The night Dylan met an angrier man
(from Article in Manchester Metro newpaper Feb 4 1999)

IT WAS a pivotal moment in rock music history the night Bob Dylan was branded Judas by an angry fan. In one word, the heckler summed up the outrage of thousands at Manchester Free Trade Hall when Dylan put down his acoustic guitar, picked up an electric and turned folk into rock and roll. Now, 33 years later, the identity of that heckler has at last been revealed.

Keith Butler, the angry Keele University student of 1966, is now a 53-year old bank worker living in Toronto. And for three decades he has been unaware that one word from him had assumed historic significance. It was not a pre-meditated thing, he said. I was swept along by the mood. What made it different was that Dylan shouted back and that the concert was recorded and the bootleg went around the world.

It was CP Lee, lecturer in cultural studies at Salford University, who caused Keith to come forward after all these years. Lee, like Keith, attended the gig. Lee said: It got a personal reply from Dylan, who snarled: ‘I don’t believe you.’ It was while reading a review of the book that Keith realised that his Judas jibe had become so famous. He was then persuaded to come back to the Free Trade Hall again and talk for the first time about his momentous outburst.