30 Facts About Iain Matthews

Iain Matthews was born on Ian Matthews MacDonald, 16 June 1946 and is an English musician and singer-songwriter.

Iain Matthews was an original member of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention from 1967 to 1969 before leaving to form his own band, Matthews Southern Comfort, which had a UK number one in 1970 with their cover of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock".

Iain Matthews changed his name to Ian Matthews in 1968 to avoid confusion with Ian McDonald of King Crimson.

Iain Matthews was a member of Fairport Convention during the band's early period when they were heavily influenced by American folk rock and sang on their first three albums before leaving in 1969.

Iain Matthews initially embarked upon a solo career before forming the bands Matthews Southern Comfort and Plainsong.

Iain Matthews' family moved to Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, when he was twelve years old.

Iain Matthews moved to London in the spring of 1965 and took a job in a Carnaby Street shoe shop, Ravel.

In 1969 Iain Matthews recorded his debut solo album, Iain Matthews' Southern Comfort, which was rooted in American country music and rockabilly.

Iain Matthews made the album with ex-Fairport colleagues Richard Thompson, Simon Nicol and Ashley Hutchings, plus guitarist Mark Griffiths, drummers Ray Duffy and Gerry Conway, pedal steel guitarist Gordon Huntley, and keyboardists Dolly Collins and Roger Coulam.

Iain Matthews formed a working band, Matthews Southern Comfort, and released two more albums, Second Spring and Later That Same Year.

Iain Matthews left Southern Comfort and the band released three albums of their own on Harvest Records.

Iain Matthews's albums were not successful, and Matthews moved from Elektra Records to Columbia Records and from Columbia to the small Rockburgh label, where he scored a hit single in 1978 with a cover of Terence Boylan's "Shake It" which reached No 13 on the US charts and No 6 in Canada.

Iain Matthews had a moderately successful follow-up with Robert Palmer's "Give Me an Inch".

Iain Matthews's song "Shake It" is heard at the beginning of the 1980 movie Little Darlings and in the game The Warriors from Rockstar Games.

Iain Matthews was invited to perform as a part of the band at the 1986 Cropredy Festival and this led to an album, Walking a Changing Line on Windham Hill Records, a tribute to Jules Shear of Jules and the Polar Bears.

Iain Matthews moved to Austin, Texas and recorded several albums for a series of German independent labels.

Iain Matthews appeared with Andy Roberts at the 1992 Cambridge Folk Festival, which inspired the first of what became several versions of Plainsong.

In 2000 Iain Matthews moved to Amsterdam, where he became involved in independent music projects and collaborations, including the Sandy Denny tribute band No Grey Faith and another revival of Plainsong.

Since 2003 Iain Matthews has worked with Dutch pianist and composer Egbert Derix.

Iain Matthews invited Derix to join the 2003 tour of his 1970 album If You Saw Thro' My Eyes and they played a series of concerts with Eric Coenen, Arthur Lijten and Ad Vanderveen.

In December 2011, Iain Matthews performed as Iain Matthews Southern Comfort with his Dutch band at the 2nd Great British Folk Festival at Butlins Skegness and performed a set of old and new songs.

Iain Matthews can be heard on Egbert Derix' solo album Paintings in Minor Lila, on which the music of British progressive rock band Marillion is featured.

In 2018 Iain Matthews released an autobiography, Thro' My Eyes: A Memoir.

Clayton was contacted in 2010 by Iain Matthews who had read his book Bringing It all Back Home, described by Record Collector magazine as "one of the best books about popular music ever written".

Iain Matthews described watching and playing football as a boy in Scunthorpe, a failed trial as a potential professional footballer with Bradford Park Avenue, and his life-long love of Manchester United.

Iain Matthews was joined on stage on one night at The Greys in Brighton by former Plainsong bandmate Andy Roberts.

Iain Matthews featured as a guest artist on the following albums, either singing lead vocals, harmony vocals or playing guitar.

Iain Matthews tracks appeared on various Blue Rose Records compilation albums, either as a solo artist, with Plainsong, or with Elliott Murphy.

Unique Iain Matthews tracks appear on several Blue Rose Nuggets compilation albums:.

Iain Matthews tracks appear on some 90 compilation CDs, a listing of which can be found on the Discogs website.