 30 years Butler has become one of pop’s great enablers. He’s worked on hit records, miss records and records that were never intended to be hits. He’s played with everyone, but has seldom sought much of a spotlight himself.
Like Johnny Marr, he stepped away from a generational band – Suede – at the height of the mania for them. Like Marr – and unlike most others who step away from stardom and seek the shadows – he continued working, but always on his own terms. Also like Marr, while he may have sidestepped the clichés of rock stardom, he’s still unmistakably a rock star: hair that tousled doesn’t come cheap; the clothes were casual but not from TK Maxx; the thinness was that shared only by long-distance runners and men who throw shapes with guitars.
There are a handful of guitar players who I will pay to hear noodle – and........