Fags ‘n’ Matches back with a buffet of hits at The Maybury

THEY were off the radar for a long time but since their comeback two years ago, legendary local band Fags ‘n’ Matches have proved a big draw at the Maybury Casino.
Fags 'n' MatchesFags 'n' Matches
Fags 'n' Matches

More than 50 years after they first appeared there, when it was called at the Maybury Roadhouse, the band that formed in the mid-sixties and won the Evening News Search for a Star talent contest in 1972, return on 2 March for An Evening With Fags ‘n’ Matches.

“It’s a place really special to us and with singer John Millar approaching 80 it would be great to have a full house,” says keyboard player Ed Logan.

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“The evening is a real laugh, almost like a house party with your friends, joking, dancing and a buffet.”

The evening is typical of the current resurgence of interest in the Capital’s bands of the Sixties with bands such as The Hipple People, This ‘n’ That and Fayne & The Cruisers also making a comeback in recent months.

Recalling Fags ‘n’ Matches finest moment, however, when they won the grand prize at the Evening News talent search, a Caribbean Cruise presented to them by Opportunity Knocks host Hughie Green, bassist Roy Martin, once recalled: “It was a great thing at that time. We reached the final the year before but we didn’t get placed anywhere and we thought we’d give it another go and we came up trumps.

“It was a great feeling, I remember it was packed and we had quite a noisy support in the audience.

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“They announced the third place, then second, and we thought we’d lost out again, and then they said, ‘This year’s winners are Fags ’n’ Matches. After that everybody was jumping around like they’d scored in the cup final.”

Some 47 years later, they’re still going strong.

“We are just old musicians wanting to play and have fun, with a few quid for a curry night out after the gigs,” says Logan.

Fags ‘n’ Matches, Maybury Casino, 2 March, £15, 0131-338 4444