Andrew Matheson (musician)

Andrew Matheson is a British-Canadian rock singer, most noted as a founding member of the British proto-punk band Hollywood Brats in the early 1970s.[1] He later released two solo albums, and garnered a Juno Award nomination for Best New Solo Artist at the Juno Awards of 1995.[2]

Sources are in conflict about Matheson's childhood.[3] In Canadian media, he was reported as spending his childhood in the Chelmsford neighbourhood of Sudbury, Ontario before moving to London at age 18,[4] while British sources state that he grew up in Gillingham, Kent as the son of a serviceman in the Royal Navy.[1] He formed Hollywood Brats in 1971.[1] Although championed by Keith Moon and later recognized as an important early punk band which had a significant influence on many of the bands who would later have success with the genre,[3] the band had little commercial success while active and released just one album before breaking up in 1975. Matheson was then involved in the short-lived band London SS.[4]

Matheson released the solo album Monterey Shoes in 1979.[4] He later moved to Toronto, where he released the album Night of the Bastard Moon in 1994[5] and was nominated for Best New Solo Artist at the Junos in 1995.[2] He did not release another album in Canada, and moved back to England sometime after 1995.

In 2015, he published a memoir of the band, Sick On You: The Disastrous Story of Britain's Great Lost Punk Band, named after one of the Hollywood Brats' songs.[1]