David Westlake

Last updated

David Westlake
Dw001b.jpg
At the NME C86 show – London, 2014
Background information
Born (1965-02-12) 12 February 1965 (age 59)
Hayes, Middlesex, England [1]
Origin England
Genres Indie, art rock
Occupation(s)Singer-songwriter
Instrument(s)Guitar
Years active1985-present
LabelsTiny Global Productions
Cherry Red Records
Formerly of The Servants
Spouse(s)Patsy Westlake [2]
Website lost-sheep.com/davidwestlake

David Westlake (born February 12, 1965) is an English singer/songwriter. He led indie band The Servants from 1985 to 1991.

Contents

History

Westlake formed indie band the Servants in 1985 in Hayes, Middlesex, England. [3]

The Servants appeared on 1986’s NME -associated C86 compilation, and the band was from 1986 to 1991 the original home of Luke Haines. [4]

Haines describes David Westlake’s first solo album, 1987’s Westlake (Creation Records), as “a minor classic”. [5] Retitled D87, the album was reissued in expanded form in 2023. [6]

In 2002, Westlake released self-pressed album Play Dusty for Me (Mahlerphone) in a limited issue that quickly sold out. [7] Play Dusty for Me was reissued in limited form in 2010 and 2015. [8] [9]

Tiny Global Productions released Westlake’s album My Beautiful England in 2022. [10] [11]

The Servants

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. [12]

Westlake and Haines played live together for the first time in twenty-three years at the Lexington, London N1 on 4 May 2014. [13] 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 . [14]

As chronicled in an interview in US music magazine The Big Takeover (issue 53, 2004), Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch was a huge Westlake fan and tried to locate him in the early 1990s in hope of forming a band with him, before launching Belle and Sebastian in his school class instead. [7]

David Westlake is a solicitor and academic. [2]

Discography

Solo

Albums

  • Westlake (Nov 1987, Creation Records CRELP 019; Aug 1993, CRECD019; Aug 2023 [expanded: D87], Optic Nerve Recordings OPT4.054 LP/CD)
  • Play Dusty for Me (Jun 2002, Mahlerphone, CDA 001; reissued Jul 2010 & Nov 2015)
  • My Beautiful England (Oct 2022, Tiny Global Productions, PICI-0038-LP / PICI-0038-CD)

With the Servants

Albums

  • Disinterest (Jul 1990, Paperhouse Records, PAPLP005 [LP]/PAPCD005 [CD])
  • Reserved (compilation; Mar 2006, Cherry Red Records, CDMRED297 [CD]; reissued in reduced form as Youth Club Disco, Jul 2011)
  • Small Time /Hey Hey We're the Manqués (Oct 2012, Cherry Red Records, CDB RED 535 [2CD]; reissued Dec 2013)

Singles

  • “She’s Always Hiding”/“Transparent” (Mar 1986, Head Records, HEAD1 [7"])
  • “The Sun, a Small Star”/“Meredith”/“It Takes No Gentleman”/“Funny Business” (Oct 1986, Head Records, HEAD3 [12"])
  • “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"])
  • “Look Like a Girl”/“Bad Habits Die Hard” (Aug 1990, Paperhouse Records, PAPER004 [7"])

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luke Haines</span> Musical artist

Luke Michael Haines is an English musician, songwriter and author. He has recorded music under various names and with various bands, including The Auteurs, Baader Meinhof and Black Box Recorder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Nightingales</span> British band

Nightingales are a British post-punk/alternative rock band, formed in 1979 in Birmingham, England, by four members of Birmingham's punk group The Prefects. They had been part of The Clash's 'White Riot Tour', recorded a couple of Peel Sessions, released a 45 on Rough Trade and, years after splitting up, had a retrospective CD released by US indie label Acute Records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Wolfhounds</span> English band

The Wolfhounds are an English noise pop band formed in Romford, Essex, in 1985 by Dave Callahan, Paul Clark, Andy Golding, Andy Bolton and Frank Stebbing, and originally active until 1990. The band reformed in 2005 and continues to write, record and play live, releasing new albums in 2014, 2016, and 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Bodines</span> British rock group

The Bodines were a British pop group from the mid to late 1980s that comprised guitarist Paul Brotherton, bassist Tim Burwood, drummer John Rowlands, and guitarist/vocalist Michael Ryan.

<i>The New Record by My Bloody Valentine</i> 1986 EP by My Bloody Valentine

The New Record by My Bloody Valentine is the second EP by the Irish-English alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine, released in September 1986 on Kaleidoscope Sound. Recorded at Alaska Studios in London, the EP's sound is influenced by C86, a brand of indie pop, and diverges from the band's earlier post-punk sound.

<i>How I Learned to Love the Bootboys</i> 1999 studio album by The Auteurs

How I Learned to Love the Bootboys is the fourth and final album by British rock band the Auteurs. It was released on 5 July 1999 through Hut and Virgin Records. Following their third studio album After Murder Park (1996), Haines started the Baader Meinhof and Black Box Recorder projects. He regrouped with the Auteurs to start work on a concept album under the name ESP Kids, though sessions halted as Black Box Recorder worked on their debut album England Made Me (1998). The Auteurs re-started recording their next album in January 1998 at RAK Studios in London; Hut and Virgin were not happy with the lack of single-sounding songs. After writing "The Rubettes", the band finished recording in April 1998. How I Learned to Love the Bootboys is a glam rock album that takes atmospheric influence from England Made Me.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Hit Parade (group)</span>

The Hit Parade is a music group from London that has released eight LPs and fourteen 7" vinyl records. The group has been described as "the very definition of twee Eighties style indie".

The Higsons were an English funk-punk band, who existed between 1980 and 1986.

Fantastic Plastic Records is an independent record label based in London and Brighton.

Bogshed were an Indie band formed in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, England, in 1985 by Phil Hartley (vocals), Mark McQuaid (guitar), Mike Bryson (bass) and Tristan King (drums). They released two albums, two EPs and two singles before splitting up in 1987.

Mighty Mighty are a British indie band formed in Birmingham, England, in the mid-1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Servants</span> English band

The Servants were an indie band formed in 1985 in Hayes, Middlesex, England by singer-songwriter David Westlake. The band was the original home of Luke Haines.

<i>Ooooooweeee!!!</i> 1965 single by Dusty Springfield

Ooooooweeee!!! was the third album by the singer Dusty Springfield to be released in the USA, issued on the Philips Records label in 1965 and including the hit single "Losing You". Even more so than Springfield's first two US albums, Ooooooweeee!!! can be considered as a compilation since it comprises tracks both from her first British album, A Girl Called Dusty, as well as recordings originally issued on various A- and B-side singles and EPs – recorded and released in the UK over a period of some eighteen months. Ooooooweeee!!! also has tracks from Springfield's September 1964 sessions in New York, produced by Shelby Singleton Jr, some of which remain unreleased in Britain until 1998 and the CD re-issue of the 1965 album, Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty.

Velvet Crush is an American power pop band from Providence, Rhode Island, United States, that achieved prominence in indie-rock circles in the early- and mid-1990s. The band broke up in 1996 but re-formed in 1998 and have continued to record, releasing their most recent album in 2004. Vocalist/bassist Paul Chastain and drummer Ric Menck are the band's core members, having previously worked together as Choo Choo Train, Bag-O-Shells, and The Springfields, and they share singing and songwriting duties. Guitarist Jeffrey Underhill played on the band's first three albums, In the Presence of Greatness, Teenage Symphonies to God, and Heavy Changes. In the Presence of Greatness was produced by Matthew Sweet, while the second and third albums were produced by Mitch Easter.

<i>Play Dusty for Me</i> 2002 studio album by David Westlake

Play Dusty for Me is the second solo album by English singer and songwriter David Westlake.

<i>Westlake</i> (album) 1987 studio album by David Westlake

Westlake is the first album by English singer/songwriter David Westlake. Creation Records released the album in November 1987. Under the title D87, the album was reissued in expanded form in August 2023.

<i>Disinterest</i> (album) 1990 studio album by The Servants

Disinterest is the first album by English indie band The Servants. The record was released in August 1990 on Paperhouse Records.

<i>Small Time</i> (album) 2012 studio album by The Servants

Small Time is the second and final album by English indie band The Servants. It was recorded in 1991 but had to wait twenty-one years for release: a “lost second album that had been gathering dust for half a generation.”

<i>C86</i> 1986 compilation album by various artists

C86 is a cassette compilation released by the British music magazine NME in 1986, featuring new bands licensed from British independent record labels of the time. As a term, C86 quickly evolved into shorthand for a guitar-based music genre characterized by jangling guitars and melodic power pop song structures, although other musical styles were represented on the tape. In its time, it became a pejorative term for its associations with so-called "shambling" and underachievement. The C86 scene is now recognized as a pivotal moment for independent music in the UK, as was recognized in the subtitle of the compilation's 2006 CD issue: CD86: 48 Tracks from the Birth of Indie Pop. 2014 saw the original compilation reissued in a 3CD expanded edition from Cherry Red Records; the 2014 box-set came with an 11,500-word book of sleevenotes by one of the tape's original curators, former NME journalist Neil Taylor.

<i>My Beautiful England</i> 2022 studio album by David Westlake

My Beautiful England is the third solo studio album by English singer/songwriter David Westlake, released through Tiny Global Productions on 14 October 2022.

References

  1. "The Servants". Only the Lonely. 2013. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  2. 1 2 Tassell, Nige (2022). Whatever Happened to the C86 Kids? An Indie Odyssey. London: Nine Eight Books. p. 273. ISBN   978-1788705585.
  3. Haines, Luke (2012). Small Time (booklet). The Servants. London: Cherry Red Records. p. 3. CDB RED 535.
  4. Mark Carry (19 May 2014). "Time Has Told Me: The Servants". Fractured Air. Archived from the original on 4 September 2014. Retrieved 4 May 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. Haines, Luke (2006). Reserved (booklet). The Servants. London: Cherry Red Records. p. 4. CDM RED 297.
  6. "David Westlake - D87". Discogs.com. 28 August 2023. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
  7. 1 2 Rabid, Jack (17 January 2011). "David Westlake - Play Dusty For Me". The Big Takeover . New York. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  8. "David Westlake - Play Dusty For Me". Discogs.com. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  9. "David Westlake - Play Dusty For Me". Discogs.com. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  10. Tiny Global Productions, My Beautiful England, 2022
  11. Davenport, Neil (19 October 2022). "David Westlake 'My Beautiful England' : album review". Louder Than War . Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  12. Prior, Clive (December 2011). "100 Greatest British Indie Records of All Time". Mojo Special Edition. Bauer. p. 123. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  13. "Hangover Lounge site". 2014. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
  14. "NME C86: The Wedding Present + more | Music in London". Time Out London. 11 December 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2020.

Further reading