The Servants

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Reserved front cover. © Cherry Red Records 2006
Reserved front cover. © Cherry Red Records 2006

The Servants were an indie pop band formed in 1985 in Hayes, Middlesex, England by singer and songwriter David Westlake, along with John Mohan (guitar, keyboards), Philip King (bass, guitar), and John Wills (drums) (of The Wishing Stones).[1]

Contents

[edit] Early line-up

The Servants played their first gig at The Water Rats Theatre in King’s Cross, London on July 1st 1985. Signing to Head Records they released debut single "She’s Always Hiding" in March 1986, which prompted an invitation to record a session for John Peel, and they contributed the Syd Barrett-influenced b-side "Transparent" to the NME’s C86 compilation. Second single "The Sun, A Small Star" appeared later that year, described by future Servants guitarist Luke Haines as 'a 24-carat “Brown Eyed Girl” classic', shortly after which this initial line-up split, with Wills joining Loop and King joining Felt/Biff Bang Pow!.

[edit] Westlake solo

Westlake then embarked on a brief solo career, advertising for new band members in the music press and recruiting guitarist Luke Haines. With the rhythm section from The Triffids, they recorded the mini-album Westlake. Westlake and Haines, augmented by a Dr. Rhythm drum machine then undertook a UK tour supporting The Weather Prophets. The album finally saw the light of day in November 1987, receiving favourable critical reviews but little commercial success.

[edit] New line-up

Late in 1987, the decision was taken to re-adopt the Servants moniker. Housemartins drummer Hugh Whittaker switched to The Servants,[1] and a new bass-guitarist (John Scullion), during which time the band recorded a number of new songs and toured Switzerland, though they would be dropped by Creation before any new material was released. In 1988, Dave Barker of Glass Records signed the band to his label, offering the band sufficient budget to record an album. Shortly before the band were due to go into the studio to record this album, Glass Records’ distributor Red Rhino went bankrupt, and the budget for the recording sessions was slashed. The band continued with the studio session regardless, to record the single, "It’s My Turn". In keeping with their bad luck, it was a year before this single was released. An album (Disinterest) was finally released under The Servants’ name in 1990 on Fire Records subsidiary Paperhouse, described by Haines as ‘Art Rock – ten years too late and fifteen years too early’, by which time Whittaker had already left. The Servants’ last gig was at The RockGarden in August 1991, after which they split for the final time, Haines going on to greater recognition with The Auteurs. Westlake re-emerged in 2002 with the album Play Dusty For Me.

In 2006, Cherry Red records released an anthology of The Servants work, on Reserved, which featured all of the releases under The Servants name prior to the Disinterest album plus demos and tracks from the Peel sessions.

[edit] Discography

Chart placings shown are from the UK Indie Chart.[2]

[edit] Singles

  • "She’s Always Hiding"/"Transparent" (Mar 1986, Head Records, HEAD1 [7”]) (#25)
  • "The Sun, a Small Star"/"Meredith"/"It Takes No Gentleman"/"Funny Business" (Oct 1986, Head Records, HEAD3 [12”]) (#47)
  • "It’s My Turn"/"Afterglow" (Sep 1989, Glass Records, GLASS056 [7”])
  • "It’s My Turn"/"Afterglow"/"Faithful to 3 Lovers"/"Do or Be Done" (Sep 1989, Glass Records, GLASS12 056 [12”])

[edit] Albums

  • Westlake (Nov 1987, Creation Records, CRELP019 [LP]) – as David Westlake
  • Disinterest (Sep 1989, Paperhouse, PAPLP005 [LP]/PAPCD005 [CD])
  • Reserved (2006, Cherry Red, CDMRED297 [CD]) (compilation)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Strong, Martin C. (1999). The Great Alternative & Indie Discography. Canongate. ISBN 0-86241-913-1. 
  2. ^ Lazell, Barry (1997). Indie Hits 1980-1999. Cherry Red Books. ISBN 0-9517206-9-4. 

[edit] External links