Fate works in mysterious ways. In the mid-80s,
Nigel Butler was a scenic artist working for film directors such
as Stanley Kubrick and Stephen Spielberg. As he painted the backdrops
for Full Metal Jacket, Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade and
Baron Munchausen, he thought his future was secure in the movie
industry. Little did he know that he was about to break his arm
in a freak arm-wrestling accident that would end his film career
and force him to find another line of work.
A
talented multi-instrumentalist and songwriter as well as an artist,
Nigel said goodbye to Pinewood Studios and started working in
the music industry, forming a songwriting/production partnership
in 1987 with legendary producer Ray ‘Madman’ Hedges.
Working with artists such as Bros, Eartha Kitt and many others,
it wasn’t long before they scored their first international
hit with ‘Italo House Mix’ by Rococo.
In
the early 90s, Nigel started branching out working with artists
such as The Orb and System 7/Steve Hillage. He also began to session
more extensively; both as backing vocalist/lead vocalist for various
producers/bands, TV shows and radio ads, and also programming
and playing bass, guitar and keyboards for many artists including
The Charlatans, Bananarama, Youth, The Orb, Jason Donovan and
Nina Hagen (with whom he also co-wrote).
He
worked frequently in the US where he joined industrial band Manufacture
(Nettwerk) as lead singer/co-writer (their previous single had
been fronted by Sarah McLachlan). While in the States he co-wrote,
co-produced and performed on a charity single with Maurice Starr
which featured artists such as Smokey Robinson, New Kids On The
Block, MC Hammer, Glen Tilbrook and many others.
In
the mid 90s, Nigel joined Tribal Drift with whom he toured extensively
including headlining the first Glastonbury Dance Tent. The band
signed to On U Sound with Adrian Sherwood and during this time
he also collaborated with Adrian on a number of other projects
such as Doug Wimbish’s solo album ‘Trippy Notes For
Bass’.
Nigel
also began to collaborate with Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music) for
various artists including Nina Hagen, Monica Naranjo, and Enrique
Bunbury. He had the pleasure of being introduced to Robert Wyatt
who allowed him to ‘remix’ selected tracks from the
album ‘Shleep’ which he was recording at Phil’s
studio. While Nigel worked on these mixes, Phil and Robert together
with Brian Eno and Paul Weller finished the originals in the next
room.
In
1997 Nigel left Tribal Drift and joined Theaudience fronted by
Sophie Ellis Bextor. Signed to Mercury Records, the band toured
and promoted extensively including many TV appearances such as
TFI Friday and This Morning. During this time Nigel began working
with Mike Hedges on various projects such as Travis, Juniper/Damien
Rice and Geneva among others.
Nigel
also started working with Ray Hedges again, writing, arranging
and mixing many of the top pop acts of the day such as Steps,
Hearsay, Cher (with whom he also had a co-production credit),
S Club 7, Emma Bunton, 3SL, Five, Ronan Keating, Chicane and many
others. He continues to collaborate with Chicane co-writing and
co-producing – amongst these collaborations was the 2006
track ‘Stoned In Love’ featuring Tom Jones.
In
the late 90s, Nigel was asked by his good friend and former Tribal
Drift bandmate Duncan Bridgeman to work on his 1 Giant Leap project.
Nigel’s input included some co-writing, post-production,
programming, mixing, playing various instruments and singing backing
vocals. The first track he co-wrote with 1 Giant Leap was ‘My
Culture’ featuring Robbie Williams and Maxi Jazz which became
a UK top ten hit. Over the course of the two 1 Giant Leap albums/films
some of the many music collaborations included Michael Stipe,
KD Lang, Alanis Morissette, Carlos Santana, Will Young and Daniel
Lanois.
Over
the following years, Nigel appeared on several TV shows together
with Ray Hedges as ‘the music producers’- these included
Pop Stars (BBC 1), No Talent Required (ITV), Rock School with
Gene Simmons (Channel 4), and The X Factor (ITV). After appearing
on Rock School, Nigel and Ray formed a joint venture with RDF
TV where they signed Lil’ Chris, releasing the album through
RCA. Nigel co-wrote, co-produced, mixed and played all the instruments
on the album which included the UK #3 hit ‘Checkin’
It Out’.
In
2010 Nigel co-wrote and co-produced the theme tunes and incidentals
for the National Television Awards (ITV) and the National Movie
Awards (ITV) as well as acting as Music Supervisor where he co-produced
the opening song featuring Stacey Solomon and Shawn Ryder (2011)
and oversaw the opening song featuring Bruce Forsyth and Ant &
Dec for the 2012 show.
He
also co-wrote and co-produced ‘Shout For England’
featuring Dizzee Rascal & James Corden for Simon Cowell which
spent 2 weeks at #1 in the UK in 2010. Later that year saw Ray
and Nigel produce the album ‘Wide Awake’ (#3 UK) and
singles for former X Factor winner Joe McElderry.
Nigel
produced and mixed the track ‘There’s A Place For
Us’ for the film ‘Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage
of the Dawn Treader’ as well as co-producing the single
‘Gotta Be Somebody’ for Shane Ward, another former
X Factor winner. Along with Ray, Nigel became the producer for
the ‘Groups’ category for Simon Cowell on The X Factor
(UK) where he ended up helping formulate and produce One Direction
during the series. He continued to produce many tracks for two
series of The X Factor in the UK and US.
Much
of 2011/12 has been spent co-writing/producing new material (with
Ray) for Alesha Dixon & The Struts (Universal), a fantastic
new band who are a cross between Queen, The Rolling Stones &
The Kaiser Chiefs. An album for the vocal group The Penny Arcade
Quartet (Mercury) was also completed in 2012. Nigel also co-wrote
and co-produced the extremely long Alesha Dixon-fronted Weight
Watchers TV Ad ‘Do It Our Way (Play)’ for Saatchi
& Saatchi which is reported to be the second longest British
TV ad in history. His other recent work has included producing
a new album for English singer-songwriter Emily Maguire.
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