Music: Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster

Jeff Hemmings talks to frontman Guy McKnight

“It wasn’t the tour that finished the band, it was the band that finished the tour…” So says Guy McKnight of Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, one of the most successful Brighton bands of recent times. “We had decided beforehand it would be the last tour; any semblance of goodwill, common courtesy and decency towards each other evaporated. It was a polygamous marriage from hell, but it was an experience!”

McKnight is referring to their last tour which took place in 2010, 11 years after they formed. “It’s unbelievable that we started back in 1999, and indeed we are working with our original manager again, Matt Willis. We’re all Brightonians…”

The band have got together with four of their original five members, with two gigs lined up, including a long sold out show at the Electric Ballroom in London, and a date at Concorde 2 in Brighton. “I thought it had died as well, but it was just that incarnation of it. For over a year, me and Andy Huxley (lead guitarist) were talking about getting it back together again… It is volatile, I’m not sure how far in the future we can plan – it would be great to make another album. It was never about fun, it was fate; we had to do it, we couldn’t do anything else… I view it as unfinished business. We’re getting ready, but I wouldn’t say it feels right. And quite frankly, I’ve never been insulted so much over the last few weeks by members of my band… But, someone’s got to do it!” says Guy with a wry smile.

The peculiarly volatile relationships of the band members with each other nevertheless resulted in three critically acclaimed albums, and an intense live show that was considered to be one of the best. Despite never quite reaching the commercial heights many thought inevitable they did manage a substantial cult following. And last year, a year after splitting, the band received an unexpected boost when their track ‘Chicken’ was used in My Time Is Now, a global advert for Nike Football. Not surprisingly ‘Chicken’ has been re-released, but they are working on new material. “Within our midst we do have the capacity to write songs; the problem is keeping the parts in an orderly formation for long enough for them to work together and be of use. I think everyone is irreplaceable…and it’s great to be working with Andy and Marc (Norris, rhythm guitarist), because they both left at different points… they were indispensable.”

Concorde 2, Tuesday 30 October, 7.30pm, £10