Being a sex symbol does not affect me…

Several points of the Globe lived 1981 under the Pop kingdom of a blonde candidate to sexual symbol, of the name Kim Smith, but born to be WILDE!
How many of you did not dream to see the video clip of ‘Cambodia’, with that celestial body plunged in a tropical atmosphere and traveled, better, caressed by tarantulas thirsty for emotion but simultaneously innocent in the face of such beauty?
‘Cambodia’ sold well in Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, France, South Africa and Japan, becoming a platinum disc because its sales exceeded one million copies.
Since then, be aware that the fact that you went to see KIM on stage does not mean that you like your music, geared towards the generation of 14-16 years, or for traditional poster lovers. I went to see her to see that the power that woman exerts on men is very real! Feeds my huge weakness for blondes!
For most of the show my eyes designed a whole deeper path than the auditory system. Her message is translated by the ritual movement of his body, allied with the angelic voice, that any computer that has failed has not hesitated to program it as a sex symbol.

The musical aesthetic of KIM WILDE is truly a family affair. The music is composed by her brother Ricky, who is part of the group that accompanies her on stage and the texts are from dad MARTY WILDE, one of the great pioneers of British rock, a sort of English-language Elvis, whose reign stretched from 1957 to 62 with a very important single “Teenager In Love”, “Endless Sleep”.
Like any mortal artist, her first step was towards the Americas, with the single ‘Kids in America’, soon followed by another hit ‘Checkered Love’. As for me, I could only absorb ‘View from the bridge’, perhaps because of the approaching old age.
Interviewing KIM WILDE was a real adventure because her tour manager said she had nothing of interest to report to the press. How could I go home and cross the border (the concert was held in the German city of Offenbach) without knowing her true musical dimensions?
After accepting the rules, they led me backstage, and TO BE WITH WILDE ceased to be an obsession …

The show tonight was based on compositions from your third album, ‘Catch as catch can’, released yesterday in France, and for that reason, I can not issue the least criticism. I wish you’d tell us a bit about it.
This album is the result of a work done last summer, recorded in England at RAK Studios and produced by my brother Ricky, who is also part of the group that accompanies me on stage. One of the texts, precisely ‘Dancing in the dark’, had in the work of the mix the participation of the famous Nile Rodgers from Chic.
Today I sang six titles of this new album, which counts ten, whose music and texts are, as usual, respectively by Ricky and Marty Wilde, my father.
From this LP has already been extracted a single ‘Love Blonde’ which is also the latest video.

(after the tour-manager offered me a copy of the new LP, the first comment was for the two magnificent photos on the cover). I was going to ask you but seeing these two navy blue photos on the cover, I understood the meaning of the album title. Who is responsible for the photographic work?
An Englishwoman well known in the press, whose name is Sheila Rock.

Kim, why all this protection operation around you, with written permission to penetrate behind the scenes, slides subject to management censorship and permission to shoot during the first three songs?
The notion of control and safety has to be a priority in the shows. As for photography, we have contracts signed with professionals and there are certain rules to respect. You know, show business, after all!

Most of your audience is quite young and easily indulges in a certain amount of idolatry. I myself came to admire your beauty, which is quite real unlike certain make-up constructions by rock in order to sell a product often decomposed already. Anyway, ‘Love Blonde’ I interpret it as a provocation. Is it?
Come to the top of your southern character! Provocation? Not! Well, there was a certain ambiguity at the beginning, when my father proposed it, but as I liked the musical part I decided to accept the risk of the possible confusion that could come from that title, because in reality, ‘Love Blonde’, nothing has to do with Kim Wilde. It is a way of paying homage to American cinema and especially to Marilyn Monroe. But I will not forbid my fans to give it another meaning.

The address marked on the first album was tagged as POP. But today, and especially on stage, the synthesizers occupy an important place, closer to electronic bands like Depeche Mode, for example. Is this intentional?
As I said, the musical part is in charge of my brother Ricky, who is also a fan of the synthesizer. From that first album, you’re right, we decided to accept the electronica with the proper care not to confuse us with the OMD or others of the type. Ricky came to accompany my father in the organ and this had a huge influence on his turn to the electronica, which is logical.

The video about ‘Cambodia’ was one of the first interesting things that was done in this field, but exploring your plastic has made you enter the very restricted field of sex symbols. Who was the director of this clip and how do you see this image?
The idea rests with Brian Grant and was inspired by the movie ‘Apocalypse Now’. Being a sexual symbol does not affect me because it is part of the game. However, I try to ensure that my female image is not excessive.

What is your best quality?
Humility, maybe. I have always stubbornly clung to certain values, such as friendship. Despite his success, I always kept my old childhood friends, because his degree of interest in me remained natural.

What kind of music marked your childhood?
From an early age I felt this attraction on the stage. I did not live the musical period of my father, because at that time I was a baby, but the fact of seeing all those instruments around me, exerted on me a certain fascination.
From a very young age I admired the extraordinary voice of Gary Glitter and later I liked the style of Elvis Costello, although his last works do not convince me. At the age of 16, in the punk period, I was more attracted to the Stranglers than all the history created around the Sex Pistols.

Let’s go back to the show. What is the composition of the group that accompanied you?
In addition to my brother Ricky, on synthesizers, Mark Chaplin is on bass, Trevor Murrell on drums, Steve Byrd as solo guitarist and Gary Barnacle on saxophone.

In the 80’s there is a certain predominance for feminism in rock! Multo see in it until your futoro. And names like Pat Benatar, Go Go’s, Schoolgirl, Ellen Foley, Nina Hagen, Grace Jones, Belle Stars, are today’s poster and proof of that thesis. Will conjugated rock in the feminine be viable?
The woman emancipated herself musically as early as the 1960s and sexually in the 1970s! Its evolution and constructive.
Let’s say that the man abandoned his ‘superiority complex’ and ceased to be exclusive. There are even many who exploit the feminine ‘look’ and the result is nothing catastrophic! (laughs, referring to Boy George of the Culture Club). And bizarre, the first time I saw Boy George on TV I did not realize he was a man. It has a good voice. The 80s are already feminine because the technology doors are now open.

What about seventh art? Already had offers?
This is one of the great ambitions of the moment, but I refuse to play a role with musical relation. But all this is still, perhaps, inopportune because the tours leave me little free time and there are still many countries to conquer!

Marty Wilde, your father, has a role, at least one, very important in your career, because he is the author of the texts you interpret. But in the 50’s, in its finale, was also a name well publicized in the world of the disc. For us critical, the phenomenon Kim Wilde presents itself as a good operation created around a Family, because in your beginning spoke more even of Mr. Wilde than in you. Do you think the Wilde look corresponds to this doubt?
These three albums were all a team work, but we do not forget that it is always me who decides if such or such composition should make its exit to the market.
Well, my father’s experience is beneficial because it also gives me a certain orientation. But my career has nothing to do with Marty Wilde’s past. The concerns of my generation are not the same. However, I admire my father’s work immensely and from time to time, I turn his records around. He was a major victim of the lack of structure of the time and the appearance of the Beatles and Rolling Stones.
Do you think there’s a Wilde look?
I may start to write some texts as well, because as we install a small study at home, there will be perhaps more time available.

In closing, I would like to know if you interfere with politics. How do you analyze the enormous crisis that invades the world?
I have never publicly assumed any political position. The ideas in this field I keep for myself. In the end, I’m an artist and not a leader!
I never lent slogans to the public.
I’m optimistic. The world will continue to spin!

Oh! God! Thank You! Because I will continue to prefer blondes!