Marciac France

Marciac France

New date added!

Kid Creole and the Coconuts will be headlining at Jazz in Marciac festival on August 11th in Gers, South West France.

Click here for more information and for tickets: Jazz in Marciac

Tickets start at €20 and go up to €70. The band will be gracing the stage for a full live show at 23.00.

The lineup: 
August Darnell - the Kid
Sarah McGrath - Coconut
Roos Van 'Awesome' Rossum - Coconut
Charlotte De Graaf - Coconut
Barnaby Dickinson - trombone
George Hogg - trumpet
Tim Vine - keyboards
Jamie McCredie - guitar
Oroh Angiama - bass
Dave Imby - drums

Unclassifiable, this is how we can talk about the kind of music of Kid Creole & the Coconuts. The composition of this group of the 80s has changed dramatically over the years, we will mainly remember its leader August Darnell. Thomas August Darnell Browder, or simply August Darnell was born inthe Bronx where he grew up, New York bathing in the multiplicity of cultures and getting acquainted with many kinds of music. At the end of the 70s, Andy Hernandez and August Darnell together set up the group Kid Creole and the Coconuts accompanied by many musicians. The group is not long to  talk about it with the release of their first single "Maladie d'amour" in 1980. The first album,  "Off the coast of me" arrives the same year with thirteen titles. A year later, they return with  "Fresh fruit in foreign places" a kind of musical travel diary with twelve titles. Follows then   "Tropical gangsters" who arrives at the 3rd place of the UK Albums Chart. In 1983, Kid Creole &   the Coconuts released "Doppelganger" with titles such as "The lifeboat party" or "Broadway rhythm". With Kid Creole And The Coconuts, the cocktail of soul-calypso-rock and self-deprecating rhythmsfinds its happiest expression, with the luscious presence of the delightful Coconuts.

abc tour

40 summers young this summer

What are forty birthday candles compared with the fireworks that light up Marciac every summer? If you drew the equation with the true length of the festival over four decades of thrills, then you would have 600 nights at the least, plus as many days of jubilation and, for good measure, almost 6,000 raised curtains, enough to wear out more than one national theatre… By way of a ruby anniversary marking its fidelity to a genre in music that recognizes how much it owes to the Gers village, Jazz in Marciac is rewriting its pastoral symphony in rhythm this year. Everyone — Mayor, godfathers, maids of honour, best men, bridesmaids and witnesses — will be raining confetti over the finest parade ever held.  First in line, in terms of protocol, are those that we listen to come rain or come shine: Norah Jones, the priestess with the voice of a healer, returns to jazz; George Benson is synonymous with scat and guitar in unison; Herbie Hancock is a keyboard geek and the vehicle for 60 years of jazz, all trends combined… In the seats reserved for the faithful we have: Roy Hargrove, the worthy narrator of forms inherited from bebop; Stanley Clarke, at the summit of his virtuoso double bass (and his brazen slap electric instrument); Biréli Lagrène, the expert climber roping down from every peak of inspiration that takes his fancy… And Joshua Redman, whose civilized manners hide a sense of freedom and purpose that his father would certainly have endorsed. And then we naturally come to our close family, gathered together under the protective wings of Wynton Marsalis, every one of whose contributions to Marciac has been duly notarized as authentic. The Latin cousins are coming too, bringing their dances and that Afro-Cuban legitimacy without which the festival would have to relinquish its exotic, heterogeneous and xenophile share in culture: Chucho Valdès and Roberto Fonseca feel at home there. Turbulent youngsters rightfully have their seats too: Emile Parisien (who has improvised a second birthplace for himself right here in Marciac on the benches of a school); Vincent Peirani, an accordionist whose intriguing ubiquity speaks volumes for him; Electro Deluxe and Panam Panic, retro and modern at the same time, they are seekers and finders of groove. Finally, all anniversaries have surprises: what statements are the Labèque Sisters going to make from behind a piano peppered with Basque percussion? Or Henri Texier, a totem of the double bass, lyrical and libertarian, giving Manu Katché the keys of the metronome? Today more than ever, the festival has taken up its summer quarters in every corner of the village: in Town Hall square to set the jazz tempo for the day; at the Astrada, the cosy concourse where established artists (and promises already kept) will be showing the most intimate aspects of their talents. And here and there, in the back of a bar, jazz will be spreading its ephemeral eternity. Forty candles. And the flame is still there. Forty young summers making this particular summer worth the wait for everyone…

Categories
News

Album Re-release

Album Re-release

album Re-release

 

Product Description

This 2 CD collection features Kid Creole And The Coconuts‘ two albums recorded and released by Columbia Records in 1990 and 1991 respectively.

CD 1 – features the 13 original album tracks of “Private Waters In The Great Divide” plus six related bonus tracks sourced from 7″ and 12″ singles derived from the 1990 release.

CD 2  – features the ten tracks from the 1991 album “You Shoulda Told Me You Were…”. Featured remixes include contributions from; ‘The Sex Of It‘ – House Version was remixed by Justin StraussThe Sex Of It‘ – Extended Remix Version and ‘I Love Girls‘ – Femme Fatale Mix were both remixed by Richie Jones.

This 2 CD collection has been re-mastered using the original master tapes .The 20 page full colour booklet features a split image of the two front covers and an expanded design of the original artwork for each album. There are fascinating extensive personal sleeve notes written by August Darnell aka Kid Creole and a UK discography featuring some of the Coconuts unique front cover images.

This fantastic and nostalgic double album will be available on CD at all major online and retail stores.

To pre-order your copy now on Amazon click here:

AMAZON

The double album will be released on April 20th!

Two Classic Albums – one sexy package!

album cover

 

Categories
Press releases

ABC tour

ABC tour

The ABC tour……….

Whoever came up with the idea of putting ABC and KID CREOLE on the same stage is a genius.

abc tour

The ABC tour was a great success.

Returning to Manchester was a blast, since I used to live there 1000 years ago. And the same for Sheffield. I used to live there, too. And London … hey I used to live there, as well. Yes, I’m a New Yorker who has spent a lot of time in England. Hey, in the United Kingdom, to be sure.

The tour: Manchester, Liverpool, London, Birmingham, Bristol, York, Sheffield, Gateshead and Nottingham; All cities that Kid Creole has, at one time or another in a long and varied career,  performed in before. But so very nice to revisit.

I’ve known Martin Fry since the glorious 80’s. A true gentleman and a true survivor, much like myself. And he still sounds as wonderful as he did in the beginning. ABC still rocks.

My longevity? Much of it is due to the guys and dolls who surround me on that stage.

This time around, for the ABC tour, we had Barnaby Dickinson on Trombone  (he’s been with me for over 16 years), George Hogg on Trumpet (off and on for 5 years), Dave Imby on Drums (a 9 year veteran), Oroh Angiama on Bass (over 8 years), Lorne Ashley on Guitar (my son, who has just joined the band this year), Mike Gorman on Keys ( over 8 years), and …. the fabulous COCONUTS, of course.

abc tour

The COCONUTS = Sarah McGrath (who we met in Bosnia in 1998), Roos Van Awesome (over 3 years) and Charlotte De Graaf (the newcomer, who joined the band last year).  Charlotte replaced the longest standing Coconut in the history of the band, Eva Tudor-Jones (who took a leave of absence to have a Coconut baby). We all miss Eva’s presence on stage.  But she is still very involved in the business end of things.

Trivia: Charlotte celebrated her 27th birthday while on the road, in York. Who said “youth is wasted on the young”? I disagree, vehemently.

I mention these names because the KCC SHOW would not be as magnificent as it is without these talented musicians and singers and dancers. Every true bandleader knows that the secret to greatness depends on the simple act of assembling the correct players. I have been constantly blessed with the correct players.

abc tour
stone images rocks

One should also note, that besides the players on stage there are a whole lot of other people involved in a tour. My sincere gratitude goes out to the ABC staff, who made the whole thing enjoyable from start to finish. Their monitor man made each show a breeze for me. I could hear every instrument and every voice, including my own. That’s no joke. Every lead singer will tell you that the greatest danger on tour is the possibility of straining your voice. But from the first show I knew I was in good hands. You see, I am still old-school. I use stage monitors, not the in-ear gadgets that shut out the universe. And that means I need a sound man who knows what he is doing at the helm. I got that.

My 2 KCC guys who travelled with us were perfect also: Andy and Eric. Andy, our backline tech guy, made sure the stage was always ready for the groove. And Eric, our house engineer, made sure that what the audience heard was what I wanted them to hear – the goodness!

Our set was only 45 minutes in length but those 45 minutes were filled with magical grooves and banter and joyful appreciation from fans, old and new. We played CAROLINE WAS A DROP-OUT, DON’T TAKE MY COCONUTS, STOOL PIGEON, NO FISH TODAY and ANNIE, I’M NOT YOUR DADDY which, on some nights, got audience members up and dancing the conga. I consider this a major feat, because the venues were all sit-down affairs.

All in all, we had a funky good time.

Another great memory is born in the eternal legend of Kid Creole and the Coconuts.

 

August Darnell

 

Here’s a link to a wonderful write up from Graham Clark for the Yorkshire Times

http://yorkshiretimes.co.uk/article/Abc-And-Kid-Creole-And-The-Coconuts-York-Barbican

 

 

 

 

Paradiso – Amsterdam

Paradiso – Amsterdam

TICKETS on sale from Friday July 28th

WEBSITE

Kid Creole and the Coconuts is the band around August Darnell. They look forward to playing the cool venue Paradiso in Amsterdam on October 11th, 2017.
He took the name Kid Creole in 1980, inspired by Elvis’s same-name film. The Coconuts is a trio of background singers that have changed many times over the years. The current composition consists of British Sarah McGrath, and  Dutch coconuts Roos van Rossum and Charlotte De Graaf. Together they make a mix of disco and Latin American music with jazz influences from the 30’s. The band performed many successful albums in the 1980s. In the Netherlands, the song ‘Annie, I’m Your Daddy’ is the best in the Top 2000.

The Kid, his Coconuts and his funky band look forward to returning to the fabulous city of Amsterdam to play this wonderful prestigious venue Paradiso.

 

Back at the Barbican!

Back at the Barbican!

Kid Creole and the Coconuts + Arto Lindsay

+ Justin Strauss

7 October 2017 / 19:30
Barbican Centre, London

Go to the website

 

Flashback to New York’s Downtown scene of the 1980s, as Kid Creole & the Coconuts and Arto Lindsay recapture the bubbling, frenetic energy of the era.

Over two sets, they represent the frenzied creativity that defined the scene. First, there’s Arto Lindsay and band, at turns warm and sultry, and at other times prowling and deranged. Playful, weird and sometimes scary, his guitar and vocals move from washes of total noise to soft, tropicalia-indebted balladeering, exhibiting a willingness to embrace every influence taken from 80s New York’s cocktail of cultures.

So, too, do Kid Creole & the Coconuts, blending calypso, funk, disco and much more to create the ultimate party music. Backed by his big band, Kid Creole is a man out of time, the zoot-suited embodiment of cool, singing and dancing through hits including ‘Annie I’m not your Daddy’, ‘Stool Pigeon’ and ‘I’m a Wonderful thing, Baby’.

It’s an experience captured in Downtown 81 as Jean-Michel Basquiat – the subject of Boom for Real in our Art Gallery – wanders the streets of New York, witnessing the birth of no wave, rap and Downtown Disco amid the cheap warehouse lofts of Lower Manhattan. It’s here he encounters Arto Lindsay (then with his influential no wave band, DNA), Kid Creole, and their brilliantly bizarre music – music that’s performed tonight, as these two artists revisit the chaotic excitement that defined the Downtown scene.

Additionally, DJ Justin Strauss joins the party – a former resident of the infamous Mudd Club – further evoking the era, having soundtracked nights when Basquiat, Kid Creole and Arto Linsday took to the dancefloor.

On sale to Barbican Members 10am Thursday 1 June
On general sale 10am Friday 2 June

 

Barbican

Festival de Carcassonne Officiel

Festival de Carcassonne Officiel

► Kid Creole and the Coconuts (part 1: Will Barber) @ Scène Carnot
► Official Carcassonne Festival 2017
► Thursday 20 July from 20h30
► Music

KID CREOLE & THE COCONUTS – 22:15
A group, a sound, an image.
From New York club 54 to the Palace of Paris, August Darnell aka Kid Creole, a great admirer of Cab Calloway since the late 70s, dared a clever mix of funk, rock and Latin sounds. A new merger was born.
Prince was the first of his fans, then the whole world would capsize under the class of Kid, the charm of the Coconuts and the musical madness of the Group.
This explosive cocktail has not taken a turn, and Kid Creole & The Coconuts continue to travel the world for the happiness of all.

WILL BARBER – 20:30
Will was born in Narbonne to a family printing house and regional writers. He finds his balance in football and music, With the attention of his father, he learns the guitar and falls under the charm of the guitar Weissenborn in particular, played today by Ben Harper. He made his original instruments mixing his passion for music and wood. With his old school style inspired by Led Zep, BBKing, Motown, he wants to cross the continents to share his music with the world.

 

Carcassonne

Let’s Rock Southampton! 2017

Let’s Rock Southampton! 2017

We are delighted to announce that Let’s Rock Southampton! returns to Southampton Common for the fouth year running, on Saturday 8th July 2017. With a fabulous line-up of artists to bring you the very best of the 80s, and an action packed day of general 80s madness, there is plenty to do for everyone at this Family Friendly Festival!

Let’s Rock! has been leading the way for quality, family-friendly 80s music festivals since 2009. Don’t miss out on this chance for a retro blast with the very best of the 80s!

southampton
southampton

Let’s Rock Leeds! 2017

Let’s Rock Leeds!

We are delighted to announce that Let’s Rock Leeds! returns to Temple Newsam on Saturday 17th June 2017. With a fabulous line-up of artists to bring you the very best of the 80s, and an action packed day of general 80s madness, there is plenty to do for everyone at this Family Friendly Festival!

Let’s Rock! has been leading the way for quality, family-friendly 80s music festivals since 2009.

Don’t miss out on this chance for a retro blast with the very best of the 80s.

leeds

 

 

 

Tickets on sale now!!! http://letsrock.gigantic.com/lets-rock-leeds-temple-newsam-2017-06-17-11-00

 

Categories
News

New LIVE album

New live album…………….THIS IS IT

Guys and dolls of all ages and persuasions, this is it.

Finally, the legendary KID CREOLE has launched his first official LIVE ALBUM.

Hallelujah! Celebrate! Celebrate! Dance to the Music!

The Banana Boat is filled with jubilation and satisfaction.

The name of the album? It’s KID CREOLE LIVE AT THE B-SPOT.

Why? KID CREOLE and his merry band of COCONUTS played 2 hot-to-trot concerts at a club called the B-SPOT on the French Riviera in 2014.

When THE MAN with the permanent tan and the tilted fedora and the two-toned shoes heard the recordings, he exclaimed “Damn, that shit is funky!”

Hear then, oh music lovers, the true documentation of a powerful live band at the height of their exalted reign. Long live the King.

LIVE AT THE B-SPOT is a double CD: almost 2 hours of in-your-face rhythm and blues and funk and calypso and soca and reggae and salsa and pop and good old rock and roll.

Plus, we have added a bonus track: a surprisingly honest remix of STOOL PIGEON, done by that cunning new upstart who calls himself YOUNGR

Needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway, if you are a CREOLIAN FAN, or just a person who appreciates real music played by real people, this album is a must-have in your collection.

The release date is December 14th, 2016. And it’s a limited edition, so hurry up!

Pre-order now and shout out loud: HACHACHACHA!

www.esquiresrecords.ecwid.com

live album

The double CD will be available for purchase at Wembley Arena, London on Wednesday December 14th where the band will be supporting Culture Club’s only UK tour date.

http://www.ssearena.co.uk/events/detail/culture-club

 

 

 

Special Guests for Culture Club at Wembley

Kid Creole with Culture Club at The SSE Arena Wembley, London

Kid Creole and the Coconuts are very excited to announce they will be performing as Special Guests For Culture Club’s only UK date December Wednesday 14th at The SSE Arena Wembley, London

Click here for event info: http://www.ssearena.co.uk/events/detail/culture-club

Tickets on sale now! Call the venue on 0844 815 0815
or
go to www.bookingsdirect.co.uk or call 0844 249 2222

More information about the event here: http://www.eventim.co.uk/tickets.html?fun=evdetail&doc=evdetailb&key=1746967$8786466&affiliate=3AE

 

One of the biggest bands of the ‘80s is back AND with the original line-up, playing their only UK show this year on Wednesday 14 December at The SSE Arena Wembley.

The overwhelming excitement and outstanding rave reviews garnered on their world tour have driven the group to announce a homecoming show in London where the band will perform favourites from their albums including Kissing to Be Clever and Colour By Numbers, as well as their latest album Tribes.

Known for dominating the charts worldwide with their classic hits including ‘Karma Chameleon’, ‘Do You Really Want To Hurt Me’ and ‘I’ll Tumble 4 Ya’. There is not a country in the world that doesn’t know the names of Boy George and Culture Club. The Grammy Award winners have sold in excess of 100 million singles and over 50 million albums, and were one of the biggest pop bands of the 1980s.

They achieved seven straight Top 10 hits in the UK, nine Top 10 singles in the USA and nine Top 20 singles in Australia. They had number 1 singles in over a dozen countries and multiplatinum album sales across the world, and were the first group since The Beatles to have three Top Ten hits in America from a debut album. They were also the first group in music history to have an album certified diamond in Canada. The original band line-up is Mike Craig (bass guitar), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), Jon Moss (drums and percussion) and flamboyant front-man Boy George (lead vocals)

culture club