Matthias

Hailing from Williams Lake, BC, Matthias started making the rounds in 1973 on the BC b-club circuit playing mostly British covers (Stones, David Bowie, Mott The Hoople).

The band originally formed with Doug Campbell on bass and vocals, Rick Blackwood on guitar and Ken Leckie on drums. A few years later guitarist Richard Loubert joined the group on guitar and brought in bassist Pierre Dube’ (ex of Quebec’s Echomen, Bobby Day and the Moonlighters) while Doug took over frontman duties. After a period Pierre left the group and frontman Alan Gleerup (ex of Flyte) joined the group with Doug jumping back on bass guitar.

As Matthias expanded their horizons and worked their way across western Canada, they began writing their own material and working it into their set lists. The attention they were getting led to a management deal with Bruce Allen and Feldman & Associates.

By the time they’d recorded some demos at The Machine Shop in Edmonton, they’d become one of the most sought after groups on the circuit. Their list of notable concerts doing warm up for Chilliwack at a concert in Williams Lake in ’77 and Sweeney Todd at 100 Mile House later that year, just prior to Nick Gilder leaving the group. They were also on the bill at the Strawberry Hill Outdoor Festival that year, which featured some of BC’s other top up and coming groups including Sweeney Todd, Danny Tripper, Spitfire, Holy Smoke, Brass Tower,