Kim Wilde

There’s no stopping the 80s icon Kim Wilde who is about to embark on a massive European tour.

The most charted UK female artist in the 80s, with 17 Top 40 hits including Kids in America, Cambodia and you Keep Me Hanging On, Kim will be showcasing her latest album Closer, along with her greatest hits.

And later this year, she will also be releasing some special editions from her Closer album, including a new 7inch vinyl of her next single, Scorpio.

Enjoying life to the full, Kim speaks to Music-News about her gratitude for her fans, both old and new, and for being able to continue singing, dancing and performing in her dream job.

We spoke to Kim about her tour and new releases, as well as her teenage crushes, her career in the 80s and how she is fighting fit into her sixties with a new healthy lifestyle and outlook.

You’ve got a huge European tour coming up – 35 gigs in Holland, Belgium, Germany Switzerland, Denmark, that’s a huge tour! Are you looking forward to it?
I'm really looking forward to it, I've been preparing for it for quite some time, I've got some great new costumes that I'm having made especially for the tour. I think I'm more fit now going into the tour than I've ever been and I feel very excited about it, I love singing, I love performing, I've got a great band, we're doing a lot - I think we pretty much almost sold out the tours. Since COVID, people appreciate live music much more than they ever did before. I think people realised how much they love going to a gig and seeing live music and live performance so the good thing about that is that, subsequent to the pandemic, live music's really taken off big time.

How do you prepare for a tour like that?
I look after myself – well I've always looked after myself, particularly as I hit 60. If I don't start looking after myself now, I never will! The thing is you get to 60 and you think if I don't get this right now, then I might struggle in my 70s or 80s. So you can get extra motivated to get fitter and you have better lifestyle choices. I've certainly changed my lifestyle and my choices considerably in my 60s from where I was in my 30s, 40s and 50s, but you know, I had fun then and I'm having just as much fun now as a sober sort of keep-fit fanatic!

With your European Tour coming up, what’s the vibe with your European fans – is it different or similar to your UK audience?
Well it's very similar and very mixed as well, all kind of all age groups. It's not just the people who were around then. There’s a lot of 20-year-olds and 30-year-olds. So there’s a real cross section of people and there's a joyful feeling I suppose that they think “at least she's still here”. There’s something to be said for that!

The energy on that stage is phenomenal and especially the whole family, with yourself, Ricky and Scarlett. It must be great to be able to share that experience with them over the years?
It is. I started my career with my brother Ricky and now he's still on stage and is my music director and is a fantastic performer and musician in his own right, apart from song writing and producing all my stuff. And Scarlett too, she's been songwriting with me for the last few years on my last couple of albums and the rest of the musicians have been with me for decades, so there's a real family feeling when we’re on stage. But we all love pop music, we all love rock'n'roll, we love a loud guitar, like most other people do!

We saw you at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in March for your Closer tour and what a night that was! The songs on your album are fantastic we love Midnight Train and Hourglass Human, that you performed with Scarlett. You seemed quite emotional that night?
Thanks so much. I think the older I get, the more appreciative I get with people coming to see me. I could understand it perhaps when I was 21 or 31 or even 41, but you know I’m nearly 65 now and there's people coming to see me and they are really excited about seeing me and it is overwhelming. It's like “what are you doing there?!” I'm so grateful that you are there but I don't take any of it for granted.

We also saw you at the O2 indigo with Johnny Hates Jazz and you performed Turn Back The Clock with Clark and Mike and the band – a song you did the original backing vocals for. What was that like?
Turn Back the Clock is such a beautiful soul and what great songs Clark and the band produced. It was such an honour to celebrate their album and that night and their career. They are lovely people, we go back a long way.

You were dating Calvin Hayes who was in Johnny Hates Jazz at the time, weren't you? Is that how that collaboration came about?
Yeah that's how it came about because Calvin is Mickie Most’s son and I was working with the Mickie Most and our lives came together in a rather lovely way and then he asked me if I wanted to sing on that song and it was lovely. We performed it on the Terry Wogan show and other big shows. Happy memories and a beautiful song.

In the 80s, you were the most charted British female artist with 17 Top 40 singles, what was that time like for you, being on Top of the Pops, in Smash Hits magazine, etc?
I was still buying records I was still a fan too, you know, so if I turned up to Top of the Pops and Altered Images were there, I’d be like “Oh my God”. I was very young, I was 20 when Kids in America came out and so I had all the energy in the world and I had the best job in the world and I got an opportunity to do it not just in the UK but all over the world. I took to it like a duck to water. I love singing, I mean my main motivation was that I love music and I love singing. The rest of it was obviously really fun, you know, the fashion and the glamour and photo shoots, videos and all that kind of stuff. There was a lot of pressure about how I looked and then pressure to have a hit record, so you know it was a sort of double-edged sword. It was a real mixed bag often, having one’s private life in public. But overall I just feel really lucky that I I had my dream job at the age that you want a dream job like that.

Were there any TV programmes you particularly enjoyed going on as a artist?
I love Top of the Pops. I went on there many times. I mean, I'd been watching Top of the Pops since I was nine or 10 years old, and then to suddenly find myself on it! I do remember being on there singing a song we had out called Cambodia and I remember looking at the audience and seeing Boy George dancing in the audience. I remember thinking, wow whoever that is, they’re gonna be a big star because you couldn't take your eyes off him. I just remember thinking he should be up here, not me!

Another standout moment was Rocking Around The Christmas Tree. What was it like to work with comedian Mel Smith?
I always say he had the energy of 20 20-year-olds. He was just incredible you know you couldn't keep up with him. Even after the video shoot I think he was going off clubbing somewhere while I was going to go home and have a cup of tea!

What posters did you have on your bedroom wall?
I had Elton John (I had so many albums of his), David Bowie, I had Stephen Stills from Crosby Stills and Nash (I had a bit of a crush on him). I had Roy Wood on my wall. I really loved Wizzard’s Roy Wood. I met him during the 90s when I got into gardening. I went to do a book signing in Birmingham, and then the store manager came up, looking a bit flustered and he said “Roy Wood’s here to see you!” I said “Really?” And then Roy Wood comes with all his long hair and his little pink glasses, and we had this picture taken in the garden centre. He said he’d seen my name out on the front and he thought he’d pop in to see me!

You toured with David Bowie, didn’t you?
I was such a huge fan David Bowie fan and ended up touring with him on the Sound and Vision tour! He was just gorgeous. I had a huge crush on him, which wasn't reciprocated! When I left, I gave him a Marty Wilde T-shirt So that’s my lovely memory of me giving David Bowie my dad’s T-Shirt!

You also supported Michael Jackson, didn’t you? What was he like?
That was just incredible. Over 30 shows all over Europe and the UK on the Bad tour. I mean, I had to really pull my socks up. I had never done so much work in all my life, at such a high level. It was really inspiring to watch him at the side of the stage, which I often got to do, and it really made me raise my own personal bar quite a way. It was a life-changing time in my career.

You have some new releases coming up?
I've got my next single from the Closer album, which came out in March, called Scorpio and that's coming out in a few weeks’ time. I also have a picture disc coming out and a deluxe Closer CD with new artwork and bonus tracks. I'm really excited about it.
*Find out more about Kim’s tour and new music releases at www.kimwilde.com