“Tabasco Sole” is the new single from The Voluntary Butler Scheme, aka 23-year old West Midlander Rob Jones. Think of The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” crossed with a Mellow Gold era Black County Beck through Jim Noir’s psych tinged observations, and you’re not far off the poptastic sound of this boombastic track.

“I was trying to write a really non-sensical tune with words that have a party rhythm,” says Rob. “So it was me trying to do a tune that wasn’t about hot babes, even if the choruses are.”

Rob composed the track on Christmas day (after dinner, and having listened to a Motown compilation with assorted family members) and recorded it, like the rest of his output, on his ultra-basic home set-up in Stourbridge (“just a bedroom full of wires and keyboards”).

The Voluntary Butler Scheme is an entirely solo pursuit “I’m a total hobby-ist when it comes to recording – I love the process,” says Rob. “I get a big kick out of working on my own, and if I’m bored, or not feeling it, then I just stop.”

On the B-side, there are treats aplenty in new track “Split”, an ace Akira The Don mix of Tabasco Sole and a wonderfully ramshackle cover of the Giorgio Moroder/Phil Oakey classic Together In Electric Dreams.

“I recorded Electric Dreams cause I was fed up of the stuff I was writing and just wanted to get nerdy on some recording,” says Rob. “I’d heard that tune on the telly the day before and didn’t even realise it had verses, so I had to learn them quick when I was tracking.”

The single will later be found on The Voluntary Butler Scheme’s debut album, ‘The Voluntary Butler Scheme at Breakfast, Dinner, Tea’, which is currently being mixed and will be released in July.

The Voluntary Butler Scheme’s previous singles have been championed by the NME, BBC Radio 1, 2 and 6 Music and XFM, and Rob has played sessions for Huw Stephens, Marc Riley, Dermot O’Leary and Jon Kennedy. Declared “one to watch” in publications as diverse as Q magazine and The Sun, even that old nutty boy Suggs has stepped out and declared himself a fan.

As for the name, it comes from Rob’s time living near Bourneville, where voluntary work schemes were set up for laid-off Rover workers at the Longbridge plant. “I imagined a voluntary butler scheme – it made me laugh for about 10 seconds – and I haven’t laughed at it since!” says Rob.

The single is set for release 29th June 2009 on Split Records.

Catch TVBS one man band live show when he plays.

May 2009 shows:

(Dates and information subject to change.)

Thurs 21/5 Stag & Dagger Festival, London
Sun 24/5 International Festival, Manchester
Tues 26/5 Academy 3, Manchester (supporting Jason Lytle)
Thurs 28/5 Islington Academy, London (supporting Jason Lytle)

“Infectious and charming, one-man-band Rob Jones is like a mix of Badly Drawn Boy and Brian Wilson’s more acid-fried work.” – Q

“Bubble-gum, call-and-response Motown, manufactured in the Midlands and as sweet as candy.” – The Sunday Times

The Voluntary Butler Scheme MySpace
The Voluntary Butler Scheme YouTube Channel