Kid Creole & The Coconuts

Kid Creole & The Coconuts is a United States-based group active from 1980 to the present, led by August Darnell, who performs under the name Kid Creole. The act works across boogie, disco and latin disco, and its music also draws on big band jazz and Caribbean and Latin American salsa.

Formation and members

August Darnell, born Thomas August Darnell Browder, begins his career in 1965 with The In-Laws, a group he forms with his half-brother before leaving to pursue teaching. He later studies to master’s degree level and then forms Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band in 1974 with the same half-brother. In 1980 he adopts the Kid Creole name and creates Kid Creole & The Coconuts. The Coconuts are a female vocal and dance trio whose line-up changes over time. Named members include Adriana Kaegi, Cheryl Poirier, Taryn Hagey, Janique Svedberg, Lori Eastside, Cristina, Lourdes Cotto, Carol Coleman, Fonda Rae, Brooksie Wells and Janique Svedberg. The wider line-up also includes Andy Hernandez, Jimmy Rip, Peter Schott, Dave Spann and Cheryl Poirier.

Early releases and breakthrough

The debut album, Off the Coast of Me, has a strong disco sound and receives good critical notice without major commercial success. The follow-up, Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places, is a concept album tied to a New York Public Theatre stage production. It earns strong reviews and brings attention to Darnell as a lyricist, composer, arranger and producer. Although the album itself charts only briefly, Andy Hernandez’s “Me No Pop I” becomes a Top 40 hit in the UK.

The group’s breakthrough comes with Tropical Gangsters in 1982. In the UK it reaches number 3 and produces three Top 10 singles: “Stool Pigeon”, “Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy” and “I’m a Wonderful Thing, Baby”. “Dear Addy” also reaches the Top 40. In the United States the album is retitled Wise Guy and reaches number 145, while “I’m a Wonderful Thing, Baby” also appears on the R&B charts.

Later albums and singles

Doppelganger follows in 1983 and is less commercially successful, although “There’s Something Wrong in Paradise” still reaches the Top 40. In the mid to late 1980s Darnell contributes to film soundtracks and other projects. He also appears at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1986. Around this period the group releases In Praise of Older Women and Other Crimes and I, Too, Have Seen the Woods; neither charts, but “Endicott” becomes a hit. Private Waters in the Great Divide appears in 1990 and includes “The Sex of It”, written by Prince and recorded at Paisley Park Studios with Sheila E. The single reaches the Top 40 in both the US and the UK and becomes one of the group’s best-known songs.

Live reputation and later activity

Kid Creole & The Coconuts develops a reputation as a theatrical live act, with tropical-themed stage sets, elaborate costumes and choreography associated with the Coconuts. The group is especially popular in New York City as well as across England and Europe, where its mix of styles and more elaborate presentation finds a strong audience. Darnell and Adriana Kaegi divorce in 1985, but Kaegi remains with the group. She and Cheryl Poirier also form Boomerang with Perri Lister, releasing an album on Atlantic in 1986. Darnell later lives in London, with time also spent in Sweden and Denmark, and continues to tour with the Coconuts occasionally. He also works with Peter Schott on a contemporary opera project through Son Of Kong Productions, and with Younger and Lord highOwl of Picture Book on new material. From 1997 to 2008, Kid Creole tours the UK while appearing in the disco musical stage show Oh! What a Night, produced by Random Concerts.