Interesting visitors and out of this world news for Avalanche - Kevin Buckle

Butcher Billy artwork for the David Bowie Space Invader t-shirt, left, and Chappell Roan

He then saw a Chappell Roan bag we had and bought that too saying he was actually over for the Glasgow concert that week. What we didn’t realise until later on was that it was actually Chappell Roan’s uncle. He looked around some more and then asked for a second bag at which point he explained who he was and said it was for her grandmother. When he couldn’t get hold of her mother to see if she also wanted a bag I gave him a third bag free given the circumstances.

We had a lovely chat and he showed us some great photos on his phone. As he left we shook hands and I asked him his name. “Eric” he said. “Eric Chappell of course”. He said he would be back at some point and he was true to his word as he returned a few days ago to say he had shown Chappell the bag and she had absolutely loved it.

Then last week another customer was also in from the States and he also said he had been in the shop before to buy some Butcher Billy stuff and he bought the same Space Invader t-shirt.

He explained he was a fan of Billy’s work and wondered if he took on commissions as he was an art director. I said that he certainly did and asked where he worked. I am one of the art directors at NASA he replied which made the Space Invader shirt particularly appropriate. I gave him the shop’s card but told him it was fairly easy to contact Billy directly. I had no idea but on further investigation it turns out NASA have quite a large arts department.

I have met Billy before as he was flown over here at the invite of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival just before the pandemic and it was through that meeting we extended the range we had of his work to include giclee prints, posters, cards and t-shirts. Given Billy lives in South Brazil I could not have been more surprised when he walked in the shop one day unannounced.

Billy’s latest work has been to produce an image for each of the tracks on the new Taylor Swift album and that work will soon be on display on the streets of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and London as Billy visits the UK next week.

There is in fact even more exciting news for Edinburgh to be announced in the coming days and I should be able to say more by next week’s column. Avalanche will be stocking all 17 of the images as prints, posters and cards and some will also be available as a t-shirt.

As if all that wasn’t enough we will also have the most recent image that Billy has produced of none other than Chappell Roan! You can be sure we will be keeping the full range of prints, posters, cards and shirts for her uncle to share with her family.