Some time ago I interviewed Mark Turrell from the band Evergreen Dazed. This was a duo formed by Mark and Elizabeth that was active in the early 90s in London. They released a few records during their time.
I had asked Mark about previous bands he had been in. He mentioned that he had been in many since 1984 but he didn’t share any names. This is what he told me:
I’ve been in bands since I started at university in 1984. The first one was with my housemates. None of us could play very well so we used to improvise in the basement and record it on a boom box. It’s terrible, but I still have the tapes. There was student band night in May 1986, so we learned 6 obscure indie covers and played them in front of 800 students. We weren’t very good, but that was my first gig! After university I was in a slew of bands with my friends back where I grew up in Leicester UK. I had an electric guitar and a Boss drum machine, another friend had drums, another had a bass and bought a 4 track recorder, and that’s where I learned my songwriting and recording chops. That would be 1987-91. I played gigs and there are loads of 4 track recordings, one or two are on youtube/soundcloud but none of them will ever be officially released. One of my oldest friends from this time is Neil Carlill who went on to be in Delicatessen and have brief UK chart success in indie supergroup Lodger. We grew up in the same village and I was in the same school year as his brother for a while until their parents sent them off to Catholic school. We were in bands together on and off for 5 years until we went our respective ways.
Well that is true, some of these recordings are in Soundcloud/Youtube. And as I am quite slow at going through these, it was only today that I heard of his project The Burton Diaries.
In this band he was with Neil Carlill who he mentions. Also on the band was Kevin Carlill. Were they brothers? In any case I’ve found one song they recorded, “Crying Eyes“, which is ace. On this song, recorded in 1989/1990 as an 8 track demo, we find Kevin doing vocals, Neil guitar and Mark bass.
From what I understand, in this period Mark lived in East Goscote in Leicestershire. Leicester is the closest city. Maybe that’s where this band was based?
I don’t have much more info on this project. Did they play live? Are there any other recordings? Maybe I should ask Mark…
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