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 r ...

". Without further chart entries, they remain one-hit wonders 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 '':wikt:soul, soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The ea ...

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 "

", 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, 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 1 ...

. 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 ...

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 also ...

. 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 1,40 ...

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 no ...

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 Brothe ...

. 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 Claire and Friends were an English music group, consisting of schoolgirl Claire Usher and her friends, from St Winifred's Roman Catholic Primary School in Stockport. Their one hit single was with the novelty record "It's 'Orrible Being in Love ( ...

' "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 Ch ...

" during Christmas time in 1980. In an article in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' 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, econo ...

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

References

External links