January 26, 2013

THE MATCHSTALK MEN 

location: The Wheatsheaf
place: Dukinfield
country: United Kingdom

comment:

• From their website:
  BRIAN AND MICHAEL (aka Kevin Parrott and Mick Coleman) first met in 1965 at the Albion Inn, Stalybridge. They were together in a great little ‘Stax’ style soul band called The Big Sound, and spent most of the rest of the 1960’s living in Denmark and touring Scandinavia, Germany and Israel.

  By 1977, Mick was writing songs and Kevin producing records, and together in their respective roles of writer and producer, they recorded the Ivor Novello award winning song Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs which was a ‘million seller’ and took them to Number One in the UK Charts in 1978.

For two years after their number one hit, Kevin and Mick (as Brian and Michael) performed extensively around the UK and Europe, and then with great success concentrated on writing and producing for other people.

For many years they resisted requests to perform live again, partly because of the difficulty in finding backing musicians for one-off appearances and problems temporary recruiting the right people dedicated enough to form a ‘permanent’ band.

However, at the beginning of 2012 fate took a turn when Kevin and Micks’ respective brothers became available to join Brian and Michael and form their ‘Dream Band.’ That new band is “THE MATCHSTALK MEN”, with Kevin and Mick (the original Brian and Michael), Kevin’s brother Nigel (formerly with The Dooleys), Mick’s brother ‘Timmy’ and keyboard player and arranger Pauline.