Brian & Michael
|
Chart positions Explanation of the data |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Singles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brian & Michael are a British music duo , best known in their homeland for the 1978 hit Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs .
Band history
The duo is a project of two from Manchester dating rock musician and guitarist Kevin Parrott and Michael Coleman. The two had met in 1965 and Coleman joined Parrott's band "The Big Sound" as bassist and singer . They were mainly on the continent in Northern Europe, including as a backing band for the Danish rock and roll singer Rock Nalle. After the band split up, Parrott went back to Manchester to join the rock band Oscar, with whom he also released several albums .
Coleman joined a folk band and excelled as a songwriter . In the 1970s he became interested in the Manchester-born painter LS Lowry and tried to translate this into a song. After Lowry died in 1976, Coleman first played the Matchstalk Men song at a folk club gig. These “matchstick men” were a typical motif in Lowry's paintings. This gave rise to the idea of releasing the song as a single .
Together with his then partner Brian Burke, with whom he formed the comedy duo "Burke & Jerk", he wanted to appear as "Brian & Michael". Kevin Parrott was involved as a producer on the project. When Burke left after the single had already been completed, Kevin Parrott took over his position. A change of the artist name had to be dispensed with.
In addition to the singing and guitars of the two musicians, there were also the brass instruments of the "Tintwistle Brass Band" and the children's choir singing of the St Winifred's School Choir. After Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs was released in late 1977, it took a few months before it finally hesitantly entered the UK charts at number 45 . It then went on to become a huge hit, peaking at # 1 in April 1978 , where it stayed for three weeks.
The single achieved gold status and Michael Coleman received the Ivor Novello Award for the lyrics . The St Winifred's school choir later became their own number one hit thanks to their popularity .
After the success, Parrott and Coleman continued as "Brian & Michael", two albums were made, but they did not have another duo success. Since they also achieved success as a producer or songwriter for others, they ended the project again in 1980. Supported by them successes belonged production of The Sparrow of the Ramblers , Ken Dodd's last chart hit Hold My Hand , written by Coleman, and it's' Orrible Being in Love (When You're 8½) by Claire & Friends , where Claire Usher a Was a student of St Winifred's. While Michael Coleman stayed loyal to the music business, Parrott later switched to advertising.
In 2002 there was a reunion as "Brian & Michael" and several appearances as well as the announcement of a further musical collaboration.
Discography
Albums
- 1978: The Matchstalk Men
Singles
- 1977: Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs (Lowry's Song)
- 1977: Stretford Enders
- 1978: Mam When's Mi Dad Coming Home? (The Dream)
- 1978: Evensong
- 1979: Bottle of Gin
- 1979: You Don't Call Me Darling
- 1983: (Merry Christmas) Mama
swell
- ↑ Chart sources: UK
- ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/arts/page/0,,1074166,00.html
Web links
- Brian & Michael at Discogs (English)
- song lyrics
- Biography at manchester2002-uk (engl.)
- Biography at last.fm