Stool Pigeon – Kid Creole and the Coconuts (1982)
WIS has a nostalgia rush of mutant disco as August Darnell’s Kid Creole rolls back the years to those carefree days of the early 80s.
At the start of this year, I set out my intention to attend more live gigs than last year, with a focus on bands playing more modest venues. To some extent, I haven’t held religiously to the latter plan but my interactions with the nonsense that is the TicketBastard Friday 10am online scramble have been much less frequent. And so it was that when Lynn said to me that she had spotted that Kid Creole and the Coconuts were playing the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh and did I fancy going along, I said, Yeah – why not? At the time I didn’t realise that this gig would turn out to be the fourth musical event of a busy six day period, but there you go.
Adapted from the Elvis Presley film title King Creole, Kid Creole was the stage name adopted by Bronx-born musician and writer August Darnell in 1980. From Caribbean and Italian heritage, Darnell had grown up heavily influenced by Latin American and Caribbean big band sounds. In 1974, he formed a group with his brother, where he was to meet his future musical partner, Andy Hernandez, a Puerto Rican vibraphone player from Spanish Harlem. By 1980, Hernandez was using the stage name Coati Mundi and the pair founded Kid Creole and the Coconuts, a multi-racial band with Darnell out front singing and dancing in a zoot suit and Hernandez as his comic foil, directing the music. The image was completed by the glamorous Coconuts, a trio of female backing vocalists, led by choreographer and Darnell’s then-wife Addy Kaegi. The band signed a deal with hipster New York label independent label ZE Records.
Back in 1981, it was the good old NME that started me on my Kid Creole journey, specifically a writer called Ian Penman. At that time, Penman, along with Paul Morely and Barney Hoskyns, began to push beyond the post-punk focus of the other journos on the paper and feature a number of other musical styles, usually promoted in articles written in esoteric arty prose. Penman was a particular fan of the roster of acts on the ZE label like Was (Not Was) and Material who were creating an avant-garde fusion of disco and funk with broad post-punk credentials. In 1981, a ZE UK sampler was released called Mutant Disco – A Subtle Dislocation of the Norm and Penman… erm… penned the sleeve notes.
One of the six tracks was a wild latino-rap with a killer groove by Coati Mundi called Me No Pop I which ZE decided to release as a single in the UK in May 81. The NME hyped it by making it their single of the week, it got some airplay, I bought it and it crept into the top 40 peaking at No32. I have a memory that Top of the Pops played the strange video of Hernandez dancing about in Central Park to the tune, but I may be wrong. The label credited Darnell and Hernandez as producers and named the artist as Kid Creole and the Coconuts presents Coati Mundi. So, I had my first Kid Creole single with the memorable lyric: “I tell you, there′ll be another bi-centennial/Before I hear the truth from your mouth”.
The band went mainstream in 1982 finding a UK audience for their infectious brand of exuberant Latin pop. Their third LP Tropical Gangsters went platinum, reaching No3 and spawning three top ten singles, with Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy reaching No2. Although another ten albums were to follow, this was the commercial high for the band.
On the afternoon of the gig, I was lying under the van with an ever increasing number of tools when what should have been a simple mechanical repair job took longer and longer to complete. During the fourth strip down and re-build, I was thinking that getting into Edinburgh for the gig was a big ask but we’d never seen them before so we got our arses in gear and wentu along. And we are so glad we did.
The twelve piece band came out and treated the comparatively small audience to a real high energy show. Laid down on a terrific rhythm section, the guitars funked and the horns blew with style – the guy on the ‘bone was fantastic. With Andy Hernandez long gone, the keyboard player directed the music which was sharp and tight but sadly there was no performance of Me No Pop I. The latest version of the Coconuts were as glamorous as ever – with great choreography and costume changes and each one a terrific singer in their solo parts.
But it was the Kid that was at the centre of the show, arriving last on stage sporting a trademark wide-brimmed black fedora at a jaunty angle and a glorious purple zoot suit. As his opening number stated, he truly was A Wonderful Thing, Baby. Giving no sign of his 75 years, he delivered a set masterfully leading his terrific band, throwing shapes and merging in and out of the dance moves with the Coconuts seamlessly. The crowd loved it. And maybe it was the purple suit, but there were times where the fluidity of his performance reminded me of Prince.
I was slightly disappointed that Loving You Made A Fool Out Of Me didn’t get an outing, but the big hits were blasted out with joy. Annie got the better crowd reaction but Stool Pigeon was the highlight for me. After the extended ska outro of the preceding Midsummer Madness, the band really swung into the story of the FBI squealer who made his fortune but lost everything Ha cha cha cha!!
The inevitable encore brought a cover of Big Joe Turner’s Flip Flop and Fly with the horns leading an extended outro as everybody frugged along. The band then dropped into a bouncing Don’t Take My Coconuts before reprising Annie to end with everyone in the old hall going nuts. It really was terrific fun. And twenty seven quid a pop!
Here’s the performance of Stool Pigeon from the W-Festival in 2022 with the band line up as we saw it.
Last Word
So that’s three of those four musical events now covered retrospectively, with the last one to come next week as we tour the sunny spots of Cornwall.
And August Darnell’s money spinner from 1982 has dropped into the Master Playlist.
AR
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