Accident on the East Lancs - 1979-81 Recordings

Formed in Rochdale, Accident on the East Lancs were fairly active in the Liverpool and Manchester area (the name of the band itself referred to the A 580, a road connecting the two cities). They formed in 1976, when Andy Sharrocks (vocals), Dave Addison (bass), Kieran Miskella (guitar) and Pete Kenyon (drums) set up a rather powerful act whose live-set would only include covers, mainly of the Stones, the Small Faces, the Velvet Underground, the Doors, and the New York Dolls. Very soon Sharrocks would start writing original material for the band and in 1979 AOEL recorded and mixed in one only day their first single, released through their own label Roach Records. It was a double a-side.

We Want It Legalised / Tell Me What Ya Mean (1979)
- We Want It Legalised (Sharrocks, Miskella, Addison)
- Tell Me What Ya Mean (Sharrocks, Miskella)


In Sharrocks words: “ [the single] would not get much airplay, it did not get much anyway, only John Peel and Dave Fanning of RTE radio in Dublin playing it as far as I am aware, John Peel however did say it was the most exciting record he had heard since the Sex Pistols, which was pretty groovy at the time. (John Peel obviously can't defend this statement, and I can't prove it but I was listening to radio that night, and I know what I heard).” (As one of the a-side’s title suggests, AOEL were strong supporters of the Legalise Cannabis Campaign).
Apparently Sharrocks’ songwriting was not much welcome by the band, and, also due to an obvious alck of commitment) all members quit to be replaced by Andy Schemmet (bass), Nor Pilling (guitars) and Phil O’Dell (drums). This line-up recorded the second single in 1980, also double a-sided:

The Back End of Nowhere / Rat Race (1980)
- The Back End of Nowhere (Sharroks / Pilling)
- Rat Race (Sharroks / Pilling)


In the same year AOEL recorded a cassette album called Shotguns And Hotshots featuring 12 original angry tracks, recorded in four days, and released in 1981 on Cargo Records. (This was re-released on vinyl two decades later in Germany, with Back End Of Nowhere and Rat Race added as bonus tracks).

Shotguns and Hotshots (1981)
- Let's Take It To Extremes
- Tired, Broke And Lonely
- Wasted
- What's New
- The 1980s
- We Want It Legalized
- Back End Of Nowhere (7'') (Bonus)
- Teenage Runaway
- 20th Century
- Police
- Back End Of Nowhere
- Bad Lads
- Why Don't You Leave Us Alone
- Rat Race (Bonus)

In 1982 Andy Sharrocks quit the band and left Rochdale to deal with a raging drug habit: “I threw a few clothes and an acoustic guitar in the back of my van, intending to go back but never did.”

AOEL 1979-81

(see also: http://www.detour-records.co.uk/accident%20on%20the%20east%20lancs.htm )