The Matadors

Czech psychedelic garage rock and rhythm’n’blues group, formed in early 1965. The classic line-up broke up in summer 1968 with the departure of Viktor Sodoma, Jan F. Obermayer and Radim Hladík. Otto Bezloja and Tony Black with new members then secured a prestigious gig in Munich, West Germany: in 1968–1969 they worked as the backing band for the German version of musical “Haare (Hair)”, under Hanus Berka’s musical direction. In Germany, they were sometimes also credited as “The Broadway Matadors”. The nucleus of the last incarnation then formed Emergency in 1970.
Since the mid-1970s two Matadors tracks were also repeatedly unofficially released in Germany under the name “Steve Cannings”.
In the 2000s the group has partially reunited, still occasionally performing as a “special guest” of Radim Hladík’s The Blue Effect as of 2010.