Turquoise Days

Hailing from Jersey, Channel Islands, Turquoise Days was formed in 1981 by Luciano Brambilla and David Le Breton. Throughout the 1980s, they self-released many cassettes, as well as the renowned masterpiece Grey Skies / Blurred 7”. They were a runner up for a Radio Luxembourg song contest in 1985 with “Tonight” and had subsequent re-releases in 2009, 2017 and 2018. Their music can be described as melodic, emotive cold/minimal wave.

David Le Breton and Luchie met at a nightclub on the surfers beach at St. Ouens, Jersey, called “Waves” that played alternative music at the peak of disco and MOR music. Luchie noticed that David’s black leather jacket had Killing Joke written on the back in white lettering went over and spoke to him about the band. After chatting they decided that they both had similar ideas and a passion for music and decided they to form a band and took their name from an Echo & the Bunnymen song.

At this time they had a Hondo II electric guitar, a cheap bass guitar, some Casio keyboards (MT30 & VL Tone), a vintage microphone and various analogue effects. They decided that unlike other local bands they would initially perform only original music and no cover songs. Some covers such as “Julia’s Song” by OMD and “She’s lost control” and “ Love will tear us apart” by Joy Division as well as a Jean Michel-Jarre cover eventually entered their sets. They played many live gigs in Jersey starting with their own instrumental intro music “Fragments of glass (hide my eyes)” which had delayed Russian radio broadcasts incorporated and their own light show. Chris Petra the sound engineer then became the bass player contributing bass to later songs such as “scattering seeds” and “feed the flame” etc. Initially David used a kit synth called a Transcendent 2000 and then the band bought some Roland equipment namely two SH100 mono synths , a TR606 Drumatix drum machine and Juno 6 poly synth, and a Yamaha SK10 strings keyboard with an SM58 mike which these to record onto a reel to reel Sony TC377. Luchie acquired a Yamaha SG1000 and Fender Stratocastor guitar as well as various Ibanez and bus effects pedals played through a Vox AC30.

At this time they had a Hondo II electric guitar, a cheap bass guitar, some Casio keyboards (MT30 & VL Tone), a vintage microphone and various analogue effects. They decided that unlike other local bands they would initially perform only original music and no cover songs. Some covers such as “Julia’s Song” by OMD and “She’s lost control” and “ Love will tear us apart” by Joy Division as well as a Jean Michel-Jarre cover eventually entered their sets. They played many live gigs in Jersey starting with their own instrumental intro music “Fragments of glass (hide my eyes)” which had delayed Russian radio broadcasts incorporated and their own light show. Chris Petra the sound engineer then became the bass player contributing bass to later songs such as “scattering seeds” and “feed the flame” etc. Initially David used a kit synth called a Transcendent 2000 and then the band bought some Roland equipment namely two SH100 mono synths , a TR606 Drumatix drum machine and Juno 6 poly synth, and a Yamaha SK10 strings keyboard with an SM58 mike which these to record onto a reel to reel Sony TC377. Luchie acquired a Yamaha SG1000 and Fender Stratocastor guitar as well as various Ibanez and bus effects pedals played through a Vox AC30.

They recorded and released various cassettes namely Splintered Colours (81), Alternative Strategies (82), Valued Collection (83), The Sincerity Machine (84) andMoods (85) the 7” single “Grey Skies”/ “Blurred” on eight track using a hired Roland TR808 drum machine, unfortunately potential follow up songs such as “Tonight”, “Feed the flame”, “Hide’ and “Turning blue” were never released as singles.

However, in the recent years, much has been re-released and is available on various digital platforms, vinyl and cassettes.