Kim Wilde: Never Say Never

It’s 25 years ago already when Kim Wilde conquered the world with her superhit Kids in America. Her previous album dates back to 1995, but of course everyone remembers ‘Anyplace, anywhere, anytime’ which she scored a great comeback-hit with togeher with Nena. Besides that everything was silent around gardening Kim. Now there is Never Say Never. A cd with eight new songs and six versions of wellknown hits that do not add much to the originals. The new songs, however, are unexpectedly interesting. Great up-tempo songs with a lot of energy. A song like I Fly bursts with rock influences and sounds like a smoother version of Blur’s Song 2. But a song like Forgive Me is pure dance. If Kim would have added four more of these nice songs to her eight new ones, she would have made a very strong album. And those recycled songs would have been truly unnecessary.

René van Duijnhoven talks to Kim Wilde

What’s it like being a ‘popstar’ again at 45?
Great. I love doing it again. I’m proud of the album and bursting with energy. Maybe it’s because I was out of it for some time. I want to get fully involved with music again.

When did the idea for the album happen?
It was a series of moments. It started when I did tours in 2001 onwards, with bands like Human League and ABC. Then in 2003 I recorded Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime with Nena. During that project my outlook on a new album changed from ‘never again’ to ‘maybe’. When the producer (Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen) proposed the project to me I had to get used to the idea. But I was sold when I saw a few these new songs.

Which songs were they?
One of the songs was I Fly. A great song full of energy and the speed of it sounds like the flight of an airplane between the mountains, like you see in action movies. I hope that we will also release it as a single sometime.

And the new versions of the old songs?
I had more trouble with that. Kids In America is the best song I’ve ever made. When I heard the new version, I felt there wasn’t enough of a difference with the old version. How can you improve on such a classic? If we colonise the moon in a hundred years, it will be played over there too. When Charlotte Hatherley came into the picture to share the vocals with me, I had more lust for it. She always plays the song during her gigs and felt it was an honour being able to sing it. The only condition was that I wasn’t there when she sang it. So I went shopping.