Butcher Boy are an indie pop

Indie pop

Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s, such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera, and the dominant UK independent band of the mid...

 band from Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. Formed in 1998, they released their album Profit In Your Poetry

Profit In Your Poetry

Profit In Your Poetry is the debut studio album by Butcher Boy. It was released on 5 March 2007 on HDIF Records.-Track listing: #"Trouble And Desire" #"There Is No-One Who Can Tell You Where You've Been" #"Profit In Your Poetry"...

in 2007. Their second album, released on 13 April 2009, is entitled React or Die

React or Die

React or Die is the second album by Butcher Boy. It was released on 13 April 2009 on HDIF Records.-Track listing:#"When I'm Asleep" #"Carve A Pattern" #"You're Only Crying For Yourself" #"Anything Other Than Kind"...

.

History

The band was formed in 1998 by lead singer and songwriter John Blain Hunt (well-known in the Glasgow indie music scene as the organiser of club night National Pop League). Hunt had previously used ‘Butcher Boy’ as a pen name when submitting poetry to newspapers. The band has its roots in Ayrshire

Ayrshire

Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...

 (where Hunt grew up) but is now Glasgow-based. The core band has been augmented by string and brass musicians for live performances and recordings.

On record, they first appeared in August 2006 on the HDIF label’s compilation The Kids at the Club with their song Days Like This Will Be The Death Of Me, described as “wonderful” (though “Smiths

The Smiths

The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...

-indebted”) by the Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

. Their first album, Profit In Your Poetry, was released in April 2007 (having been preceded by download-only single, Girls Make Me Sick) and attracted overwhelmingly positive reviews, described as “flipping from string-skirling kitchen-sink dramas to Motown bluster”, “a promising debut”, and having “an instant and addictive charm that even Mozzer

Morrissey

Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...

 would be proud of”. Reviewers detected influences such as the Tindersticks

Tindersticks

Tindersticks are an Indie rock band from Nottingham, England formed in 1991. They released six albums before singer Stuart A. Staples took on a solo career. The band reunited briefly in 2006, but more permanently the following year...

, Felt

Felt (band)

Felt were a 1980s British alternative rock band led by Lawrence, whose surname was never listed in any credits or press; the band's name was inspired by Tom Verlaine's emphasis of the word "felt" in the Television song "Venus"...

, Love

Love (band)

Love was an American rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were led by singer/songwriter Arthur Lee and lead guitarist Johnny Echols...

, Belle & Sebastian

Belle & Sebastian

Belle and Sebastian are an indie pop band formed in Glasgow in January 1996. Belle and Sebastian are often compared with influential indie bands such as The Smiths, as well as classic acts such as Love, Bob Dylan and Nick Drake. The name Belle & Sebastian comes from Belle et Sébastien, a 1965...

, and The Chameleons

The Chameleons

The Chameleons were an English post-punk band that formed in Middleton, Greater Manchester, England in 1981. They consisted of singer and bassist Mark Burgess, guitarist Reg Smithies, guitarist Dave Fielding, and drummer John Lever...

.

The band released an EP, The Eighteenth Emergency, in September 2007, to tie in with several live dates in Glasgow and a short tour of England.

In May 2008 the track I Know Who You Could Be from Profit In Your Poetry, was used in
the US TV drama series Moonlight

Moonlight (TV series)

Moonlight was an American paranormal romance television drama created by Ron Koslow and Trevor Munson, who was also executive producer for all episodes with Joel Silver, Gerard Bocaccio, Gabrielle Stanton and Harry Werksman. The series follows private investigator Mick St...

. The song can be heard during the final scene of episode 14, which was edited so that the song could be used in its entirety.

Their second album, React or Die, was released on 13 April 2009, preceded by a single from the album, A Better Ghost. The band have made a video for the single, filmed in part at the Britannia Panopticon Music Hall in Glasgow.

Albums

• Profit In Your Poetry
  Profit In Your Poetry
  Profit In Your Poetry is the debut studio album by Butcher Boy. It was released on 5 March 2007 on HDIF Records.-Track listing: #"Trouble And Desire" #"There Is No-One Who Can Tell You Where You've Been" #"Profit In Your Poetry"...
  
  (2007)
• React or Die
  React or Die
  React or Die is the second album by Butcher Boy. It was released on 13 April 2009 on HDIF Records.-Track listing:#"When I'm Asleep" #"Carve A Pattern" #"You're Only Crying For Yourself" #"Anything Other Than Kind"...
  
  (2009)
• Helping Hands (2011)

Singles

• Girls Make Me Sick
  Girls Make Me Sick
  "Girls Make Me Sick" is the debut single by Butcher Boy, released on HDIF Records in 2007. It received a rating of 9/10 when reviewed by Drowned In Sound, who described it as "a triumphantly bitter and sad slice of whimsy, custom-built for the fey kids down the disco in 1996 and just danceable...
  
  (2007)
• Carve A Pattern (2009)
• A Better Ghost (2009)

Members

The current members are:

• Maya Burman-Roy: 2007–present (cello)
• Alison Eales: 2005–present (keyboards, accordion)
• Fraser Ford: 2008–present (guitar, keyboards)
• John Blain Hunt: 1998–present (vocals, guitar)
• Findlay MacKinnon: 2005–present (drums, percussion)
• Aoife Magee: 2004–present (viola)
• Basil Pieroni: 2005–present (guitar)
• Robert Spark: 2008–present (bass guitar)

Former members are:

• Jenny Diep: 2007 (cello, keyboards)
• Andy Forrester: 1998-2003 (bass guitar, drums)
• Jacqui Grant: 2001-2007 (cello)
• Garry Hoggan: 2003-2008 (bass guitar)
• Keith Martin: 2000-2001 (drums)
• Gina Murphy: 2001-2003 (keyboards)
• Susan Vennard: 1998-2000 (keyboards)