4.52am Issue: 025 16th March 2017 - The Kurt Cobain Nirvana Issue

MCALMONT & BUTLER
Yes
Having just made the greatest album of
the Nineties in the shape of Suede’s ‘Dog
Man Star’, Bernard Butler left the building
and took the still beating heart of a
fantastic band away with him in the case
of his Cherry Red Gibson.
Like Johnny Marr a while earlier, we
waited to find out what he would do next.
Would he join another indie band?
It seemed unlikely, you couldn’t imagine
him as anybody’s trophy, and anyway it
would only be a step down.
Rumours were flying, Suede would
soldier on without him and while it didn’t
seem like it at the time, in reality it didn’t
take long for us to find out, and as left
turns go, it was dramatic.
Teaming up with ridiculously talented
and vocally epic David McAlmont,
Bernard cut his hair and forgot to show
his roots, instead helping to create a
quite stunning, poignant and horizon
expanding album that took a Motown
blueprint, added a tincher of gospel
and then blew it all apart with some
epic guitar and orchestration.
That was 21 years ago, and this week,
my better half chooses our final song in
the shape of what can only be the
happiest, most joy inspiring song the
world has ever known. The debut song
from McAlmont and Butler, ‘Yes’, which
even after all these years still manages
to sound fresh and send a tingle down
my spine whenever I hear it.