I've been trying to retire for 15 years... this time it's real

Iconic hitmaker Kid Creole, whose fans included Princess Diana, is hanging up his fedora with a final UK tour next month. The self-styled Tropical Gangster reflects on his colourful life, including the time he upset Michael Jackson

- By Sue Crawford

IT IS PERHAPS fitting that Kid Creole and the Coconuts star August Darnell has chosen to begin his farewell tour in Britain, as it is a place he called home for many years. Although born and raised in New York's Bronx, his complicated love life meant he spent many years living in Sheffield, Manchester and London.

"It all has to do with ex-wives, of course," he laughs today. "Although I never really married them. I've been married twice; the others were common-law wives. One lived in London, one lived in Sheffield and one lived in Manchester."

His children from those relationships bring his total offspring to nine, which could explain why he has waited until the ripe old age of 74 to finally hang up his hat.

"That's absolutely right!" he guffaws. "I have three boys and six girls I love them all but it's very expensive, because I have to see them all and they're scattered all over the place. But it's great, I love it."

Kid Creole and the Coconuts, with August as their flamboyant lead singer, were pop royalty back in the 1980s, counting even Princess Diana as a fan of their chart-topping hits Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy and Stool Pigeon.

With August flamboyantly dressed in zoot suits and his trademark fedora hat, accompanied by his multi-cultural, multi-racial band and a trio of female backing vocalists and dancers (The Coconuts), they brought a new sound to the British pop charts, blending disco, Latin American and Caribbean music, and an image inspired by the big band era. They won millions of fans and the Princess of Wales invited them to perform at a 1988 Barnardo's fundraising ball. On grainy film footage from the event, a smiling Diana, dressed in a stunning silver pleated lamé gown, dances with designer Bruce Oldfield as the group perform their Top 10 single I'm a Wonderful Thing, Baby.