The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster were such a thrilling, chaotic band that there was no way they could’ve stayed together and had a long, cosy, illustrious career. They were too exciting for that. This one had to end in implosion. But they left behind some excellent music. Their sound, which blended psychobilly, desert-rock riffs and punky blasts, was best executed on their first two records, 2002’s Hörse Of The Dög and 2004’s The Royal Society. There are some very sharp diamonds in there, in particular the band’s rampaging 2002 single Celebrate Your Mother. Would you like to hear the tale of how it was made? Great, you’re in the right place because, a few years ago, the group’s mercurial frontman Guy McKnight told this writer how it came together.
“We were lucky to be able to really capture something, an energy. We’ve got older but the songs haven’t,” he said. “The first thing that goes through my mind when I think back to making the record is carnage. Carnage, guilt, guilt trips and probably not enough LSD trips. Around 1998 and ‘99, I’d been getting into drugs because, for better or worse, I was growing up around alcoholism and addiction at home. I’ve heard it said that your dad can be your dad or he can be your friend but he can’t be both and my dad was my friend. But he happened to be going through some hard times. He condoned my drug taking, he allowed it, put it that way, but perhaps he would rather know where I was, at home getting high than being in the streets, even though we were doing that too. But anyway, it was too much too young and I really made myself suffer, got into a bad place and it affected my mental health massively, but he and I were both in denial about it.”
