Baby this is Rock`n' Roll
Matchbox strike it lucky in the States, meet the Phantom Flan Flinger on Tiswas and Graham makes a friend for life in Charlie Gracie
Coming into the spring of 1980 there were lots of surprises in store for Matchbox. Our US label Sire Records, who were a part of Warner Brothers, had released our first album that came out on Magnet as well as the single Rockabilly Rebel. Next, Sire wanted us to do a North American tour. The label’s boss was the legendary Seymour Stein, the man who’d signed all manner of huge acts including Talking Heads, Ramones and Madonna. Stein arranged for some of his people to meet us to get plans under way. We all gathered at the Holiday Inn Hotel at Heathrow Airport where plans were hatched for a three-week tour of the US and Canada in May 1980.
We were due to kick o in Dallas before moving on to Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, including a date at the famous Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood. There were also a further two dates in Canada as well as several appearances on various radio stations. It was hugely exciting for us, I’d always wanted to go to the States.
In the meantime we kept busy closer to home by performing on Top Of The Pops and several other TV shows in Spain and Switzerland. And there were, of course, plenty of live gigs elsewhere in Europe. We were busy boys. Also, we discovered that Rockabilly Rebel had made it to No.1 in New Zealand and Australia so there was talk of further tours Down Under, too.
In the UK, Magnet were working on the promotion of our second single release, a cover of Freddy Cannon’s song Buzz Buzz A-Diddle-It. The track was starting to get lots of airplay on many of the top radio stations including Radio Luxembourg. DJs like ‘The Royal Ruler’ Tony Prince and David ‘Kid’ Jensen were getting onboard. We even had Dave Dee, formerly of Dave Dee,
Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich as one of our A&R men. I went round various record shops doing promotion for the single with Dave. He was a really nice guy and I got on well with him. Dave really was just like one of the boys and certainly had some stories to tell from his days as a pop star in the 60s. In fact, when he was 18 and before he got into the music business he was a police cadet. It was while he was a policeman that he attended the fatal car accident in Chippenham in 1960 in which Eddie Cochran died. Years later I toured with Gene Vincent, and he also reflected back on the fateful night that claimed the life of his friend.
CREATING A BUZZ
Buzz Buzz A-Diddle-It was getting so much airplay that we qualified once again for an appearance on Top Of The Pops so trooped o for yet another trip to BBC TV Centre.
We also appeared on a bunch of kids TV shows including Get It Together and Tiswas, the latter of which was particularly good fun. It was a really anarchic show that helped launch the careers of Chris Tarrant, Lenny Henry and Sally James.
And how could we forget the Phantom Flan Flinger, a mysterious figure all dressed in black who’d wander round the studio shoving custard pies in people’s faces!
We’d continue our travels around Europe to perform on TV shows with the likes of Motörhead, The Police, The Pretenders, Kim Wilde and on one
occasion, Freddy Cannon himself. Freddy was a nice guy and we hit it o immediately. He became a really good friend of mine.
The US tour was fantastic. Flying into Houston on Pan American, the weather was incredible. And we couldn’t believe just how cheap the food and drink was there – you could get a steak dinner for a couple of dollars. Among the highlights was a show at Gilley’s Club in Pasadena. The place was co-owned by country star Mickey Gilley, cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis. It’s since become famous as the location for the movie Urban Cowboy, starring John Travolta and Debra Winger. They used to call it the ‘largest honky tonk in the world’, a real country-style kind of place and the famous electric bull that featured in the movie was there for us to ride if we dared. The club was just like it was in the movie. In fact, our US tour was like seeing all those images we’d seen growing up back home on the small and big screens come to life.
IN THE DRIVING SEAT
I had several classic American cars over the years so, whenever I had a bit of free time, my friend and agent Paul Barrett would give me some driving jobs picking up legendary US musicians when they were touring the UK and taking them to hotels or venues.
I first met Charlie Grace in the mid-70s but it was much later in 1985 that I really got to know him. Paul asked me to drive Charlie as well as his wife Joan and daughter Angela around Birmingham. You could always count on Charlie. Case in point was on that trip – while travelling on the motorway I got a flat tyre. Before I could even get out of the car, Charlie had taken his jacket o , rolled up his sleeves and was rummaging around in the boot looking for the spare wheel. “You don’t have to do that!” I pleaded with Charlie, to which Joan replied “No, he’s your friend.” The Gracies were such a nice family – they stayed with me at my home on the Isle of Wight while I stayed with them at theirs in Philadelphia. We also played numerous gigs together including Las Vegas. Charlie was such a lovely person and we remained close for the rest of his life. ✶
“While on the motorway I got a flat tyre. Before I could get out of the car, Charlie had taken his jacket off, rolled up his sleeves and was rummaging around in the boot looking for the spare.”