The Owl Service (band)

The Owl Service
Origin England
Genres Folk
Years active 2006–2016
Associated acts Flypaper, Country Parish Music, Greanvine, The Trysting Tree
Past members Steven Collins
Diana Collier
Dom Cooper
Katie English
Jo Lepine
Jason Steel
Nancy Wallace

The Owl Service was an English alternative folk music collective 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 project 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 and 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 with 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 the Vaulted Echo EP was warmly received in psych-folk circles and this led 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 contributed sleeve notes). For the JBR album Steven recorded the traditional song The North Country Maid with session singer Rachel Davies, a song he 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 and Diana Collier.

The debut album, A Garland of Song, was released on Collins' own Hobby-Horse micro-label in July 2007 as a handmade CD-r limited to 100 copies. Still a studio-only project at that time, soon afterwards 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 which was released by the 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. Keen to return to their DIY roots The Owl Service parted company with Southern Records at the end of 2009 and immediately began a series of releases collectively titled The Patten Beneath the Plough. Their second full-length album, The View From a Hill, was released on 1 May 2010 and was the centrepiece of the Pattern series. The album featured 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.

December 2011 saw the release of a 2 track 7" vinyl single comprising The Standing Stones and The Red Barn, a traditional ballad based on the Red Barn Murder[1] and this was followed by another 7" release entitled There Used to be a Crown which included cover versions of 4 songs originally by Tom Rapp/Pearls Before Swine.

At the start of 2012 Steven Collins put The Owl Service on an indefinite hiatus and immediately began working on two new projects; the first was Greanvine, a duo with fellow Owl Service member Diana Collier who played a mix of traditional songs and cover versions in stark, electric arrangements; the second was Country Parish Music, a project closer to the sound of The Owl Service. Collins also formed a new label, Stone Tape Recordings, named after the Nigel Kneale television play from 1972. The first 2 releases on Stone Tape Recordings were by The Owl Service; a data DVD entitled She Wants to be Flowers, But You Make Her Owls which collected mp3 files of every track the band had released at that point plus a wealth of unreleased material, artwork files, and video recordings; and the album Garland Sessions which included all 13 songs from the debut album re-mixed and partially re-recorded along with 6 additional tracks.

In October 2013 Collins publicly hinted via Facebook that a new Owl Service record was in production and that the band would be making a return to the live stage in December of the same year. The show was their first live performance in over 18 months, along with Steven Collins only Jo Lepine, Diana Collier and Nancy Wallace returned from the original line-up. The band performed live again 6 months later where they were joined by frequent collaborator Alison O'Donnell.

October 2014 saw the release of the first new Owl Service record since the Garland Sessions album in 2012; a low-key EP entitled Three Inverted Nines which featured cover versions of 4 songs written by legendary musician Glenn Danzig to mark Halloween. At the end of 2014 after 18 releases Stone Tape Recordings closed down. The reason Collins cited for the closure was the huge workload which was keeping him from recording new Owl Service material. Free from the constraints of running a label, in January 2015 Collins confirmed that there would be an all-new Owl Service album released before the end of the year entitled His Pride. No Spear. No Friend. The album was eventually released on 31 October 2015 and was something of a departure from previous Owl Service releases. According to Collins; "The album is mostly traditional songs, but the sound is far from traditional. It's a folk album in lyrical content only, not in sound". The Owl Service played their final live show on 31 January 2015 at an event marking the 100th birthday of US folk song collector Alan Lomax.

Ultimately, Collins' fierce anti-industry/pro-DIY stance would prove to be his downfall as the band flew below the radar of pretty much everyone and the final album was either met with indifference or completely ignored. Collins himself likened the task of promoting His Pride. No Spear. No Friend. to "flogging a dead horse whilst banging my head against a brick wall". Soon after the release of the album Steven Collins announced that The Owl Service would cease to exist on the band's 10th anniversary on 6 June 2016. Steven Collins now works under the guise of Flypaper, a project which has seen him return to the themes which originally inspired The Owl Service, however the music of Flypaper bares no resemblance to his previous offerings.

Personnel

With;

Other occasional members of the collective on record and/or as part of the live band include Alison O'Donnell, Joolie Wood, Martyn Kember-Smith, Rebsie Fairholm, Mark Patterson, Mark Offord, Simon Green, Simon Sparrow, Adam Leonard, Laura Hulse, Michelle Bappoo, Roshi Nasehi and Magnus Dearness.

Discography

EPs

Albums

Compilations

References

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