Pretty In Pink (Y-Fronts That Is)
Ever been caught with your trousers down? Richard Butler of the Psychedelic Furs has. And not by any Tom, Dick and band all the time, Harry either. Butler's claim to fame apart from the hit single Pretty In Pink, is that he has been viddied in his Y-fronts by his hero David Bowie.
It happened when the famous Mr. B. came to check out one of the sightly lesser known Mr B’s New York dates. And a night that singer Richard, or Butler, as he prefers to known. remembers fondly. "I've been one of Bowie's biggest fans for years", he said. "Hero? Well I suppose you could call him that, though I don't really believe in them. I think they're very unhealthy." Mind you, when I heard that Bowie was actually out front that night in New York, I remember feeling incredibly nervous. Who wouldn't!
“Fortunately, the set went really well. The crowd were great that night. After the show I was backstage changing when suddenly Bowie just walked into the dressing room catching me in a rather undignified state of undress. He smiled, held out his hand and said “Hi, I’m David” as if I needed an introduction. I must admit I was pretty speechless to start but we soon got chatting. He’s very easy to talk to, very modest too. He hardly said a word about himself, just kept asking questions about me and the band all the time.”
So did Bowie live up to all of Butler's expectations? “More than that," he enthused. "I'd always been a bit worried about actually meeting him. I thought it would be a huge anticlimax. "But he was really everything I expected, and more." In fact, so impressed with the way the Furs flew that night Bowie offered his services as a producer, he also invited the whole band to be guests at the next evening's performance of The Elephant Man', which was playing Broadway at that time.
"To be quite honest I was bit dubious about going," said Butler. "I'd seen Bowie acting in, films, and really hadn't been that impressed. But my opinion soon changed after seeing him in the Elephant Man. He was superb. He really is an amazingly talented man. Meeting Bowie realised one of my biggest ambitions. The only other person I'd ever been interested in was Andy Warhol. I met him a long while ago, when I was still at Art College.”
"I was completely obsessed with him at the time and I was desparate to meet him, so when I heard he was coming over to do some personal in-store appearances to publicize his new book I went along shop to get his autograph. When it was my turn to my copy of the book autographed, I asked him draw something for me instead. "I think he was so taken aback that he did. He drew this huge banana. I've still got it somewhere.”
“I’ve met him a few times since then, In fact, last time I saw him, he did another drawing for me, this time a broken heart. I really thought I would become an artist at one point but then I suddenly realized I couldn’t stand the thought of hanging around an art gallery for the rest of my life.”
