Neil Butler @ Ian Smith Festival CCA 2015

And so my next guest, Neil Butler, is someone that I have known for a while: when I worked on The Skinny, he was one of my neighbours in The Briggait. I know that he is always up to something intriguing... actually, I am not quite sure how to introduce him... so, Neil... can I let you introduce yourself?

Neil:
Hi Gareth - my background is as an artist and performer but most of my work is around creating events and commissioning artists through my company UZ Arts thats based at the Briggait.

Gareth:
Once again, my knowledge has come up short. It's lucky you are here to help me out. I am going to start off with my sneaky dramaturgy questions first: do you think that it is a relevant thing for me to ask you about? What does it mean to you?

Neil:
Not a lot-I rarely work with dramaturgs.

Gareth:
Another great question from Vile. Moving swiftly on -  I know that you worked with Ian quite often... am I right in thinking that he was involved in your reasons for being in Scotland?

Neil:
Ian was my closest friend. We met when we were students. I was organising a contemporary art festival with Roger Ely with a lot of performance and live art (People Show, Lumiere and Son IOU, Lol Coxhill +++) and promoting bands like the Clash, the Damned, Souxie and Psychic TV. 

Ian got involved in the Festival and when I set up the Zap Club he helped build it and became the MC. We performed a lot together making performance art, music and an an art /cabaret act called the Wild Wigglers. 

Then in 1988 I was invited to Glasgow to create festivals and events to prepare Glasgow for European City of Culture in 1990. Ian worked on the festival and then ran away to join Archaos Circus for a few years before coming back to set up Mischief. From then on we worked on many projects together developing them through 'hothouses' or residencies and presenting them through one off events (crashing a space ship into Kings Street Car Park for the Millennium) or in the festivals I was involved in.

Gareth:
I've banged on about Ian's influence on me - but what would you say is his quality that you enjoyed the most?

Neil:
A huge influence. Ian was incredibly inventive, producing remarkable and utterly unique ideas that commented on the world he saw. His work was often comic but also serious and insightful. He was always generous in his relationship with other artists. He had a real rapport and affection for the public too. And with all that incredible imagination he was utterly businesslike in the way he managed his company and a very traditional pipe and slippers kind of Dad at home- although he didn’t smoke a pipe but liked to pose with one occasionally


Gareth: 
What are you doing as part of the Festival? What can we expect from you over the weekend?

Neil:
I’m there to enjoy Ian's work and the event that Angie created. I am also performing in the Death Cabaret. A reworking of a piece that Ian enjoyed -now called “Getting Slated”. Its a performance lecture during which I create an installation around near death experiences and the artists who have influenced me - including of course with Ian!



Gareth:
Cool: are you going to nip into my office for a drink over the weekend? I have absinthe...

Neil:
Delighted - it makes the heart grow fonder.

Gareth:
In terms of the work you do, is their any particular inspiration or tradition that you would say connects with your work?

Neil:
I include about 20 artists that have influenced or intrigued me in Getting Slated from Duchamps to Beuys and Richter but I probably first got involved with art because of John Lennon and Yoko Ono and reading about Guy Dubord and the Situationist International when I was growing up. I’m sure they pushed me towards performance art and experimental work and the avant-garde, if people still use that expression.

Gareth: 
And what about Ian's work? Where does he fit in?

Neil:
We shared a delight in myth making and encouraging artists and the public to invent their own realities. Ian inspired that and practised it throughout his career- "gently warping the underlay of the fabric of society…"

Gareth:
I've got one of my abscesses today - don't ask where - so I might be a bit cloudy. Can you do my job for me, and tell me what questions I ought to be asking, if any? I want to go a good job of this but... well, you know me, so I might as well stop the professional act...


Neil:
(Stunned silence)