Making waves on Radio 1
3:00pm Wednesday 16th January 2008
STOURBRIDGE musician Rob Jones has been making waves on national radio with his one man band The Voluntary Butler Scheme.
The 22-year-old who writes and records all of his songs himself and plays his own instruments has been featured twice on Huw Stevens' Radio 1 show for new music and unsigned artists.
Alarm Clock was featured in December and last Thursday (January 10) the DJ played Rob's new track Trading Things In.
He told the News: "There was a really good reaction to it."
But the Bournville College music department technician is already used to getting a bit of attention; his first gig was as a session keyboard player with rising duo The Boy Least Likely To when they supported chart stars Razorlight.
He played to thousands of people at venues across the country including Wembley Arena.
Rob said: "Before the Razorlight tour I'd only messed about in local bands and afterwards I was back working at Sainsbury's - before I got the job at the college."
Following the tour the band have been back in the recording studio and Rob has turned his attention to writing and recording his own material.
He said: "I only started putting any effort into my own stuff in October. Now I'm writing songs all the time because I'm excited about it."
He has already put together a CD full of 12 self-penned tracks and he played his first Stourbridge gig at Katie Fitzgerald's just before Christmas.
And he hopes to release a single later in the year.
Rob's next outing will be at Tropical Hotdog at Birmingham's Island Bar on February 2; Birmingham's Jug of Ale (Catapult Club) on February 15 and the Sunflower Lounge, also in Birmingham, on February 16.
Between February 6 and 13 he will be supporting rising British four-piece Brakes who have previously opened for The Editors and The Killers.
To hear a selection of Rob's tracks check out www.myspace.com/thevoluntarybutlerscheme