released an unsuccessful album entitled The Matchstalk Children. Coleman and Parrott remain in the music industry as songwriters and record producers for themselves and other acts. Other chart success as writers/producers were with "The Sparrow" (The Ramblers, No 11 in 1979), and Claire and Friends' "It's 'Orrible Being in Love when You're Eight and a Half" (Number 13 in 1986). Coleman also wrote the hit song "Hold My Hand" for Ken Dodd. St Winifred's School Choir had their own number one hit with "There's No One Quite Like Grandma" during Christmas time in 1980. In an article in The Guardian newspaper, Parrott said "we started performing together again in 2002, and are incredibly moved by the reception we get. We did a reunion concert at Manchester's Lowry Centre with the original St Winifred's girls. In February 2012, Brian and Michael decided to form a new band and recruited their respective brothers, former Dooleys drummer Nigel Parrott, and Tim Coleman as lead vocalist. They also added a keyboard player – The Dakotas keysman, Toni Baker, made several guest appearances – and Ian Jenkins took over the role in 2014. In 'The Matchstalk Men', Coleman has returned to his bass playing roots, Parrott to his rock guitar style, and the band are performing songs from the two Brian and Michael albums, plus "many of the favourites we grew up with during our 1950s and 1960s formative years". 2015 celebrated 50 years for Kevin Parrott and Mick Coleman as musical colleagues. Following Tim Coleman's retirement from the band in 2016, the position of lead vocalist with 'The Matchstalk Men' was taken by Steve Pickering (aka comedian Dudley Doolittle), an old friend of Parrot and Coleman's who actually compèred a show at the London Palladium on the night, in 1978, that Brian and Michael topped the bill as 'number one' recording artists. Ian Jenkins retired from the business in 2017 and his place on keyboards was, once again, filled by Toni Baker. Discography Studio albums The Matchstalk Men (1978), Pye We Can Count Our Friends on One Hand (1979), Pye Singles See also List of one-hit wonders on the UK Singles Chart List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart List of UK Singles Chart number ones of the 1970s List of number-one singles of 1978 (Ireland) List of performers on Top of the Pops References External links English pop