Kid Creole and The Coconuts

Speaker: Chuck Rolando (Standard American accent)

Kid Creole and the Coconuts were a symbol of the 1980s. Their exciting stage show and music were typical of the “party atmosphere” of those days.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Kid Creole was an invented name. The real name of the band’s leader was Thomas August Darnell Browder, but he abbreviated this to “August Darnell.” He was born in the Bronx in New York in 1950. As a teenager, he played in groups with his brother, Stony Browder, jr. In the 1970s they formed a group called Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band. In 1976 they had hit dance songs with “Cherchez la femme” and “Sunshower.” They often played at Studio 54, which was a very cool New York club.

ELVIS AND CAB

Darnell formed Kid Creole and the Coconuts in 1980. He says: “My first love in life was the theatre and I was a frustrated actor. I wanted to create my own mythology and Kid Creole was my mythology!” The name came from the Elvis Presley movie King Creole. Elvis was a hero for Darnell, but Kid Creole’s music was very different: it was a combination of funk, Latin American and Caribbean. Darnell was also an admirer of Cab Calloway and his “big band” jazz sound. The Coconuts were a big band: there were 12 members, including three beautiful dancing girls. One of the girls, Adriana Kaegi, was Darnell’s wife but, they divorced in 1985. The other key member was the bongo player, “Coati Mundi.”

THE GOOD TIMES

The group had a series of hits. 1982 was their best year with “I’m a Wonderful Thing, Baby,” “Stool Pigeon” and “Annie, I’m not Your Daddy.”  Unfortunately, success did not last. Today Darnell lives in Sweden and London and he often goes on tour with Kid Creole and the Coconuts, although the band’s line-up is now different.