Will Sergeant is an English guitarist, best known for being a member of Echo & the Bunnymen

Echo & the Bunnymen

Echo & the Bunnymen are an English post-punk band, formed in Liverpool in 1978. The original line-up consisted of vocalist Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant and bass player Les Pattinson, supplemented by a drum machine. By 1980, Pete de Freitas had joined as the band's drummer, and their debut...

. Born in the centre of Liverpool, he grew up in the suburb of Melling

Melling, Merseyside

Melling is a village and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 Census the population was recorded as 2,810....

 and attended nearby Deyes High School

Deyes High School

Deyes High School is for people in the North West of England. The school is situated in Maghull on the outskirts of Liverpool. It holds an official specialist Science College status which was gained in 2006 and provided extra support for better resources in the Science department.- History :The...

. He is the group's only constant member.

Career

As a solo artist

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

, Sergeant focused on minimalism and atmospherics, and usually released entirely instrumental

Instrumental

An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....

 music. Sergeant's first solo work was in 1978, when he self-produced Weird As Fish and made a total of seven copies. The album was officially released 25 years later. Early in the life of Echo & the Bunnymen, Sergeant recorded La Vie Luonge, a soundtrack piece for a short Bunnymen concert film of the same name. His first formal solo album, Themes for Grind, was released in 1982, while still active with Echo & the Bunnymen, and reached number 6 on the Indie album chart

UK Indie Chart

The UK Independent Chart or Indie Chart is a chart of the best-selling independent record releases in the UK.- History :In the wake of punk, small record labels began to spring up, as an outlet for artists that were unwilling to sign contracts with major record companies, or were not considered...

.

Sergeant continued with the Bunnymen even after Ian McCulloch

Ian McCulloch (singer)

Ian Stephen McCulloch is an English singer, born in Liverpool, and is best known as the frontman for the rock group Echo & the Bunnymen.-Career:...

 left in 1988, bringing in Noel Burke

Noel Burke

Noel Burke is an Irish singer, who is best known for replacing Ian McCulloch as the lead singer with Echo & the Bunnymen. Born in Belfast, Burke's first band was St. Vitus Dance, who released the album Love Me, Love My Dogma in 1987 before splitting up a few years later...

 to sing on Reverberation

Reverberation (album)

Reverberation is the sixth studio album by the British rock band Echo & the Bunnymen. The album was released amidst a line-up change for the group, due to the departure of vocalist Ian McCulloch and the death of drummer Pete de Freitas. The remaining members, guitarist Will Sergeant and bassist Les...

in 1990, before breaking up the band. In 1994, Sergeant and McCulloch reunited to form Electrafixion

Electrafixion

Electrafixion were an alternative rock band, formed by former Echo & the Bunnymen members Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant in 1994, joined by bass guitarist Leon de Sylva and drummer Tony McGuigan. They released one album, Burned, and four singles and EPs before splitting up in 1996, due to the...

. The band toured extensively and released one album, Burned

Burned (album)

Burned was released in 1995 and is the only album to have been released by Electrafixion. The album reached #38 on the UK albums chart in October of that year.- Different releases :Burned was originally released in 1995 on CD with eleven tracks....

, in 1995. After a few singles

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 and more touring, the band began to play a large number of old Echo & the Bunnymen songs at their shows. In 1997, the Bunnymen reformed.

Sergeant also returned to solo work in 1997, under the moniker Glide, producing experimental, ambient

Ambient music

Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...

 and psychedelic instrumental music based around keyboard and electronic sounds. That year, he released the live Space Age Freak Out, followed by another live album, Performance, in 2000. Glide began to tour, and would often open for Echo & the Bunnymen in the early 2000s. Glide released Curvature of the Earth in 2004.

Sergeant has guested on Primal Scream's "When the Bombs Drop" (2006) and Baltic Fleet's self titled debut album (2008).

Playing style

Throughout his time with the Bunnymen in the 80s, Sergeant used a black Fender Telecaster with lots of reverb and delay. This gave the Bunnymen sound a clear, cutting tone. On several occasions during the 80s Sergeant would use a Fender Jaguar guitar. When the Bunnymen reformed in 1998 he started using his Jaguar as his main instrument with a lot of tremolo.

As Glide

• Space Age Freak Out (1997)
• Performance (2000)
• Curvature of the Earth (2004, Cooking Vinyl
  Cooking Vinyl
  Cooking Vinyl is a UK-based independent record company, founded in 1986. Its original orientation was toward contemporary folk music—notably Billy Bragg, and Michelle Shocked's Texas Campfire Tapes, recorded on a Sony Walkman, one of its first releases...
  
  )

Albums

• Weird as Fish (1978)
• Themes for Grind (1983), 92 Happy Customers – UK Indie #6
• Weird As Fish/Le Via Luonge (2003), Ochre

Singles

• "Favourite Branches" (1982), WEA
• "Cosmos" (1995), Ochre

"You have just been poisoned by the serpents" (1998), Ochre

• Themes from Grind: Remixes (2000), Ochre

External links