Band Members:-
Derek Fitton – Vocals, Guitar & Harmonica (1966)
John Wilkinson – Rhythm Guitar (1966)
Tony Wilkinson – Lead Guitar (1966)
David Mills – Drums (1966)
Ron Morgan – Bass (1966)
Record Releases:-
Ain’t Got No Feelin’ / That Is Life To-day (Downunder UK 1399)
Derek's Accent flyer
Derek Fitton immigrated from the north of England like so many did after the Second World War ended, this was in 1965.
He then joined a local Sydney band called The Syndicate. The band travelled to the Channel Nine studios for a audition for new groups, this is where he happened to meet Nat Kipner. At this point & time Kipner was involved with local teen magazine, Everbody’s. Kipner got Fitton but not the rest of the group. He also nabbed Marty Rhone and quite a few others, including some girls. Kipner was only interested in solo singers at the audition.
Anyway Kipner got Derek Fitton to doing some demo tapes with his son’s band, Steve & The Board at the Festival studios in Sydney. Kipner offered the song Thirteen Women to Fitton who turned it down, so Marty Rhone recorded it instead in late 65/early 66, this was eventually released on the Spin label. The Demos were done to get TV exposure, Fitton didn’t wish to be a solo singer so he went looking for a band.
Fitton found a band playing in Willoughby, whom had only been together for mere months. He approached them and they were quite interested and so after a couple of rehearsals they knew they were great together. Then the band did a residency at the Blue Note discotheque in Brookvale. At this moment the band didn’t have name so Nat Kipner decided to name the group Derek’s Accent because all the band members had broad Northern English accents. The four band members, excluding Derek Fitton were all schoolfriends and were prolific songwriters, writing over 100 songs.
Not long after that whilst Ronnie Burns was recording “Very Last Day” at Ossie Byrne’s St Clair Studio, the boys in the band scourged through the many obscure records that Festival were sent from overseas. These 45s were there for bands & solos artists to listen to than record them as possible 45s. Nat Kipner usually allowed the A sides to be a cover song and the B side a group original. These oversea 45s were there for the bands & solos artists to listen to than record them as possible hit 45s. Strangely enough Nat Kipner allowed the band to record a double sided Australian original 45 disc. It was suppose to be released on the Spin label but it got released on the newly created Downunder label instead. Just a note, the side A killer track was written by Ossie Byrne’s friend Derek Lee. The band heard Lee’s acoustic guitar version that included vocals & decided to record it, however the version you hear on the record is nothing like Lee’s version as Derek’s Accent rearranged it quite alot.
Ain’t Got No Feelin’ / That Is Life To-day (Downunder UK 1399)
When the record came out in June 1966 Nat Kipner wanted the band to do a tour right around Australia to promote it. Other than Derek Fitton & David Mills, the other band members didn’t wish to leave their secure jobs to become professional musicians, working during the day & playing gigs at night. Bands at the time weren’t sure where the next quid/dollar was coming from, so it was frought with danger to leave a job and become a professional musician with no regular income guaranteed.
Ain't Got No Feelin'
The band was booked to do a show in Adelaide, but only Derek Fitton showed to mime to the very record he had to bring with himself. So the short tour was that Derek Fitton flew in one day, mimed the pop show, then flew back to Sydney the very next day.
The band did do a few gigs, one at Wagga & some TV shows such as Be My Guest, Saturday Date & Blind Date. The band lasted from Feburary 1966 to August 1966, When the band broke up other than vocalist Derek Fitton who joined The Gino Affair shortly after the other band members stayed with their permanent working jobs outside the music industry.
Lyrics to AIN’T GOT NO FEELIN’ (c) Copyright 1966, Derek Lee
WOMAN YOU KNOW, YOU KNOW YOU ALWAYS MAKE ME BLUE
YEAH AND YOU KNOW, I’LL GIVE MY LOVIN’ ALL TO YOU
YOU JUST PLAY ME FOR A CLOWN IT”S TRUE
BUT I JUST AIN’T GOT NO FEELIN, AIN’T GOT NO FEELIN FOR YOU
WOMAN I TRY, I TRY TO LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH
WHEN I TRY TO KISS YOU WOMAN
YOU JUST KEEP SAYIN’ THAT I CAN’T TOUCH
LEAVE ME ALL ALONE AND I’LL BE BLUE
BUT NOW I AIN’T GOT NO FEELIN, AIN’T GOT NO FEELIN FOR YOU
[WILD SOLO]
YOU’VE GOT A HEART, SOMETIMES I THINK IT’S MADE OF STONE
BUT I’M TELLIN’ YA WOMAN, YOU’RE ALWAYS GONNA BE ALONE
I’VE JUST HAD ENOUGH OF FEELIN’ BLUE
AND NOW I AIN’T GOT NO FEELIN’, AIN’T GOT NO FEELIN FOR YOU
WELL I JUST AIN’T GOT NO FEELIN’, AIN’T GOT NO FEELIN FOR YOU
WELL WOMAN, FOR YOU — YEAH, JUST FOR YOU!
Article courtesy of researching Dean Mittelhauser’s Livin’ End interview of Derek Fitton in Livin End #6 July 1986.
Just before Christmas of ’09 John Wilkinson emailed his version of events that seem to conflict with the above article, so without further ado I will post his response. Enjoy it!
Hi Andrew,
I am John Wilkinson the rhythm guitarist in the band and probably the keeper of most knowledge about the band. If I may, I would like to correct some inconsistencies contained in the bio of the band members and the Derek Fitton interview.
Typically the bio put out by the studio was partly fabricated. Yes we were all northern English and had strong northern accents. Tony & I being brothers came from Wigan, near Manchester and arrived in Australia in 1960. As did Ron Morgan who was from Newcastle, England. Tony and Ron met at the migrant hostel and later formed a number of bands playing instrumentals (the Shadows and all that stuff around at the time) As a result Tony and Ron the older members of the band were the more accomplished musicians in the band. David was from Blackpool Lancashire and arrived in 1964. David and I were school mates. Derek was from Manchester and arrived in 1964, I think.
Ron at the time of Dereks Accent was the oldest at 24, Tony was 22, David & I were 18 and Derek was 19.
Now to the Fitton interview. The band (before Derek) did come from Willoughby in Sydney’s lower north shore. But at the time of meeting were already a hard working 4 piece band who had been together for over a year, playing gigs wherever we could around Sydney. We met Derek when we auditioned to be the resident band at the Blue Note disco in Brookvale in Sydney’s northern beach area. We arrived late and the auditions were over. Derek was there with another band and had already GOT THE GIG. We pleaded with the owner to let us play, he said ok if you want, but the deal is done.
We played one song. Unknown to us Derek and his manager where still there and the club owner, Derek and his manger were blown away. They immediately went into a huddle came out, offered us the gig so long as we were willing to team up with Derek, with a shot at a record contract. We said let’s do a song together and hear him sing, so we did, “I wanna be your man’ and we all nailed it and clicked from the word go and the deal was set. Derek’s original band, a group a lads from Sydney’s northern beaches were let go, but remained friends and used to came to our gigs at the Blue Note and later became the Gino Affair that Derek later joined up with and tried to replicate the Accent but fell way short and eventually like the rest of us just gave it up.
The tour thing went like this. An American singer, PJ Proby had a hit in Australia at the time and was about do a national tour playing in every major city. We were offered the warm up gig supporting him.
The money wasn’t that hot back then. Derek, David and myself wanted to go, it was Tony and Ron who didn’t. So we didn’t do it.
Tony and I were the song writers, Derek never put pen to paper. Tony and I wrote the “B” side “That is Life Today” and true we did write heaps of songs, whether it was a hundred or so is debatable. Tony, the musical driving force behind the band, is the one who arranged “Ain’t Got No Feelin” right there in the studio on the day we recorded it. If you have ever heard “ Ain’t got no feelin” you can understand what an awesome guitarist he was and this was 1966. The man was “heavy metal” years before heavy metal. You can tell from the arrangement we were big WHO fans with David drumming like Keith Moon behind Tony’s solo and we did lots of WHO covers in our on stage repertoire.
There is much more to be told about the inner machinations of the band, but that could be for another time, if you’re interested.
Eventually the band broke up over an argument about money and the rest they say is history.
Sorry it’s so long winded. Hope what I have supplied is useful. I have attached a photo of the band playing, Tony is far right, Derek middle, John the Ron, unfortunately David is obscured. Also a posed photo of the band. The order from left is Derek, Ron, Tony, John, David.
Thanks for taking the time to acknowledge a band that was around for such a short time in the mid sixties.
Regards…John Wilkinson
