The Mock Turtles
With their promising UK hit single, Can You Dig It?, the Mock Turtles followed a line of success stories that had emanated from Manchester, England, between 1989 and 1991. Like many of their contemporaries, the band had been playing the independent circuit for several years before realizing their potential. The band's lynch-pin was singer/guitarist/songwriter Martin Coogan, who had previously fronted Judge Happiness, won a Salford University talent contest and subsequently issued a single, Hey Judge, on the Mynah label in 1985. As the Mock Turtles, Coogan was joined by Steve Green (bass), Krzysztof Korab (keyboards) and Steve Cowen (drums), and their recordings surfaced on several of the Imaginary label's popular tribute compilations (covering Syd Barrett's No Good Trying, Captain Beefheart's Big-Eyed Beans From Venus, the Kinks' Big Sky, the Byrds' Why and the Velvet Underground's Pale Blue Eyes), illustrating their eclectic tastez. Meanwhile, the band's first 12-inch EP, POMONA, was issued in 1987, and although it owed an obvious debt to early David Bowie and veered towards the overblown, the confidence of musicians, string arrangements and songwriting was obvious. Guitarist Martin Glyn Murray joined the band in time for The Wicker Man (inspired by the film of the same name), followed by And Then She Smiles. From pure folk to powerful songs verging on the pompous, the Mock Turtles conveyed a distinctive feel within their music. But it was their next single, 1990's Lay Me Down, which hinted at bigger things, sporting a sparse yet infectious shuffling backbeat. Hot on its heels came a well-received debut album, TURTLE SOUP, in June, which fared well on the independent chart, as did the band's collaboration with one of Coogan's long-time influences, Bill Nelson, Take Your Time (the b-side of their next single, Magic Boomerang). This was enough to lure Siren Records, and for their first major label single, the band chose to rework the b-side of Lay Me Down, Can You Dig It?. The single was an instant hit with BBC television's Top Of The Pops appearances to match, and in its wake came another reissue of sorts, And Then She Smiles. This failed to consolidate the success of Can You Dig It, and the Mock Turtles' highly commercial TWO SIDES suffered from a low profile, despite its abundance of musical muscle and carefully-crafted songs. In the meantime, Imaginary compiled most of their early single tracks on 1987-90, for those newcomers who had missed them first time around. However, the Mock Turtle's rapid progress soon transmuted into an equally swift decline. The band dissolved when Coogan formed a new band with Korab and Green after Murray left to pursue an acting career.