Spent more than a few hours working on Cloudberry stuff. Writing the insert for the BV’s upcoming 7″ and working on the art for two upcoming retrospectives on the Cloudberry Kitchen series. And also I will, after writing this post, get on writing an interview for a classic band from the mid/late 80s. But I’m having a bit of trouble coming up for questions, other than the obvious ones. I need some vacations soon. I’ve been very busy at work. And also have been seeing friends and family visiting New York, so I haven’t had much time in my hands for the past month. Things are moving a bit slower than I want.  But still, the good thing is that things go forward. That’s what’s important.

I have a few finds for this weekend of course.

La Internacional Pesmista / Las Cosas que Dejamos: Stupid Decisions is an online Mexican label and has put up a two song split by La Internacional Pesimista (Mexico) and Las Cosas que Dejamos (Argentina). The songs are “No Hay Pop” and “Playas”. Never heard any of these bands so will need to have a good look at their respective Bandcamps.

San Charbel: another song on this Mexican netlabel is the newest track by San Charbel from Mexico. I have recommended this band in the past so it is no surprise I’m enjoying this new song “Siempre Te Admiré”. The Bandcamp says this is the first single for the new record the band is working on.

Cacao Reading Club: “Sixteen” is the online single this Ukrainian band has put together for the label Dobryi Records from Kiev. Any money out of this song will be going to support social, cultural, ecological projects at Big Idea, Ukraine. That’s a nice thing. And also a good thing is listening this lovely bedroom pop track.

Spiera: some dreamy pop from Canton in Ohio. There are the first four songs that appear by this band on Bandcamp. Sadly there is absolutely no information about who are the people behind it. But there are four songs as I mentioned, “Vertigo”, “Reach”, “Float” and “Changes”. Worth checking them out.

Rémi Parson: the new album by our French friend is out now. It is called “Arrière-Pays” and it is out now on ISOLAA records. I’m sharing a video for the song “Le Petit Jour” as I couldn’t find a Bandcamp or something similar, but there is a link with all of the digital platforms if that’s your thing. In any case, the video is fantastic and I see familiar places in it, making me nostalgic of course of the days of The Sunny Street and concerts in London. Oh. It’s been such a long time since I’ve visited. I’m not sure if the record is available yet in physical format, but as soon as I know I’ll let you know. The good thing is that it is sounding great.

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Let’s take a time warp to 1984. To the United Kingdom. Somewhere in England? Perhaps. That is not clear as I write the first lines of this post. I don’t know anything about Accent. Nor I own the only 7″ they released that year. This will be a proper indiepop archaeology dig.

They put out their record on Motion Records with the catalog Motion 111. It looks, according to Discogs, that this is the only release on this label. It kind of sounds as it was a self-release. There are no other clues there.

We do know that two songs were included in the record, “We Are Lost” on the A side, and “(Intro) Blue & Royal Line” on the B side. I’ve never had the chance to listen to the B side. The A side is brilliant. And that’s what matters. Happily the sleeve offers some more information.

The sleeve has on the front a great purple tinted photo, with a bunch of kids, having fun. The back is blue with what looks like a story (or maybe the lyrics for the B side?) and a drawing of a turnip (or a raddish? I’m not very good with vegetables). But we do find out here that the two songs were recorded at Abbey Road and produced by Tony Clark. The band thanks a Robin Yates and we know the first song was published by Patch Music.

But best of all we find the band members names: Brian Rydell (vocals), Mick Robinson (guitar), Steve Flynn (bass) and Chris Munday (drums). We also know that “We Are Lost” was written by Robinson and Rydell.

A comment on Discogs mentions that the band had a very large following in London. Does this mean they hailed from the capital of England? Or close-by? Let’s keep investigating.

Discogs lists Brian Rydell as a solo artist too, releasing a 7″ single with the songs “The Passage” and “Orchestration” released in 1987 on Aria Records. On the credits for the songs we see again the names Rydell and Robinson. This is going to be a lot of help!

Indeed, my hunch is right. On this same label, Aria, there is a band called Turquoise Blue who released two records. Guess what. Turquoise Blue are Brian and Mick making synth pop! And they even cover “We Are Lost”. First they would release in 1986 the 7″ single “In the End/In the End (Instrumental)” and afterwards the “We Are Lost” 7″ and 12″! The 7″ including “We Are Lost” and “We Are Lost (Instrumental)” while the 12″ had the same tracklist but an extended version of the original on the A side. The song is a bit different to the Accent one, there are more arrangements, like there is a cello now, or female backing vocals! Still it is as enjoyable as the original! There would also be a re-release of the 12″ with two new remixes of the song, a “New Mix” and the “Original Orchestration” mixes.

I start to wonder what happened to Chris Munday and Steve Flynn? Did they also formed a band or went to join one? And how did Turquoise Blue do? It seems that they changed their style and their sound, maybe looking to get signed by a bigger label?

I find a Google profile for Chris Munday where there are a bunch of photos of Accent at Abbey Road studios. I’m using one of them for my post. I also see that Chris gives us some dates. He drummed for Accent between 1982 and 1985. Were these the years the band was active? He also played drums for the punk band Fear in 1981.

I find an odd Wiki where it mentions that the band was based in West London and that they played Chelsea F.C.’s Stamford Bridge ground. That must have been something!

I was going to stumble upon an even better find. An article written by Mick Habeshaw Robinson on the webzine 3am Magazine. He tells the story of the band here, how they convinced Gary Bushell of the Sounds magazine to like them through a fanzine called In The Crowd. Accent had the chance then to grace the cover of the Sounds magazine. Quite a feat! I found a picture of it for the interest. Then they managed to get a deal with Stuarts clothing shop on Uxbridge Rd to get some cool outfits.

They played Fulham Greyhound, Kings Head and they created the Casual Beat club. Pat Nevin also wrote about them. It seems there was a longer article somewhere in the Heavenly Records website. I have yet to find it.

Then I find an interview with Ginger Mick as he was usually called on the Vera Shoes website. He now lives in Brighton and opened the rock n’roll Hotel Pelirocco.

There is an interview with him too at the Vivid Riot blog. Here he mentions that he lived in Fulham, was a follower of Chelsea and used to shop at Stuarts, Aquasctum, Scotch House, Gee2 for his clothes. He mentions that all four members of Accent were friends and had been in different bands. Brian and himself were the original members and wrote the songs. Steve was an old mate from school and Chris came to the band through an advert in a music paper. They played 50 odd gigs.

The Casuals scene seems to be more or less documented, and that helps me find out more about Accent. There is even a DVD Documentary called Casuals were Accent is featured. There is a promo video for Accent in the documentary which I found on Youtube and it is really great. I should try to find myself a DVD copy of it!

Quite a lot found about Accent. I thought they’d be more obscure to be honest. I do wonder though if they recorded more songs other than the two that appeared on the 7″. They must have! At least some demos. And why did they go as a duo afterwards and even re-released “We Are Lost”?  There are many questions still that I hope I get to know the answers soon!

Do you Londoners remember them?

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Listen
Accent – We Are Lost