Butch: My Imaginary Friend

Butch is prolific - there is no stopping the man. He first emerged in 2007 with a host of interesting releases on the likes of Great Stuff Recordings, which got a lot of love from house and techno heads alike, before proceeding to smash it completely with 'No Worries', one of the biggest house tunes of 2010.

In a relatively short space of time he's managed to release on the likes of Desolat, Hot Creations, Cocoon, and ReKids, and he's recently ventured into the world of label management himself with his new project, "Otherside" (hear below). The size of his discography is quite something.

Although some would describe Butch's sound as 'tech house', that over-used term would be doing him something of a disservice. His style is widely appealing that displays a character beyond just one genre, and that is abundantly clear in his DJ sets too.

The lucky people of Leeds will see him in action at Celesta on Saturday November 14th at Mint Club, so we thought it would be a good time to have a chat with him... will he be as much of a character in person as his music, we wondered?

You bet he is, for he ended up talking to us about his alter ego/imaginary friend, Sir Robert Plantewhick! 

So first of all, explain to our readers, who is Sir Robert Plantewhick?

Sir Robert Plantewhick is the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great nephew of Robin Of Locksley, also known as Robin Hood.

Unlike his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great uncle, Robert Plantewhick actually likes all people, including the rich. His aim in life is to make everyone rich, but his plan has its flaws, in my opinion.

Would it be fair to say, then, that Sir Robert Plantewhick is a great man?

Sir Robert's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-greatness has to be judged by his peers. I can only speak for the ones he has bribed into liking him and they will doubtlessly affirm the existence of his greatness.

We know this may be painful for you to talk about publicly, but tell us more about the flaws in Plantewhick's commendable plan. Is one of the flaws that he doesn't have the money to make this possible?

Yes, that really messes up the plan a little. Or, we can say, therein lies the challenge.

Yes, quite. So what would you say are the other flaws in this plan?

The main issue I have with his plan, is that he creates more dependency on random handouts in the long run, because he doesn't educate people on how to build a fortune. Most people will just spend the money on luxury items, instead of investing in their future.

So how does Plantewhick get the money to people then?

He usually goes through shopping malls, parks, railway stations, airports and the like and whenever he sees an open pocket, a bag that isn't being watched properly or an old lady's hat, he slips in a wad of cash.

Sadly, with CCTV all around, he has to be on his toes even more than back in the days. Quite often he finds himself graciously escaping wheezing, overweight security guards, or with a machine gun in his face, being nailed to the ground by SWAT-team-like equipped police officers.

The latter group he usually encounters at airports and train stations, so he tends to go to malls and parks more nowadays.

That makes sense. But even restricted to mere malls and parkland, this is certainly a very difficult job for one man. So does Plantewhick have any colleagues that help him administer his work? Or even any investors?

The investors can't be spoken of publicly. Confidentiality agreement, you see. We can speak of his sidekick though, who is quite a seasoned veteran, straight out of Gotham City, goes by the name of Robin.

His former employer was a bit of a Debbie Downer at times, so when Sir Robert inserted the job opening in the Superhero's Digest, Robin contacted him and they've been a match made in heaven since. Robert and Robin. Just sounds right, don't you agree?


Agreed completely, it can't fail. Now tell us about "The Plantewhick Formula". It has long since been used by politicians as a method of funding public services in Scotland, but it's very difficult to understand. Please explain how "The Plantewhick Formula" works.

Oh, Sir Robert hates talking about that! He developed a truly revolutionary system, where no one goes without the basics in life and the politicians really stole the idea and stuck their name all over it.

The basic idea was what we nowadays would call basic income, no strings attached. Few people know that Sir Robert was the first to come up with such an idea.

Of course it was popular among the people, but feared by many in powerful positions, so the politicians basically turned it into a below-basic income with tons of strings attached.

But with his name all over it, it got a lot of support of people who never look into the details of laws being passed.

Outside of philanthropy, what are Plantewhick's other interests?


His tweed collection is one-of-a-kind. And he is a huge New York Dolls fan and he was the one who took over the fan club, when Morrissey left it, back in the 1980s. Otherwise he's kind of fond of crochet, strangely enough. And bob-sledding. 


If Plantewhick was your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great nephew, would you be proud to be his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great uncle?

His great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-greatness is an inspiration to all who meet him and I say this as one of the people who have been bribed by him, so my bias is a definite given.

But in all honesty, he is a loving man and so yes, he gives humanity a good name, and that is worth a lot.

Hopefully Sir Robert Plantewhick will be in attendance to reward the lucky revellers at Mint Club on Friday November 14th! Tickets still available via this link and the ticket box below.

Tickets are no longer available for this event