Boogie back to the 70s

Feb 8 2008 By Diane Parkes

IT'S time to don your flares as the Seventies musical Oh! What a Night returns to Birmingham's Alexandra Theatre from Thursday, with Kid Creole heading the cast.

Kid Creole and the Coconuts may have chart hits with Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy and I'm a Wonderful Thing Baby in the Eighties, but it is actually the Seventies which holds a special place in his heart.

Brought up in the Bronx in New York, Creole, real name August Darnell, spent the decade clubbing.

"Those were great years," he recalls. "We were always at Studio 54 and I was lucky enough to see the greats - James Brown, The Trammps, The Four Seasons. We were right in it with great music every night. It was where we really started off and I had my first hit record in 1976, it was a great time. But I think I am the only one in the show who actually remembers it!"

Now Kid Creole is happily recreating that decade every night.

"I am a lucky guy as I get to party every night," he says. "It is great to be in such a fun show with such great music."

That music includes Celebration, We Are Family, YMCA and, of course, Oh! What a Night. And set to this music is the story of a nightclub under fire with its resident DJ, played by Kid Creole, as its only hope.

"You know I have been doing this show for ten years and I still don't know the story," he jokes. "Because we all get so wrapped up in the music and in having a party. It is pure escapism. You don't always want to go to the theatre and ponder two-and-a-half hours of angst, sometimes you just want to go out and have a good time."

Creole may have been brought up in the US but he is now safely settled in London from where he still performs with the Coconuts and in Oh! What a Night. And he is a keen Anglophile.

"Over the years I have been to every corner of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales and you have so many beautiful places. And there are some great spots in the countryside - for when you're retired," he says.

* Feb 14-16. Call 0844 847 2293 or visit www.alexandra theatre.org.uk