The jet-set life of a rock star was a long way from the tiny Caribbean island of Trinidad where Ocean grew up in the Fifties. His father played guitar and taught him calypso music at a young age, but at night he’d listen to the radio and discover a whole other world. “I listened to people like Nat King Cole and Sam Cooke,” he says. “What attracted me was the melodies. I never understood the lyrics, but the melodies meant so much to me.
Throughout the late Sixties and into the Seventies, he played in various bands around London and even released a handful of singles, but none of them gained any traction and by 1975 he was working at a Ford factory. When he heard that a woman was redecorating her house and wanted to get rid of a mini upright piano, he bought it off her for 23 pounds even though he had little experience with the instrument.
His days at the factory were over and he used the royalty money to buy a house. Three albums and a series of successful European singles followed, but none of them generated even a bit of excitement in America. “It was great,” he says. “There was little old me among giants, a dwarf among giants. The Rolling Stones and Teddy Pendergrass were there, just to name a few, and I was in awe. The stage was huge. I felt like ant on a flippin’ ant hill. Of course it was scary at first, but I got onstage and saw all those people and something kicked in. I got into the spirit of it and it felt like a dream.”
By this point, Eighties nostalgia was big business in Europe. Ocean found himself playing to enormous crowds at events like Rewind Festival in England where he shared the stage with the likes of Rick Astley, Bananarama, Cutting Crew, and Heaven 17. “I really liked it,” he says. “Now I’ve been on the road for 12 years. Time flies.” , followed in 2013 by the covers collection. On the latter LP, he reunited with producer/songwriter Barry Eastman.
The 80s feels like such a long time ago.
He finally got out of my dreams
jessica_hakes
Caribbean Queen is a tight 80’s jam.
Too late for all that
Caribbean queen still my shit 🔥🔥
Perhaps one of my favorite people who happen to be performers. Toured with him in the late 00’s. Such a nice, down to earth man. He deserves nothing but success.
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