MILESAGO - Groups & Solo Artists
| THE CAPTAIN MATCHBOX WHOOPEE BAND
Melbourne, 1969-1980 |
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PERSONNEL
Jim Conway (harmonica,kazoo, vocals)
with: Tony Burkys (guitar) 1978-79
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| HISTORY |
| If asked to name the most entertaining and best-loved Australian band of
the early '70s, it's a fair bet that most people who lived through that period would
nominate The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band. This crazily brilliant Melbourne-based
ensemble played a uniquely Aussie brand of jug-band blues, spiced with jazz, swing,
popular standards, cabaret, SIDEshow alley schtick and vaudeville routines including
slapstick, tap dancing, juggling, magic and even fire eating.
An obvious and common comparison would be England's Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, but it would be quite wrong to label Matchbox as mere copyists. The Conway brothers were born into a family with strong background in music and popular entertainment, particularly vaudeville theatre and opera -- their grandfather was an original vaudevillean, and their Aunt Lyla was a dancer on the famed Tivoli circuit. As related in the documentary film THE JIM CONWAY BLUES, Mic and Jim’s father (a wool buyer) tried to dissuade his children from the uncertainty of a musical career, to no avail. The greasepaint obviously ran in the veins of his illustrious scions; as well as Mic and Jim’s well-known exploits, their sister Janie is also a noted musician whose credits including the late '70s Melbourne new wave band Stiletto with Jane Clifton. As teenagers at Melbourne’s Camberwell High School, Mic and Jim formed the forerunner to Matchbox, The Jellybean Jug Band and entered the school's annual talent quest "for a laugh" but they annihilated the competition, as this former CHS student recalls: "I remember standing in the packed gym, watching the Jelly Bean Jug Band -- with Mic on ukelele, washboard and the whisky keg (filled with jelly beans which were thrown at the audience after the performance! Jim played the kazoo and harmonica (and later became Australia's best proponent of that instrument) The whole gym erupted into cheers when they won the event ... we all knew they were talented and SO different. Jug band music in 1969 was a new sound to us. When they evolved later into Captain Matchbox, their first album, Wangaratta Wahine was the most popular LP around. It was everywhere. I still treasure my copy. A glimpse of these early days (featured in the Jim Conway documentary) was captured on film by their neighbour and fellow CHS student Chris Löfvén, who went on to be a pioneer of Australian music video. Chris made the classic film-clips for Spectrum’s I’ll Be Gone and Daddy Cool’s Eagle Rock in 1971, and directed the cult road 1976 movie OZ. After high school Mic and Jim founded their first professional band, The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band, which centred throughout its life on the Conway brothers. Their inspirations came from their family background in vaudeville, and in particular from Mic’s fascination with the family collection of vintage 78rpm records of music by Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton and other classics of jazz, swing and “hot” music. In a recent interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Mic also named American satirical composer Tom Lehrer as one of his musical idols. Captain Matchbox emerged at a time when there was a vogue for these styles and they were contemporary with similar local acts such as The 69-ers, Starving Wild Dogs, The Original Battersea Heroes, The Gutbucket Blues Band, The Stovepipe Spasm Band and The Moonshine Jug and String Band (which later evolved into The Angels). Billed as “Australia’s loudest jug band”, the unique, irreverent Matchbox style was a hit on the theatrically inclined Melbourne underground scene and they became a regular attraction at venues like the TF Much Ballroom and the Thumpin' Tum, alongside acts such as Spectrum, Daddy Cool and Jeff Crozier. Their popularity with so-called “head” audiences was doubtless enhanced by their repertoire, which was liberally spiked with covers of classic jazz and blues numbers that contained thinly-veiled dope references -- songs like Smoke Dreams, If Youse A Viper, That Cat Is High and My Canary Has Circles Under His Eyes.
An early photo of a four-piece lineup of Captain Matchbox on stage
at Melbourne’s Thumpin’ Tum disco ca 1971, possibly prior to the arrival of Jim Niven and Peter Scott.
The violinist at left is unknown.
Their first mainstream exposure came through an appearance in Tim Burstall's 1971 film STORK, starring Bruce Spence and Jackie Weaver. During the year they also performed in Sydney at The Yellow House, the famous multimedia gallery/performance space set up by artist Martin Sharp, which operated during 1970-71. The band signed to Image Records in 1972 and issued their debut single My Canary Has Circles Under His Eyes, which was a Top 40 hit in Melbourne in November. During the year their TF Much Ballroom act was immortalised (in colour) by film maker Peter Weir in his short documentary Three Directions In Australian Pop Music, which also featured performances by Spectrum and Wendy Saddington & Teardrop. Matchbox also featured in an episode of interview with GTK reporter Jeune Pritchard which included a live-in-the-studio performance of Mobile Line. In June/July of 1972 Captain Matchbox supported folk legend Phil Ochs on his first tour of Australia. Their next single I Can't Dance (Got Ants in My Pants)/Jungle Dance came out in April 1973 and their debut album Smoke Dreams was released in June. The album was comprised entirely of 1930s and 1940s jazz, blues and jug-band standards. The lineup for these recordings was Mic (vocals, washboard, ukelele), Jim (harmonica, kazoo, vocals), Dave Hubbard (guitar), Peter Inglis (guitar, vocals), Peter Scott (tea chest bass), Mick Fleming (banjo, mandolin, guitar, vocals) and Jim Niven (piano, pedal organ). Image licensed the album to the ESP label for release in the USA, where it was also issued in Quadraphonic, and in this format it has evidently become something of a cult item with overseas collectors. By November 1973 the line-up had changed to the Conway brothers, Jimmy Niven and Mick Fleming with new members Geoff Hales, Fred Olbrei and Dave Flett (ex-Lipp and The Double Dekker Brothers, Armadillo). Jon Snyder (guitar) joined at the beginning of 1974, and their next single Your Feets Too Big came out in February 1974, followed by their inimitable version of the classic Hernando's Hideaway in July. The B-SIDE Wait For Me Juanita, written by Mic and Dave Flett, was one of the band's first original compositions to be released. Another Conway–Flett song, Wangaratta Wahine, became the title track to and single from the band's breakthrough second album, which came out at the end of 1974. It featured the classic cover design by cartoonist Michael Leunig which won the award for Album Cover of the Year in 1974. Assisted by their memorable first appearance on COUNTDOWN, performing Wangaratta Wahine, the album had reached #4 on the national charts by August 1975. During 1975, Fleming and Hales left to be replaced by Chris Worral (ex-Pelaco Brothers) and Manny Paterakis (a former member of Armadillo with Dave Flett and The Ferrets’ Bill Miller). Mushroom signed the band after their Image contract expired and they issued the single Australia in October 1975 and the album Australia. Another “entertaining mix of originals and covers” the album included songs like Cocaine Habit, Sweeny Todd the Barber and Noel Coward's classic 20th Century Blues. In keeping with the band's loopy sense of humour, the album credits listed Mic as "Microphone" Conway and Worral as "Christmas" Worral. There were more line-up changes in 1976 with Jack Sara replacing Olbrei, Graeme Isaac replacing Paterakis, Gordon McLean replacing Worral, and Jimmy Niven leaving to join the newly formed Sports. The band's old label, Image, issued the perennial compilation album Making Whoopee (October 1976), which featured alternate versions of some of the best tracks from the first two LPs. Captain Matchbox had a long association with the theatrical scene centred on the Australian Performing Group and Melbourne’s La Mama and Pram Factory theatres, and in late 1976 the two forces quite naturally combined as a new performing outfit, The Soapbox Circus. By this time Flett had left (he went on to a stint in Redgum in 1980s) and two new members, Peter Mulheisen (bass) and Rick Ludbrook (guitar, sax) had joined. The new group recorded the live album The Great Stumble Forward, the single If I Can't Hav-Anna in Cuba / Chiropodist Shop, and appeared in the play Smackin' The Dacks. In 1978 Soapbox Circus became the now world famous Circus Oz, of which Mic was a founding member. By 1978 the band was known simply as Matchbox with the line-up now comprising Mic, Jim, Ludbrook, Mulheisen, McLean, Tony Burkys (guitar; ex-Original Battersea Heroes) and Stephen Cooney (guitar, later of Redgum), who was replaced by Louis McManus (ex-Bushwackers). Matchbox released the Slightly Troppo album, and the singles Sleep (June 1978) and Love is Like a Rainbow (January 1979), as well as making an appearance in Tim Burstall's 1979 feature film version of the Jack Hibberd play DIMBOOLA. By mid-1979, the line-up of the Conways, McManus and Mulheissen had been augmented by Robert Ross (drums, ex-Manning), Eric McCusker (guitar) and Chris Coyne (sax, flute). That version of the band introduced a more rock-oriented sound, but it lasted only about a year; McCusker left to join Ross Wilson's Mondo Rock and was replaced briefly by Peter Martin, but by September 1980 the band had broken up. Under the name The Matchbox Band, this final lineup group released one last recording, an independent single, Juggling Time / Dirty Money. AFTER MATCHBOX ... The Conway brothers’ next project was The Hotsie Totsie Band in 1981, Carnival in 1983 and The Conway Brothers Hiccups Orchestra in 1984. Carnival comprised Mic, Jim, Palz (lead vocals), the erstwhile Jimmy Niven (ex-Sports), Kim Cook (guitar), Kim Constable (bass; ex-Ratbags of Rhythm) and Warwick Kent (drums; ex-Ratbags of Rhythm). The Hiccups Orchestra issued a self-titled album on Larrikin in 1987 mixed Thirties and Forties standards with contemporary satire, and they released the song Choo Choo Ch' Boogie as a single. After the Hiccups Orchestra folded in 1988, the Conway brothers pursued separate careers, Jim with The Backsliders and Mic with Mic Conway's Whoopee Band in 1989. Although reportedly "ordered" to learn harmonica by Mic in the founding days of Matchbox, Jim soon developed into one of the most accomplished and respected blues harmonica players this country has ever produced, and his stature influence is openly acknowledged by younger players like Chris Wilson. Over the years he has toured with blues legends like Brownie McGhee and he is recognised worldwide as one of the masters of his craft. In the late ‘80s Jim was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). It As documented in Victor Carson’s superb documentary The Jim Conway Blues (1999) Jim manages the disease with grace and good humour, and despite being largely wheelchair-bound these days, he continues to play, notably with his longtime colleagues The Backsliders, and with Tim Gaze & The Blues Doctors.
The irrepressible Jim in THE JIM CONWAY BLUES The Backsliders comprises Jim (harmonica), Peter Burgess (drums; ex-Stumblers) and Dom Turner (guitar, vocals; ex-Stumblers), and in recent years the band has featured guest players including Midnight Oil’s Rob Hirst. The group’s hardcore acoustic blues and R&B style has a strong following; they are regulars at music festivals around the country and have released seven albums to date: Preachin' Blues (1988), Sittin' on a Million (1989), Hellhound (1991), Live at the Royal (1992), Wide Open (1995) and the ten-year collection Downtime (1998). Their most recent CD Poverty Deluxe features performances by American blues artist Roy Bookbinder and Cold Chisel’s Don Walker and cover art by the legendary Martin Sharp. The Backsliders’ music gained considerable national exposure when three tracks were featured on the soundtrack of the ABC’s hit series Sea Change and the subsequent compilation CD of music from the series. Jim has also cut one excellent CD with the Blues Doctors, Blues Licence. Mic Conway is one of Australia's finest performers and continues to delight Australians with his inimitable brand of musical lunacy. He performs for both adult and child audiences and has appeared widely on TV and film, with credits including THE COCA COLA KID, MOLLY, VIETNAM, PLAY SCHOOL, TRUE STORIES, MR. SQUIGGLE, HOUSE OF FUN, VAUDEVILLE, COME IN SPINNER, THE WIGGLES MOVIE and HUMPHREY BEAR. His theatre credits include THE THREE PENNY OPERA for The Sydney Theatre Company and BLOSSOMS AND WRINKLES for the One Extra Dance Company. Mic won an ARIA award for his ABC album Whoopee, and he has recorded and co-written numerous CDs, radio shows, TV scripts and children's theatre productions. Mic has twice organised the First National Jug Orchestra where some fifty players from different bands were organized into sections (jug section, washboard section), each on its own big band-style rostrum, which played en masse, with Mic doing his famous fire eating act as part of every performance. Most recently Mic formed The National Junk Band, successfully touring their unique mixture of "juggling, tap-dancing, highly infectious music, hilarious jokes, dazzling magic tricks, fire-eating and much clowning around” and they have recorded two CDs to date: Kitchen Sink Music and 21st Century Sink. Matchbox has numerous links to political folk-rock band Redgum. Four ex-Matchbox members -- Stephen Cooney, Dave Flett, Louis McManus and Gordon McLean -- served in that band at various times in the late '70s and early '80s. Louis McManus was also a member of Noel’s Cowards, the 1988 novelty project put together by Split Enz/Schnell Fenster percussionist Noel Crombie. Eric McCusker (a one-time student of Blackfeather guitarist John Robinson) went on to enormous success as guitarist and songwriter in Ross Wilson’s Mondo Rock, penning their 1981 hit State Of The Heart, which was also successfully covered in the U.S. by Rick Springfield. In 2001 the Long Way to The Top web forum carried this communiqué from Eric: "I'm alive and well and living in Melbourne still enthused and
productive and up to my ears in music. In the last decade I've been parental as
anything with two kids Mike and Molly aged 8 and 5. Among other things I
taught music business at the Northern TAFE and worked for the Board of
Studies here as a music examiner for 3 or 4 weeks of the year. I have also
been a director of APRA for 10 years. But my main thing remains writing
songs and playing guitars and doing gigs. I'm in a fantastic band at the
moment called "Wolfgram" with 3 Wolfgramm sisters currently
playing Tuesday nights at the Evelyn Hotel in Fitzroy. We are madly
writing and rehearsing songs for an album we are hoping to record early
next year. I've also been doing a few gigs with Ross Wilson this year and
there are more of those coming up between now and the end of the year to
promote his new retrospective album "Now Listen". This year has
been really productive, I've written 9 or 10 songs already, some for other
people, others for an album I would like to record next year. There have
been a few mutterings amongst the Mondo Rock band members about us getting
together and doing something next year too. We'll see what happens. Peter Muhleisen recently contected MILESAGO and passed on some invaluable extra information about the Matchbox lineups, and an update on what some of the members did later: "Graeme Isaac (1976-7) went on to make the movie
Wrong Side Of The Road. After the 1980 breakup Peter Martin, Chris Coyne
and I went off to form the Nighthawks with Sam Linton-Smith and Chris Pascoe from
the Honeydrippers, Paul Hitchens from the Sports and Jane Clifton for a year or two.
I also later played with the Rock Doctors, the 'rock and roll' Falcons retrenched by
Joe Camilleri in his disco phase (he took Coyne and Clifton)."
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| DISCOGRAPHY |
| SINGLES as The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band: Nov. 1972
Apr. 1973
Feb. 1974
Jul. 1974
? 1974
Wangaratta Wahine / (unknown) Oct. 1975
Australia / Christopher Columbus as Soapbox Circus ? 1977
as Matchbox Jun. 1978
Jan. 1979
as The Matchbox Band 1980
EPs 1973
ALBUMS as The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band ... 1973 1974
[front
cover] [back
cover] [inside
left] [inside
right]
Tony Dunn: 2nd jug on Jug Band Music 1975
1976 NOTE: all tracks except
Hernando's Hideaway are alternate takes, with some studio dialogue left in. as Soapbox Circus 1976
as Matchbox: 1978
CDs The Mushroom Story: The Hits Of The Seventies Aussie Come On: Australian
Essential Classics Vol. 1
Making Whoopee
2CD compilation of 'Smoke Dreams' and Wangaratta Wahine' 2002
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| REFERENCES / LINKS |
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Many thanks to Michael Hunter for additional discographical information and to Peter Mulheisen for his invaluable additional information and dates for the members of the later lineups, and their post-Matchbox exploits. Chessmoves - Camberwell High School Ex-Students Society
ABC website
Jim Conway article Ian McFarlane
Australian Rock Database
Jim Conway official website Backsliders official website
Mic Conway’s National Junk Band
Mic Conway official website
Tim Gaze: Tim’s Music Shack
Jug Band Rag: Making Whoopee review
Manny Paterakis website
Jonathan Pearlman
Real audio clip of Who Walks In When I Walk Out
from Smoke Dreams
Skyhooks website
The Films of Peter Weir – Three Directions In Australian Pop Music
Vernon Joyson
Nancy Street - Music - Album Covers Collection
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