It’s one of those clichés, but in Matt Moffitt’s case, it was true. When Matt and his band Matt Finish appeared on the Sydney pub scene in 1979, they were a breath of fresh air. A band seemingly without influences, they played a unique and original form of rock music that was stripped back, propulsive and dynamic. It was hard rock without heaviness and too much testosterone; it was ‘new music’ without the superficial dressings of the day. And it was uniquely melodic. Matt Finish figured out new things to do with bass, drums and guitar, and Matt Moffitt, who formed the band with and co-wrote the material with drummer John Prior, led the way with voice and guitar. 
 
Like their contemporaries Midnight Oil, they bridged the old guard and the new, and the inner city pubs with the suburban beer barns. The life of the band’s classic line-up, which included of the rhythmic and muscular bass playing of Rick Grossman (who’d honed his unique style with Melbourne’s Man & Machine, and who went from Matt Finish to the Divinyls and Hoodoo Gurus), was cut short at the end of 1981, after the release of their much-loved first album Short Note, due to the ill health that ultimately took Matt’s life. But they, Moffitt and Prior, regrouped off and on and make more fine records, and Moffitt continued to work, with the group or with other projects with Prior or Grossman and as a successful solo artist (he based himself in London and in the US at different times in the ‘80s), for the rest of his life.

 
The band’s full story, and all their material (including two sensational multi-disc sets that bring the band’s complete works together), is available on their website. The site is maintained by John Prior, who continues to keep the music of the band he co-created and of his old mate Matt alive with ongoing performances under the Matt Finish name.

This is what John had to say to ILYOS yesterday, on the actual anniversary of Matt’s sudden passing.
 
"Matt Moffitt was one of Australia’s greatest rock stars, greatly loved and now deeply missed by family, friends, bandmates, and fans of Australian rock music. 
 
We started Matt Finish in 1979, wrote a hundred songs and played more than a thousand shows together through the eighties and nineties, during the golden era of live music when commercial media and thousands of live music venues around the country championed new Australian music.
 
You could say Matt’s vocal style was original and distinctive in phrasing and tone, from a whisper to a raw, with funk soul and rock punk influences, delivered in his natural urban Australian accent.
 
But more than that, he had one of those magic voices that cuts through each moment and immediately draws you in with melody, passion, drama, dynamics, and distinct phrasing; and there’s never any doubt about his conviction or commitment; yet he was a mercurial character, a mix of contradictory opposites, which may explain his poetic non-literal lyrical style that’s so open to personal interpretation, and because of his diverse and ever-changing influences and talents as a performer, vocalist, lyricist, composer and guitarist. 
 
We made some wonderful music together and I miss him heaps, especially today, 15 years since he passed away."
 
- John Prior, August 13, 2019
 
Check out some classic Matt Finish performances here...