David Westlake

David Westlake

At the NME C86 show - London, 2014
Background information
Born 12 February 1965
Hayes, Middlesex, England
Origin England
Genres Indie, Art rock
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter
Instruments Guitar
Years active 1985–present
Labels Cherry Red
Captured Tracks
Associated acts The Servants
Website www.lostsheep.com/davidwestlake

David Westlake is an English singer/songwriter. He led indie band The Servants from 1985 to 1991.

History

People tend to know Westlake’s work through usually one of three associations. Firstly, Westlake formed indie band the Servants in 1985 in Hayes, Middlesex, England; the Servants were on 1986’s NME-associated C86 compilation, and the expanded 48-song reissue version CD86 in 2006. Secondly, the Servants was the original home of Luke Haines (leader of The Auteurs and Black Box Recorder). And thirdly, as chronicled in an interview in US music magazine The Big Takeover (issue 53, 2004), Belle & Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch was a huge Westlake fan and was trying to locate him during the years that the older singer was dormant in hope of forming a band with him, before launching Belle & Sebastian in his school class instead.[1]

The Servants' Small Time album was well received on its 2012 Cherry Red Records release, more than twenty years after its 1991-recording. The belated release followed the inclusion of 1990's Disinterest in Mojo magazine's 2011 list of the greatest British indie records of all time.[2]

Westlake’s first solo LP, 1987’s Westlake, was released on Creation Records. His second, Play Dusty For Me, appeared in 2002. This was released, sort of, in a highly limited issue that quickly sold out but was still never re-pressed. London's Angular Recording Corporation issued a digital version in 2010. Westlake is backed on Play Dusty For Me by guitarist Dan Cross and brothers Cormac and Willis Moore on bass and drums. Jack Rabid at The Big Takeover noted the "general unhurried nature of an LP put out for pure love rather than commercial gain."[1]

The Servants

The Servants played their first gig at The Water Rats Theatre in London's King's Cross on July 1, 1985. They were signed by Head Records, an independent record label started by Jeff Barrett, later head of Heavenly Records. Westlake's urbane English song-writing was well received by the press, and the band was invited to record a John Peel session soon after the release of first single "She's Always Hiding" (March '86). Keen to distance themselves from the "shambling" scene, the band earned a reputation for haughtiness. An invitation by the then-popular NME to appear on their C86 compilation was grudgingly accepted, though the band insisted on the track being the B-side of their first single - the wrong-footing "Transparent". The NME compilation turned out to sell well and the Servants became known for a lesser track. The band’s next release, the four-song e.p. "The Sun, A Small Star" (August '86), showed Westlake’s song-writing becoming still more deft, the title-track being later described by Luke Haines as "a 24 carat 'Brown Eyed Girl' classic".[3]

Luke Haines was in the Servants from early 1987 to late 1991. Haines made his recording debut on the Westlake album (which featured, too, the Triffids' rhythm section), later describing it as a minor classic.[3] Westlake and Haines undertook a tour of Britain to promote the record, but Creation failed to release it until six months later. Westlake received good reviews, but otherwise disappeared.

Out of the blue Westlake received a telephone call from Hugh Whitaker, drummer with chart-stars the Housemartins. Whitaker felt his band had become too big, and offered his services to the Servants. The band returned to the studio to demo new material for Creation. At the end of the year Creation Records dropped the Servants. Goodwill from the music industry was low, and luck was thin on the ground.

Mid-'88 the Servants were thrown a lifeline by Dave Barker, owner of Glass Records, who promised a reasonable budget to record an album. The plan was to go into Elephant studios with producer John Brand, who had worked with Hayes punk-band the Ruts. At the eleventh hour the band were told that Glass distributors Red Rhino had "gone bust". The budget was slashed, but they went into the studio to record an epic single, "It's My Turn". They played some gigs to support the single but the record company delayed releasing the record for a year. The Servants eventually released an album, Disinterest, in 1990 on Paperhouse Records. "It is Art Rock," Haines later said, "Ten years too late and fifteen years too early."[3]

The Servants' last gig was at the Rock Garden, 21 August 1991 - "With no room to manoeuvre and no opportunities left", the band finally called it a day.[3] Cherry Red Records released a 2006 retrospective of the Servants, called Reserved. The compilation features all of the releases prior to the Disinterest album plus Peel session tracks and demos. U.S. label Captured Tracks released a 2011 vinyl compilation of the Servants, called Youth Club Disco.

Westlake and Haines had recorded the Servants' second album, Small Time, in 1991, but not until twenty-one years later - following the inclusion of Disinterest in Mojo magazine's 2011 list of the greatest British indie records of all time,[2] - was it released, in 2012 on Cherry Red Records (then in 2013 on Captured Tracks). The songs on Small Time are, says Haines, "looser, more mysterious, strange and beautiful, [. . .] sounding . . . like nothing else really."[4] The long unavailability of 1990's Disinterest is explained in the album's notes: it is "stuck in an irretrievable record company quagmire, where it looks set to remain."[4] Small Time was issued with a second disc, Hey Hey We're the Manqués, containing demos and rehearsal versions of first-album material.

Westlake and Haines played together for the first time in twenty-three years at the Lexington, London N1 on 4 May 2014.[5] Westlake and band played at an NME C86 show on 14 June 2014 at Venue 229, London W1; the show marked Cherry Red Records' expanded reissue of C86.[6]

David Westlake is a solicitor and he lectures part-time at Brunel University, London.[7]

Discography

Singles

Albums

Videos

External sources

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jack Rabid (17 January 2011). "Review of David Westlake's album Play Dusty for Me". The Big Takeover. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Prior, Clive (December 2011). "100 Greatest British Indie Records of All Time". Mojo - Indie Special. p. 123.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Haines, Luke (2006). Reserved. London: Cherry Red.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Haines, Luke (2012). Small Time. London: Cherry Red.
  5. ↑ "Hangover Lounge site". 2014. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
  6. ↑ Time Out, 11 December 2013
  7. ↑ "Last FM". 2010. Retrieved 11 June 2011.