Career
The band was actually a duo comprising Stewart Peters Hughes and Jeffrey Calvert, who had met through Hughes' band, Quasar. They wrote and recorded songs at Morgan Studios, where Calvert worked with his father, when no one else was around. Calvert had been on holiday to Barbados and based the song on his experiences. It was recorded with various session musicians including guitarist Chris Spedding, drummer Clem Cattini and Vic Flick.
Although the song, featuring mock vocals by Captain Tobias Wilcox (Hughes' alter ego) of Coconut Airways, was far from being genuine reggae it was originally intended to be released on Trojan, but the little known record label Gull Records came up with a better offer (reportedly £1,500). "Barbados" was ready for release in November 1974, but the label thought it was best to wait until the next summer before releasing it.
"Barbados" entered the UK Singles Chart at no. 37 in late June 1975, and five weeks later was at number 1 for one week. In total "Barbados" spent eleven weeks in the UK chart.
Typically Tropical released an album Barbados Sky (1975), with the follow-up singles "Rocket Now" and "Ghost Story". They failed to chart, and as a recording act the duo went their separate ways, billed forever as one-hit wonders. Hughes (often billed and known as Max West), currently composes production library music. Calvert subsequently became a pilot.
Hughes and Calvert meanwhile continued to work in the studio together, writing Sarah Brightman's "I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper" in 1978, and in 1976 producing Judas Priest's album, Sad Wings of Destiny.
"Barbados" was later successfully covered by the Vengaboys in 1999 as "We're Going to Ibiza".
Read more about this topic: Typically Tropical
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