Date: 10 June 1988
Originally published in: GT (Sweden)
Written by: Camilla Hentschel
Kim Wilde got the music with her mother’s milk. Dad Marty, brother Ricki and mother Joyce have all pushed on in her career. They have succeeded quite well. On Saturday Kim Wilde appears on Eriksbergsvägen and supports Michael Jackson.
You probably remember her first hit song “Kids in America”. Kim’s childish voice and latently nagging chorus pinned persistent. Perhaps you have not been able to avoid the latest single “Hey Mr. Heartache” from the new LP “Close” which has an equally hot-tempered chorus.
Not nervous
It is five years since Kim Wilde came along, and it took another two and a half years and three LPs before she dared to get up on stage. Once she was standing there, it was no picnic. Hopefully she can do it better on the rock gala this weekend. That is of course if she’ll convince the 100,000 people in the audience.
Kim Wilde takes it calmly. She has been commissioned to warm up for 27 concerts on Jackson tour. When the news came in May, she said in a GT-interview that she was not the least bit nervous.
– There is no man that can impress me, even if it is a big star.
It’s tough to say of a lady who has Doris Day and Marilyn Monroe as their idols. Michael will then blast on the respectful observance.
– I met him five years ago, I don’t remember so much about him other than that he is hopefully not as quiet and shy this time.
The sugar sweet Kim Wilde from England anyway has in common with superstar Michael Jackson that they both grew up with music in the family.
Kim’s father Marty Wilde was British rock singer in the Fifties and then became successful in bringing forward other aspiring artists. Brother Ricki has gone in his father’s footsteps and now produces his own sister, and mother Joyce has a background in girl group The Vernon Girl Singers as she sang in the 50s. Today she manages the finances for family project Kim Wilde.
Matured
Kim Wilde has gone into the family business during her entire career. But now it seems like she’s matured. On her last LP she has written a lot of her own songs for and she has bought her own apartment in London to get away from the family. There are rumors, too that she embarked on a romance with Calvin Hayes of Johnny Hates Jazz.
