The Voluntary Butler Scheme Album & Tour Dates

• 9th Apr 2009

The Voluntary Butler Scheme is the musical masquerade of 23 year old solo artist Rob Jones from the West Midlands. Despite The Voluntary Butler Scheme not being much of a 'hello, i'm called…' name, Rob toured his songs up and down the country throughout 2008 alone. After deciding he needed some company, a fuller sound and the comfort that comes with saying 'hello, we're called…' – the beginning of 2009 saw Rob play as a 3 piece band, and he now switches between solo shows and band shows.

New single Tabasco Sole (out June) sees The Voluntary Butler Scheme bring to the table a boombastic boom shake shake the room you-gonna-need-that-gizmo-from-men-in-black-to get-this-one-out-yer-head tune that gives nods, winks and a dead arm to the Jackon 5's riff stylings. This song was written on xmas day and recorded in Rob's bedroom in Stourbridge – some earth bubbling must have been happening under the Midlands that day.

Tabasco Sole is the third single from The Voluntary Butler Scheme and is taken from the forthcoming album 'The Voluntary Butler Scheme at Breakfast, Dinner, Tea'. Previous 2 singles have gained Rob radio plays on BBC Radio 1, 2, 6 music and XFM. He's been invited to play sessions for Huw Stephens (radio 1), Marc Riley (6 music), Dermot o' Leary (radio 2), Jon Kennedy (xfm). The 1st VBS single 'Trading Things In' got 'Single Of The Week' on Steve Lamacq's radio show. The 2nd single 'Multiplayer' was in the NME top 10 tracks of the week. Both singles were recommended downloads in the Times Culture magazine.

Previous single 'Multiplayer' has a moving collage video (directed by Simon Deshon) which was featured on the BBC2 programme Sound presented by Annie Mac. The first single 'Trading Things In' has a hand paint fuelled video (directed by James Copeman) which was a YouTube pick and was on the You Tube home page for a week.

The Voluntary Butler Scheme have toured and gigged hard over the last 18 months sharing bills with Brakes, Duke Special, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong, The Mystery jets, The Boy Least Likely To, The View and James – resulting in making fans up and down the country – and even one in Suggs!

VBS LIVE

Fri 10/4 Quiet Night @ ICA, London (onstage @ 9pm) – solo

Brakes dates:

Sat 11/4 Bivouac, Lincoln
Mon 13/4 Ruby Lounge, Manchester
Tues 14/4 The Royal, Derby
Wed 15/4 Cockpit, Leeds
Thurs 16/4 Hull University
Fri 17/4 The Duchess, York
Sun 19/4 King Tuts, Glasgow
Mon 20/4 Crawdaddy, Dublin
Wed 22/4 Academy 3, Liverpool
Thurs 23/4 The Bullington, Oxford
Sat 25/4 Little Civic, Wolverhampton
Sun 26/4 Central Station, Wrexham
Tues 28/4 Dingwalls, London
Wed 29/4 The Bodega Social, Nottingham
Thurs 30/4 Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh
Fri 1/5 Hinterland Festival, Glasgow
Sat 2/5 Leeds Live
Sat 16/5 Great Escape, Brighton
Thurs 21/5 Stag & Dagger Festival, London