Oh Annie

“Oh Annie, I’m not your Daddy” screams my 14 year old sister in unison with the crowd. I can’t help but laugh as it’s the only song we both know by Kid Creole and The Coconuts, so I join in.

Earlier this morning I’d been at work chatting away with my boss moaning there was nothing to do in the evenings; she suggested I take a look at the Barbican website. So there I was nosing around the website when I saw all these amazing events that were taking place. Only problem was the tickets were quite expensive and as a young person working part-time I just didn’t feel I could afford it. So feeling disheartened I explained to my boss that although it all looked well and good I just didn’t see myself forking put that kind of money for a one-night show. At this point she actually laughed at me and informed me that if I registered for freeB on the Barbican website. As an under 25 I could get free tickets, now if you’re like me when you hear the word free, you’ll jump at the chance.
So there I was registering for freeB, all excited at the thought of seeing a free show. I’m not going to say it was the easiest experience trying to locate all the information but after ten minutes of fiddling about I managed to have my tickets booked for the same night with some pretty good seats.

Now you’re probably wondering why I decided to go see an old 80’s Latin group. Well from a young age I remember my Uncle was a big fan and every time me and my sister went to visit him, he would put his Kid Creole record on, blast Annie I’m not your daddy through the speakers and we would dance around in his living room dressed up in his wife’s clothes and make up hence the reason I only know the one song.

So that night my sister and I made our way to the Barbican, now as I’d never heard of it before I thought getting there would be hard but realistically I can’t believe how easy it was to find and why I’d never been there before. When we got there we realised how young we were compared to the rest of the audience, everyone there was my mum’s age or older. We actually considered turning round and heading back home, but luckily we didn’t. The crowd went wild as Kid Creole hit the stage in his bright purple “pimpin pimpin” suit; he really is one cool cat. As the night progressed the crowd were in awe as he was shaking his stuff on the stage and not a single man in the arena could take their eyes off the Coconuts. It was such an amazing atmosphere; Kid Creole had the whole audience on their feet dancing to his smooth Latin vibes. Bongo Eddie blew the crowd away with his solo while the band had us screaming for more.

All in all it was an amazing night not to be missed; we left the Barbican skipping down the road singing our hearts out. No one puts on a show like the oldies.