Brian and Michael are a British music duo best known for their 1978 UK number one hit single, "
Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs
"Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs (Lowry's Song)" is a folk song by English duo Brian and Michael. It was released as their first single in late 1977 on Pye Records, and is from their 1978 debut album, ''The Matchstalk Men''. The song re ...
".
Without further chart entries, they remain
one-hit wonders
A one-hit wonder or viral hit is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music p ...
in the UK. They comprise two members: Michael Coleman and Kevin Parrott.
Career
The duo had originally been members of a
Stax
Streaming API for XML (StAX) is an application programming interface ( API) to read and write XML documents, originating from the Java programming language community.
Traditionally, XML APIs are either:
* DOM based - the entire document is read i ...
-style
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
band called The Big Sound, working mainly in Denmark, Sweden and Germany, but also touring Israel in 1967. The Big Sound had previously backed singer Karol Keyes, now known as the actress
Luan Peters
Luan Peters (18 June 1946 – 24 December 2017), also known as Karol Keyes, was an English actress and singer.
Biography
Born Carol Ann Hirsch, she made her stage debut in a pantomime aged four, then went on to win a drama scholarship at the ag ...
. In Denmark, the band were the backing group to the Danish singer, Rock Nalle.
The act Brian and Michael was originally called Burke and Jerk, a comedy duo composed of Brian Burke and Mick Coleman, formed in 1976, some nine years after Coleman had left The Big Sound. During the intervening years Parrott and Coleman had stayed friends, and Coleman had followed Parrott's recording career as lead guitarist with Manchester rock band Oscar, who were signed to
DJM Records
DJM Records (also known as Dick James Music) was the British independent record label, set up in the late 1960s by British music publisher Dick James. It was distributed by Pye Records in the UK, and various other companies around the world, ...
.
When Coleman first wrote "
Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs
"Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs (Lowry's Song)" is a folk song by English duo Brian and Michael. It was released as their first single in late 1977 on Pye Records, and is from their 1978 debut album, ''The Matchstalk Men''. The song re ...
", he took the song to Parrott. The latter borrowed the estimated £1,000 to produce the record which was recorded at Pluto Studios in
Stockport
Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here.
Most of the town is within ...
, in the same building as
Strawberry Studios
Strawberry Studios was a recording studio in Stockport, England. Founded in 1968, it operated until the early 1990s.
Formation
The facility was originally called Inter-City Studios and located above a music store in the town centre. In early ...
. Pluto Studios was owned by the former
Herman's Hermits
Herman's Hermits are an English beat, rock and pop group formed in 1964 in Manchester, originally called Herman and His Hermits and featuring lead singer Peter Noone. Produced by Mickie Most, the Hermits charted with number ones in the UK a ...
rhythm guitar player
Keith Hopwood
Keith Hopwood (born 26 October 1946) is an English pop and rock musician, singer-songwriter, composer, businessman and record producer, who served as the rhythm guitarist and backing vocals for the 1960s pop band, Herman's Hermits. Hopwood als ...
. The song was recorded over three sessions starting on 25 September 1977. The
brass band on the recording is
Tintwistle
Tintwistle is a village and civil parish in the High Peak district of the non-metropolitan county of Derbyshire, England. Historically in Cheshire, according to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 1,401, reducing marginally to 1,400 ...
Brass Band, from the village in
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
where Parrott lived at the time.
Parrott tried without success to get a release with several record labels, but eventually secured a recording contract with
Pye Records
Pye Records was a British record label. Its best known artists were Lonnie Donegan (1956–1969), Petula Clark (1957–1971), the Searchers (1963–1967), the Kinks (1964–1971), Sandie Shaw (1964–1971), Status Quo (1968–1971) and Brotherhoo ...
. However, Brian Burke left the act just a couple of weeks after "Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs" was released on 25 November 1977, citing "family reasons".
Parrott left Oscar after 10 years, and teamed up with Coleman again, in the live act to try to keep up the promotion of "Matchstalk Men", and had to be billed as 'Brian'. The first run of records had already been pressed as Brian and Michael before Burke had left the act.
After their success, Brian and Michael released a follow-up single, "Evensong" (written by Phil Hampson), and an album, ''The Matchstalk Men'', followed by a second album named ''I Can Count My Friends on One Hand''. Backing singers
St Winifred's School Choir
St Winifred's School Choir, from St Winifred's Roman Catholic Primary School in Stockport, England, was a choir of children whose single entitled "There's No One Quite Like Grandma" in 1980 became that year's British Christmas number one singl ...
released an unsuccessful album entitled ''The Matchstalk Children''.
Coleman and Parrott remain in the music industry as songwriters and record producers for themselves and other acts. Other chart success as writers/producers were with "The Sparrow" (The Ramblers, No 11 in 1979), and
Claire and Friends' "It's 'Orrible Being in Love when You're Eight and a Half" (Number 13 in 1986). Coleman also wrote the hit song "Hold My Hand" for
Ken Dodd
Sir Kenneth Arthur Dodd (8 November 1927 – 11 March 2018) was an English comedian, singer and occasional actor. He was described as "the last great music hall entertainer", and was primarily known for his live stand-up performances.
A life ...
.
St Winifred's School Choir had their own number one hit with "
There's No One Quite Like Grandma
"There's No One Quite Like Grandma" was a number-one hit in the UK Singles Chart, by the Stockport-based primary school choir St Winifred's School Choir from 21 December 1980 to 3 January 1981. It was written by Gordon Lorenz.
The song was a Chr ...
" during Christmas time in 1980.
In an article in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' newspaper, Parrott said "we started performing together again in 2002, and are incredibly moved by the reception we get. We did a reunion concert at Manchester's
Lowry Centre with the original St Winifred's girls.
In February 2012, Brian and Michael decided to form a new band and recruited their respective brothers, former
Dooleys drummer Nigel Parrott, and Tim Coleman as lead vocalist. They also added a keyboard player –
The Dakotas
The Dakotas is a collective term for the U.S. states of North Dakota and South Dakota. It has been used historically to describe the Dakota Territory, and is still used for the collective heritage, culture, geography, fauna, sociology, econom ...
keysman, Toni Baker, made several guest appearances – and Ian Jenkins took over the role in 2014.
In 'The Matchstalk Men', Coleman has returned to his bass playing roots, Parrott to his rock guitar style, and the band are performing songs from the two Brian and Michael albums, plus "many of the favourites we grew up with during our 1950s and 1960s formative years".
2015 celebrated 50 years for Kevin Parrott and Mick Coleman as musical colleagues.
Following Tim Coleman's retirement from the band in 2016, the position of lead vocalist with 'The Matchstalk Men' was taken by Steve Pickering (aka comedian Dudley Doolittle), an old friend of Parrot and Coleman's who actually compèred a show at the London Palladium on the night, in 1978, that Brian and Michael topped the bill as 'number one' recording artists.
Ian Jenkins retired from the business in 2017 and his place on keyboards was, once again, filled by Toni Baker.
Discography
Studio albums
* ''The Matchstalk Men'' (1978),
Pye
* ''We Can Count Our Friends on One Hand'' (1979), Pye
Singles
See also
*
List of one-hit wonders on the UK Singles Chart
This is a list of artists who have achieved one number-one hit on the UK Singles Chart and no other entry on the chart. The list uses the strict ''The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles'' definition of "one-hit wonder", a term also commonly used ...
*
List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
This is a list of artists who have reached number one on the UK Singles Chart as recorded by the Official Charts Company.
Artists are listed alphabetically, solo artists are listed by surname and groups are listed by full names excluding "the" o ...
*
List of UK Singles Chart number ones of the 1970s
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
*
List of number-one singles of 1978 (Ireland)
This is a list of singles which have reached number one on the Irish Singles Chart in 1978.
*17 Number Ones
*Most weeks at No. 1 (artist): John Travolta (14), Olivia Newton-John (14)
*Most weeks at No. 1 (song): "You're The One That I Want" - ...
*
List of performers on Top of the Pops
__NOTOC__
This list of performers on ''Top of the Pops'' includes popular music recording artists and musical ensembles who have performed on ''Top of the Pops'', a weekly BBC television programme that featured artists from the UK Singles Char ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brian And Michael
English pop music duos
English folk musical groups
Musical groups from Manchester
Musical groups established in 1978
1978 establishments in England
Folk music duos
Male musical duos
Pye Records artists