Recorded music history: Blues from the Avon Delta
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Blues from the Avon Delta: the Matchbox Blues Story
Nominated for the 2022 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence (Best Historical Research, Blues category).
Blues from the Avon Delta
This is a fellow traveller to Bristol Folk and The Saydisc & Village Thing Discography (also available) and focuses on the Bristol blues scene (with a short history and snapshot of the 1960s national UK blues scene) and the British and American blues records released by Saydisc, Matchbox, Sunflower, Kokomo, Highway 51, Ahura Mazda, Village Thing, Flyright-Matchbox and Matchbox Bluesmaster.
In 1967, the fledgling Bristol-based Saydisc label released its first country blues record - a 7" LP by Anderson Jones Jackson. By 1968, it was helping three ‘pop-up’ DIY blues labels to get to market - Sunflower, Kokomo and Highway 51. These were mere toes in the water and Saydisc soon set up the celebrated Matchbox label to release contemporary British country blues along with pre-war US blues transcribed from rare 78s. Matchbox also pressed the popular Austrian Roots label for the UK market and later issued contemporary American blues and pre-war Library of Congress recordings. Later again came the Bluesmaster Series. In all, Saydisc released well over 100 blues LPs.
By 1968, electric blues was becoming increasingly popular in the UK. In July, however, Matchbox released the first LP showcasing British acoustic blues. The time was right and Blues Like Showers of Rain made a big stir. John Peel played it on his Night Ride radio show and invited most of the artists to record BBC sessions. The major labels picked up on the buzz and most of the artists were snapped up. Matchbox carried on the momentum over the next few years before Saydisc concentrated on other musical styles. Matchbox returned in 1982 with the Bluesmaster Series, an ambitious undertaking resulting in 42 LPs, including two double-LPs to support Paul Oliver's extremely well-received Songsters & Saints book.
Amongst other things, Blues from the Avon Delta includes: information on every Saydisc-related blues record released (and two that never saw light of day) along with images of all relevant record sleeves, including those on Sunflower, Kokomo, Highway 51, Roots and Ahura Mazda; a cameo appearance by The Village Thing label, which represented ‘what came after the blues, British style’; memorabilia provided specially by the label owners and other archives/collections, much not seen in print since the 1960s and 1970s (if ever); active input from those who were there; and a section on Saydisc’s hook-ups with Blues World magazine and November Books’ Blues Paperbacks series.
In 1967, the fledgling Bristol-based Saydisc label released its first country blues record - a 7" LP by Anderson Jones Jackson. By 1968, it was helping three ‘pop-up’ DIY blues labels to get to market - Sunflower, Kokomo and Highway 51. These were mere toes in the water and Saydisc soon set up the celebrated Matchbox label to release contemporary British country blues along with pre-war US blues transcribed from rare 78s. Matchbox also pressed the popular Austrian Roots label for the UK market and later issued contemporary American blues and pre-war Library of Congress recordings. Later again came the Bluesmaster Series. In all, Saydisc released well over 100 blues LPs.
By 1968, electric blues was becoming increasingly popular in the UK. In July, however, Matchbox released the first LP showcasing British acoustic blues. The time was right and Blues Like Showers of Rain made a big stir. John Peel played it on his Night Ride radio show and invited most of the artists to record BBC sessions. The major labels picked up on the buzz and most of the artists were snapped up. Matchbox carried on the momentum over the next few years before Saydisc concentrated on other musical styles. Matchbox returned in 1982 with the Bluesmaster Series, an ambitious undertaking resulting in 42 LPs, including two double-LPs to support Paul Oliver's extremely well-received Songsters & Saints book.
Amongst other things, Blues from the Avon Delta includes: information on every Saydisc-related blues record released (and two that never saw light of day) along with images of all relevant record sleeves, including those on Sunflower, Kokomo, Highway 51, Roots and Ahura Mazda; a cameo appearance by The Village Thing label, which represented ‘what came after the blues, British style’; memorabilia provided specially by the label owners and other archives/collections, much not seen in print since the 1960s and 1970s (if ever); active input from those who were there; and a section on Saydisc’s hook-ups with Blues World magazine and November Books’ Blues Paperbacks series.
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© 2009 - 2024, M. C. Jones, trading as Bristol Folk Publications. The Record Press, Diogenes Academic Press and Burnham Priory are imprints of Bristol Folk Publications.
