British singer/songwriter John Butler was a founding member of Diesel Park West, a band formed in 1980 that released albums through 1995, garnering critical accolades and minor chart success. Butler, the band's frontman and primary songwriter, embarked on a solo career, releasing the major-label effort The Loyal Serpent. The album was well received from a critical standpoint but was relatively unsuccessful commercially, and Butler was dropped from Chrysalis. Diesel Park West subsequently regrouped for a couple more independently released albums, HIPReplacement (1998) and Thought for Food (2000), and Butler released a second solo album, Worthless Bastard Rock (2001), on the independent label Mystic Records. ~ Jason Birchmeier