Richard Butler: 20th Anniversary

Happy 20th anniversary to Richard Butler's debut solo album, released on this day in 2006. It was produced by Jon Carin, who played all of the instruments on the album and worked with The Psychedelic Furs before, on Midnight To Midnight as the keyboardist.

During the 1980s Richard Butler had talked of wanting to do a solo album and after when The Psychedelic Furs took a hiatus in the 1990s, he started to write songs for a solo album but they eventually evolved into being songs for Richard's new band at the time, Love Spit Love. Then in the mid-2000s he finally started working on what would become Richard Butler.

The music on Richard Butler is more softer than The Psychedelic Furs and Love Spit Love, and the album is probably the most personal one Richard Butler ever made. Around that time Richard had to deal with the breakup of his first marriage, and in 2002 his father passed away. Jon Carin was also going through the exact same situations as Richard and they completely influenced the songs. Richard Butler wrote the lyrics while Jon composed the music, and Psychedelic Furs bassist (and Richard's brother) Tim Butler got two co-writing credits on the songs "Broken Aeroplanes" and "Last Monkey".

I hadn't listened to Richard Butler for a long time and when I did recently, I forgot how good it was. The music is filled with beauty and emotion, and I remember my brother saying he liked the solo album more than The Psychedelic Furs' music. My favorite song on Richard Butler is "Milk" because it is so beautiful and it always leaves me in tears. Other favorites are "Satellites" (my brother said the drums in that song are reminiscent of David Bowie's "Five Years"), "Broken Aeroplanes", "Breathe", and "Nothing's Wrong". There's a song on the album called "California" and it's the fourth song to feature the name Caroline, with the first and second being The Psychedelic Furs' "India" and "Pretty In Pink", and the third Love Spit Love's "Sweet Thing". I had thought of something and this is my own theory, but I like to think that the Caroline in "California" is the same Caroline from "Pretty In Pink". Maybe she changed her ways for good from the latter song, settled down and married the love of her life, and on a warm Summer day is serving him a drink "tall and icy."

I really wish Richard Butler is on Spotify and other streaming services but the reason why it's not available to stream is because Koch Records no longer exists. The album doesn't deserve to be unknown and it makes me hope The Psychedelic Furs' current label Cooking Vinyl will acquire the rights and rerelease it. The only ways to listen to Richard Butler are on CD (the CDs are already starting to get rare) and YouTube, and please do check the album out if you haven't already, it is amazing.

In conclusion, happy 20th anniversary to this great album!

"Summer's gone, it only stayed a minute

All the rainbows ran

All applaud the lions of September

When the nights get long"

Photo: Jimmy Bruch

My Psychedelic Furs CDs #18

Beautiful Chaos: Greatest Hits Live (2001) (Columbia/Egg/Legacy 506035 2)

The first live album The Psychedelic Furs ever released, recorded at the House of Blues in Los Angeles in 2001. Has exclusive track "Alive (For Once In My Lifetime)" in both studio and live form.

Five years ago I got this album plus B-Sides & Lost Grooves from Amazon and they were CD-R copies. Unfortunately, to my disappointment, the sound quality on both of those albums was not that great and so I never listened to them again. But recently I signed up to Discogs because I wanted to see if there were people selling the real official copies of Beautiful Chaos and B-Sides & Lost Grooves, and thankfully they did so I bought them. It's so nice to finally have the real copies of those albums.

Track Listing:

1. India

2. Mr. Jones

3. Heaven

4. The Ghost In You

5. Alive (For Once In My Lifetime)

6. Love My Way

7. Heartbreak Beat

8. Sister Europe

9. President Gas

10. Into You Like A Train

11. Pretty In Pink

12. Dumb Waiters

13. Alive (For Once In My Lifetime) (Studio Version)

My Psychedelic Furs CDs #17

Here Came The Psychedelic Furs: B-Sides & Lost Grooves (1994) (Columbia/Legacy CK 57889)

"The 'beautiful chaos' that The Psychedelic Furs created on record and on tour between 1981 and 1989 is now part of the musical fabric of the times. Committed to attitude over ambition, they never shrank from their mission to bring the listener 'somewhere else.' This collection of live versions, b-sides, dance (re)mixes and promo tracks showcases the band at their absolute best."

Track Listing:

1. Aeroplane (Dance Mix)

2. Another Edge

3. Badman

4. Birdland

5. Goodbye (Dance Mix)

6. I Don't Want To Be Your Shadow

7. Heartbeat (7" Remix Version)

8. Mack The Knife

9. New Dream

10. Here Come Cowboys (12" Remix-Edit Version)

11. Heartbreak Beat (Extended Mix)

12. Angels Don't Cry (7" Remix Version)

13. Shock (Shep Pettibone Mix)

14. President Gas (Live)

15. No Easy Street (Live)

Remembering Marty Williamson

Just found out on The Psychedelic Furs' post on Facebook that Marty Williamson, who played additional guitar on Midnight To Midnight and joined The Furs on the tour for that album, sadly passed away today. We will always remember Marty's contribution to Midnight, and may he rest in peace.

Here's his profile that was featured in the tour programme for Midnight To Midnight: https://ontomorrowspages.blogspot.com/2019/02/marty-williamsons-profile.html

Concert Ads #57

On September 16, 2025 The Psychedelic Furs performed at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon with special guest Gary Numan, who opened for the band.

I attended this concert (my seventh PFurs show) and here's my blog about that night: https://ontomorrowspages.blogspot.com/2025/09/psychedelic-furs-september-16-2025.html

Setlist:

1. Heaven

2. President Gas

3. Wrong Train

4. Into You Like A Train

5. The Ghost In You

6. The Boy That Invented Rock & Roll

7. Mr. Jones

8. My Time

9. No-One

10. Love My Way

11. In My Head

12. Run And Run

13. Until She Comes

14. So Run Down

15. Pretty In Pink

16. Heartbreak Beat

Encore:

17. It Goes On

18. India

2026 Tour Dates

Today The Psychedelic Furs announced the dates for the first portion of the 2026 Tour in the US and the tickets will be on sale this Friday at 10 AM. It's exciting that The Furs will be out on the road again and I'm hoping they will return to Portland either this Summer or Fall. The support act will be We Are Scientists.

Via Facebook.

Concert Ads #56

On May 15, 1981 The Psychedelic Furs performed at Rock City in Nottingham, England during the Talk Talk Talk Tour. Tickets were £2.50 in advance.

Songs (via SetlistFM):

1. Into You Like A Train

2. Soap Commercial

3. She Is Mine

4. Mr. Jones

5. It Goes On

6. Fall

7. So Run Down

8. Dumb Waiters

9. Sister Europe

10. Pulse

11. Imitation Of Christ

12. All Of This & Nothing

13. I Wanna Sleep With You

14. Pretty In Pink

Encore:

15. We Love You

Encore 2:

16. India

Robert Smith's 30 Favorite Songs

I just discovered a list that The Cure's Robert Smith revealed to SiriusXM all the way back in 2009 and it was a list of his 30 favorite songs of the 1980s. One of the songs that got included was The Psychedelic Furs' "Heaven"!

Here's the full list in alphabetical order:

1. ABC - The Look Of Love

2. The Associates - Tell Me Easter's On Friday

3. Bananarama and Fun Boy Three - It Ain't What You Do It's The Way That You Do It

4. David Bowie - Let's Dance

5. Kate Bush - Cloudbusting

6. Cocteau Twins - Persephone

7. Cristina - Things Fall Apart

8. DAF - Sex Unter Wasser

9. Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus

10. Dinosaur JR - Freak Scene

11. Echo and the Bunnymen - The Killing Moon

12. Peter Gabriel - Red Rain

13. The Human League - Human

14. The Jesus and Mary Chain - Some Candy Talking

15. Joy Division - The Eternal

16. Chaka Khan - I Feel For You

17. Madness - Return Of The Los Palmas Seven

18. Mel and Kim - Respectable

19. My Bloody Valentine - Lose My Breath

20. New Order - Everything's Gone Green

21. Yoko Ono - Walking On Thin Ice

22. The Pixies - Gigantic

23. The Pretenders - Don't Get Me Wrong

24. Prince - Starfish And Coffee

25. The Psychedelic Furs - Heaven

26. Siouxsie and the Banshees - Dear Prudence

27. Soft Cell - Tainted Love

28. The Sugarcubes - Birthday

29. Suzanne Vega - Small Blue Thing

30. Tom Waits - In The Neighborhood

Plans for 2026

Since the New Year is already here, I thought of sharing a couple things I will eventually do on this blog for 2026.

The first one is that this year will be the 20th anniversary of Richard Butler's first solo album and I will write a post about it sometime in the Spring. And the second thing is that in 2025 I was originally going to post an article about Made Of Rain's fifth anniversary but I decided to postpone it. I didn't forget about it but I'm just waiting for the perfect time to publish it because I had a great idea for the blog post, and I'm not going to say what it is because I want it to be a surprise. I hope it will be published this year but I'll see what will happen in the future.

My wishes for 2026 are The Psychedelic Furs touring again and hopefully new music.

Photo: Simon Fowler.

Concert Ads #55

On February 16, 1984 The Psychedelic Furs performed at the Pabellon de la Ciudad Deportiva del Real Madrid in Madrid, Spain. According to the ad, it looks like the opener was Itoiz.