David Westlake

Who is David Westlake?

David Westlake is a British singer/songwriter. 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. And thirdly, as chronicled in an interview in US music magazine The Big Takeover, 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.

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.

Westlake’s first solo LP, 1987’s Westlake, was released on Creation Records. His second, Play Dusty For Me, appeared in 2002.