Accord

Accord was the last of the three main S.R.A. titles to come into circulation, with the first issue, Volume 1 No 1, going on sale April 1973. It referred to itself as follows: “The Basis of Fulfilling Human Relationships is AGREEMENT-CONSENT-HARMONY, in short Accord”. It stood out from the crowd immediately, with some fantastic coloured cover art from Harry Fischer featuring strongly in the early volumes. It was slightly larger than standard A5 at launch but, throughout its few years of publication, changed its size and look a number of times.

Accord was more feature based to start with and there was minimal reader contribution. The feel of the articles and general quality was of a higher standard than Search and Relate, but you do get the impression that it was a magazine struggling to find its niche in the market. In Volume 1 No 9, an article was published about transvestism and society − and that was to become Accord’s eventual market niche. There was always a great deal of crossover with the other two titles, with articles and information  being published from the Mackintosh Society, pictures and features on directoire knickers and spanking.

But in February 1975, Volume 2 No 11 revealed a major change in Accord’s direction. It announced that it would feature three specialist sections − The Spanking Symposium, Directoire Digest and The World of Transvestism.

Throughout Volume 3, The World of Transvestism, which had its own dedicated editor in Brian Douglas, was taking up more and more space − but we also see the introduction of an entirely new subject − Fighting Females.  Directoire Digest slowly disappeared altogether, as did the Spanking Symposium. Accord then carried on, until its end as a specialist magazine, covering transvestism and fighting girls, two areas at the time that were poorly represented in the market place.

Accord was the first of the three main S.R.A. publications to go out of print − the last issue was Volume 4 No 10 in November 1976. But The World of Transvestism had a strong following and was granted a reprieve in the form of a new magazine called Tranz (edited as before by Brian Douglas). It was originally published by Enterprise Magazines (but only for the first issue) and then by Swish Publications. To put things in context, this was all happening at a time when the specialist adult magazine market was reordering itself.  Accord is a nice collectable magazine, especially the early editions with some great illustrations from Harry Fischer. All books have 65 to 75 pages and are mainly black and white.

Again, if you had any involvement with Accord or any of the titles covered here, then I would be delighted to hear from you, I am particularly interested in any information about Harry Fischer.