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Kid Creole and The Coconuts with BIP agreement
Kid Creole and the Coconuts were born out of the burning embers of the brilliant and legendary Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band. August Darnell (Kid Creole) claims to have had a vision of the band in a nightmare while walking down Fifth Avenue in New York City. Born in the Bronx, Darnell is a man of multiple cultures, legends and personalities. For over 27 years Kid Creole and the Coconuts have been entertaining sellout crowds around the world. Inspired by Cab Calloway and the Hollywood films of the 30's and 40's, the Kid fills out his colorful zoot suits with style and grace, dancing onstage with his inimitable, relentless and self-proclaimed cool.
Their debut album Off the Coast of Me was critically well-received but not successful commercially. In fact it was compilation of demo tapes when real Kid Creole and The Coconut didn't exist as a group. The second release Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places was a concept album matched with a New York Public Theatre stage production; it received rave reviews, and Darnell was recognized as a clever lyricist and astute composer, arranger and producer. They performed "Mister Softee" on Saturday Night Live during their promotional tour for the album. The album charted briefly, and subsequently Coati Mundi's early Latin RAP "Me No Pop I", though not originally on the album, became a Top 40 UK hit single. Their breakthrough came with 1982's Tropical Gangsters, which hit #3 in the UK and spun off three Top 10 hits with "Stool Pigeon", "Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy" and "I'm a Wonderful Thing, Baby",[2] written by musical director Peter Schott. "Dear Addy" also made the Top 40. In the US the album was retitled Wise Guy and reached #145, and "I'm a Wonderful Thing, Baby" flirted with the R&B charts.
Present day .....
Darnell has been back in the studio, totally re-mixing and re-mastering his favourite Kid Creole songs spanning his whole back catalogue with Master ToKo and Lord highOwl from audio-visual electronica band [www.picturebookmusic.com] creating the album 'Going Places' which was released in 2009 by Strut Records. Never released recordings are available http://reverbnation.com/augustdarnell
At the end of 2010 the Kid and his Coconuts toured Germany with The Night of the Proms, also starring Boy George and Sir Cliff Richard. They previously appeared in the Night of the Proms in Holland and Belgium in 2007 with Chic, Macy Gray and Donna Summer.
The kid and his current line up of Coconuts, Eva Tudor-Jones (Mama Coconut of 14 years from London), Jessica Forsman (From Finland, the newest member), Aimee Bramall (From London) and Bongo Eddie (the last standing original member) still regularly tour around the UK and Europe and throughout the world.
Darnell is working on the final stages of his latest album due for release in the summer of 2011 with !K7/STRUT RECORDS. The most exciting work in the last 20 years Darnell claims. The first single, 'I Do Believe' is out on July 17th.
