Crushed Butler - Uncrushed (1969-70)

Artist - Crushed Butler

Album - Uncrushed

Year - 1969-1970

Genre - Proto Punk

Country - United Kingdom

Bitrate - MP3 320 CBR

Size - 38,2 MB

Link - Download

More Information - Crushed Butler were a British protopunk/hard rock band that existed between 1969 and 1971. According to 2008's Pretty Vacant: A History of UK Punk, the band "was, in many ways, Britain's first proto-punk band." Band members went on to form Darryl Read's Beat Existentialists The Gorillas and to pursue solo careers.Crushed Butler formed in 1969 with a line-up of Jesse Hector (guitar, vocals), Alan Butler (bass guitar), and Darryl Read (drums). They initially played cover versions of other bands' songs, before writing original material. They are often regarded as protopunk, but have also been classed as a hard rock band.

The band auditioned for several record labels including EMI and Decca, but failed to secure a deal. For their 1970 session for EMI, they were only allowed to record their own "Factory Grime" after recording producer Roger Ferris' choice, "Love Is All Around Me", and the label's aversion to "Factory Grime" saw them lose interest in the band. In early 1971, the band changed their name to Tiger, and the line-up had also changed to include Barry Mitchell, formerly a member of an early version of Queen Then Neil Christian of The Crusaders managed them for some time as Tiger, with Arthur Anderson playing bass guitar, but without an improvement in their fortunes, and split up later that year when Read took up a job as a songwriter at Track Records.

Hector and Butler continued as Helter-Skelter and went on to form The Hammersmith Gorillas (later shortened to The Gorillas), while Read pursued a solo career, as well as working as an actor. Read's works have included three albums (Beat Existentialist (1991) and Freshly Dug (1999) with Ray Manzarek, Bleeding Paradise being the last to date in 2007. In 2000 he starred alongside Jamie Foreman and Zoot Money in the feature film Remember a Day playing the leading role of Roger Bannerman, a reclusive rock star. He currently performs rock concerts with his group Beat Existentialists in Europe and the USA. His later literary works works have included a biographical novel, Stardom Road, and SET, selected poetry works illustrated by George Underwood.

The Crushed Butler recordings were eventually released in 1998 by Dig The Fuzz Records on the Uncrushed album.