The Owl Service (band)

The Owl Service
Origin England
Genres Folk
Years active 2006–present
Associated acts Country Parish Music, Greanvine, The Trysting Tree
Members Diana Collier
Steven Collins
Jo Lepine
Nancy Wallace
Past members Dom Cooper
Katie English
Jason Steel

The Owl Service is a British folk band formed in 2006 by multi-instrumentalist Steven Collins, named after the 1967 novel by Alan Garner.

History

The Owl Service was originally intended to be a studio-based solo vehicle for Steven Collins, but while working on the first Owl Service release (the Wake the Vaulted Echo EP from 2006) he felt the need to enlist some help with vocal duties. This resulted in collaborations with Rebsie Fairholm (who sang on the debut EP, but then made only one more fleeting appearance with the band on the Bitter Night EP in 2008) and Dom Cooper of The Straw Bear Band, who remained involved with The Owl Service until March 2012; singing, writing songs and co-ordinating the band's graphic design. The Wake EP was warmly received in psych-folk circles and this lead to Collins being asked to contribute a track to the 2007 compilation album John Barleycorn Reborn on the Cold Spring label (for which he also wrote sleeve notes). For the JBR album, Steven recorded the traditional song The North Country Maid with session singer Rachel Davies, a song the band would revisit on the debut album in an alternative version. While recording the debut Owl Service album later that year, two permanent female singers joined the band; Jo Lepine from Rochester, and Diana Collier from Leigh-on-Sea (also Collins' home town).

The band's debut album, A Garland of Song, was released on Collins' own Hobby-Horse micro-label in July 2007. Still a studio-only project, the band were invited to support English folk singer Lisa Knapp during her residency at the Magpie's Nest folk club in Islington in October 2008. Up to that point The Owl Service had never performed in public, but following the invitation from Knapp Collins opted to expand the line-up to enable them to function as a live group. It was at this time that Nancy Wallace (formerly of The Memory Band) became a permanent member of the band. By the end of 2007 they had signed to UK independent label Southern Records.

Southern reissued A Garland of Song in June 2008 on CD and LP, and this was followed a month later by a new EP, recorded with ex-Mellow Candle singer Alison O'Donnell entitled The Fabric of Folk (released by the Birmingham-based Static Caravan label). By this time, the band had a core line-up of 7 with the addition of Jason Steel (guitar, banjo, vocals), and experimental musician Katie English (aka Isnaj Dui) providing flute and melodica. The Owl Service parted company with Southern Records at the end of 2009 and their second full-length album, The View From a Hill, was released by Rif Mountain on 1 May 2010 featuring guest appearances from Joolie Wood of Current 93 and Alison O'Donnell among others. The View From a Hill received much critical acclaim with positive reviews in Mojo, Uncut and fRoots magazines alongside broadsheet coverage in The Sunday Times courtesy of Stewart Lee. The album also received support from BBC Radio 2 with several plays on both Mike Harding's and Mark Radcliffe's shows.

In December 2011 the band released the song The Red Barn as a 7" vinyl single, a traditional ballad based on the Red Barn Murder.[1] This was followed in 2012 by another 7" EP entitled There Used to be a Crown, featuring cover versions of four songs by Tom Rapp/Pearls Before Swine.

At the start of 2012 Steven Collins left the Rif Mountain collective and put The Owl Service on an indefinite hiatus. He immediately began working on two new projects; Greanvine, a duo with fellow ex-Owl Service collaborator Diana Collier who play a mix of traditional songs and covers in stark, electric arrangements, and Country Parish Music (a project closer to the sound of The Owl Service). He also formed a new label, Stone Tape Recordings, named after the Nigel Kneale television play from 1972. In October 2012 Stone Tape Recordings released the Owl Service album Garland Sessions, which includes all 13 songs from the debut album re-mixed and partially re-recorded, along with 6 additional tracks.

In October 2013 Collins publicly hinted that a new Owl Service record was in production and in addition to this the band made a return to the live stage in December 2013 for the first time in over 18 months. Along with Steven Collins, only Jo Lepine, Diana Collier and Nancy Wallace returned from the original line-up. The band played live again 6 months later where they were joined by former collaborator Alison O'Donnell for 2 songs from their Fabric of Folk EP.

October 2014 saw the release of the first new Owl Service record since the Garland Sessions album in 2012; a low-key EP featuring covers of songs written by US musician Glenn Danzig to mark Halloween. At the end of 2014 after 18 releases Stone Tape Recordings closed down. Collins cited the workload involved keeping him from working on new Owl Service material as the main reason for the closure. Free from the constraints of running a label, in January 2015 Collins confirmed that there will be an all-new Owl Service album released in the summer of 2015 entitled 'His Pride. No Spear. No Friend.'. The album is expected to be something of departure from previous Owl Service releases. According to Collins; "The album will contain mostly traditional material, but the sound will be far from traditional. It'll be a folk album in lyrical content only, not in sound".

Members

Discography

EPs

Albums

Compilations

References

  1. ↑ "The Owl Service: All Things Being Silent". normanrecords.com. Retrieved 21 February 2012.

External links