Biography
Frontman Andrew Snoid and guitarist Mark Bell, who had previously worked together in both the Plague and the Whizz Kidzz, came together once more in the short-lived New Zealand pop band Coconut Rough. Late in 1982 Snoid, recently returned from a stint in the Swingers, reached out to Bell after arriving back in New Zealand, and the pair soon assembled Coconut Rough alongside keyboardist Stuart Pearce, bassist Dennis "Choc" Tuware, and drummer Paul Hewitt. Thanks to the players’ deep prior experience, the new group quickly found favor with Auckland-area club audiences, and the 1983 debut single “Sierra Leone” climbed into the Top Five on the Kiwi charts. Critics nevertheless assailed the newly commercial direction taken by Snoid and Bell, and the follow-up single “As Good as It Gets” drew widespread derision for its title alone; sales of the record proved disappointing. Coconut Rough closed the year by contributing one side of the live LP Whistle While You Work. Early in 1984 the band began recording its proper debut album, swapping Hewitt for drummer Eddie Olsen once the sessions wrapped. Mushroom, the group’s label, rejected the completed mix, however, sending the project into limbo while various remix attempts were considered; during that interval the band itself began to disintegrate. Tuware departed first and was succeeded by ex-Suburban Reptiles guitarist Bones Hillman, yet Coconut Rough dissolved only a week later. The self-titled LP finally surfaced after the split, its original mix left untouched.