Matchbox

Named after Carl Perkins’ enduring classic, Matchbox ranked among the British rock ’n’ roll revival outfits of the 1970s that successfully moved from local club circuits to national chart success. The group took shape in 1971 when former Contraband members Fred Poke on bass and his brother-in-law Jimmy Redhead decided to form a new band, soon recruiting Poke’s longtime school friend Steve Bloomfield. An exceptionally versatile musician who could handle nearly every stringed instrument, Bloomfield had already built a career as a Pye Records session player and appeared on multiple Mungo Jerry recordings. Their first single surfaced on Dawn in 1973; Redhead’s exit shortly afterward produced a lineup featuring Wiffle Smith on vocals, Rusty Lipton on piano, Bob Burgos on drums, Bloomfield on guitars, and Poke on bass. The band next cut Riders In The Sky for Charly, having earlier issued a Dutch-only album through Rockhouse. Smith and Lipton subsequently left, prompting the arrival of Gordon Waters, who had previously fronted the Cruisers. A modest label financed the rapid sessions for Setting The Woods On Fire, completed in slightly more than two days during October 1977, yet financial collapse forced the nearly insolvent company to hand distribution duties to Chiswick. Complications mounted after Matchbox simultaneously aligned with Raw Records, which released a single; Chiswick withheld promotion because the band held no contract with them, while Raw refused support since it lacked ownership of the album. Desperate to escape the impasse, the musicians purchased their release and inked a fresh deal with Magnet. By then vocalist Graham Fenton—previously of the Wild Bunch, the Houseshakers, and the Hellraisers—had joined, Redhead had returned, and Gordon Scott had been added on guitar. Magnet’s inaugural single “Black Slacks” failed to chart, yet the follow-up, Steve Bloomfield’s original “Rockabilly Rebel,” reached the hit parade, launching a sequence of successful singles. Another personnel shift occurred when Bloomfield opted to stop touring, bringing Dick Callan in for live work. Outside their Matchbox releases, the group issued a cover of Freddie Cannon’s “Palisades Park” under the name Cyclone, while Bloomfield himself put out the solo album Rockabilly Originals. Internationally the act operates under the name Major Matchbox.