The Accent

Left to Right: John Hebron, Rick Birkett, Alan Davies, Pete Beetham




Members

John Hebron - vocals, guitar
Rick Birkett - guitar (died Nov 2012)
Alan Davies - bass guitar
Pete Beetham - drums

The Accent were originally formed in Yorkshire in the mid 1960s as the Blue Blood Group. In 1966 they moved to London to find success and renamed themselves the Accent. In 1967 they secured a residency at Billy Walker's Upper Cut Club and were signed to the Decca label. They only released one single which was produced by Mike Vernon. Although their only single had very little success in the 1960s it later became a cult favouraite.

Rick Birkett was involved in a line up of the Zombies, who began recording an album in 1968. The album was cancelled and the Zombies split up for good. Birkett then rehearsed briefly with the original line-up of Argent before being replaced by Russ Ballard. He later played guitar for Jellybread and Malcolm Tomlinson and also released a solo LP on the Blue Horizon label as Rick Hayward. He recorded a follow up LP which was not released at the time but has since been made available by Sunbeam Records. He was also a session guitarist for Blue Horizon and played with many artists in the studio, such as Eric Clapton, Freddie King, Jack Bruce, Lightnin' Slim and Mitch Mitchell. Rick also found time to be a member of Christine Perfect's band in the late 1960s.

UK Singles

1967 Red Sky At Night/Wind of Change          Decca F12679

Both sides of The Accent's only single were written by the band themselves.