Typically Tropical

In 1974, after Jeff Calvert returned from a Jamaican vacation, Morgan Studios colleagues Geraint Hughes and Calvert devised an impromptu plan to craft a reggae number, thereby originating the pseudo-Caribbean-flavored duo Typically Tropical. Hughes later recalled that the pair finished “Barbados” in two hours using only piano and guitar. They next slipped into Morgan after hours to cut a demo, grabbing whatever instruments lay at hand for the backing tracks. Within the year the duo landed a three-single contract with Gull Records. Recording “Barbados” properly under the Typically Tropical name, they enlisted Morgan’s leading session players, among them guitarist Chris Spedding, the Tornados’ drummer Clem Cattini, Blue Mink’s Max West and Roger Coulam on keyboards, and guitarist Vic Flick. Hughes adopted the alter egos of producer Max West and Tobias Wilcock, the latter supplying vocals with Calvert and depicted as the captain of the song’s Coconut Airways airline. Issued in May 1975 with “Sandy” on the B-side, the single occupied the U.K. charts for nearly three months, unexpectedly reaching number one and selling almost 500,000 copies in Britain. Capitalizing on that success, Typically Tropical completed the album Barbados Sky, issued by Gull later in 1975. Two further singles drawn from the set—“Rocket Now” in October 1975 and “Everybody Play the Fool” the following May—failed to chart, after which the duo quickly receded from view. “Barbados” nevertheless resurfaced dramatically in fall 1999 when the Vengaboys reworked it as “We’re Going to Ibiza,” which entered the charts at number one twenty-five years after the original had brought a touch of coconut-scented levity to drizzly England. Hughes and Calvert continued their collaboration, writing such songs as Sarah Brightman’s 1978 single “I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper” and producing Judas Priest’s Sad Wings of Destiny LP.