Matching Mole
An English prog-rock band, associated with the Canterbury Scene, Matching Mole was formed in 1971 by Robert Wyatt after his departure from Soft Machine ("Matching Mole" is a pun, an Anglicization of the French term for soft machine - "machine molle"). Wyatt recruited Phil Miller from Delivery on guitar, Bill MacCormick on bass (the two had known each other for a number of years, their mothers being friends), and Dave Sinclair from Caravan on keyboards.
Their first LP, Matching Mole, was released in April 1972, after which Dave Sinclair left, being replaced by Dave MacRae, who had guested on the first LP. A second LP, Matching Mole's Little Red Letter, was recorded, and released in late 1972, by which time the band had already broken up, having lasted just some 11 months, made two LPs and done one tour supporting Soft Machine.
In 1973 a new line up (Wyatt and MacCormick, with Francis Monkman, ex-Curved Air keyboardist, and jazz saxophonist Gary Windo) was put together with a view to recording a third album, but Robert Wyatt's terrible accident in June 1973, a fall from the fourth-floor of a London town house, left him paralysed from the waist down and unable to ever drum again.
The longevity data for the original line-up is shown below.
Key statistics
Average DOB: 5 October 1949
Current average age (at 3 November 2017): 68 years 1 month
Key statistics
Average DOB: 5 October 1949
Current average age (at 3 November 2017): 68 years 1 month
Data on the other members of Matching Mole:
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Dave MacRae, born 2 April 1940 in New Zealand, currently resides in Australia
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Francis Monkman, born 9 June 1949, returned to classical music and composing in 1980
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Gary Windo, born 7 November 1941, with a prodigious career both inside and outside jazz, died of an asthma attack in New York on 25 July 1992