Date: 1 January 1981
Originally published in: Top (Belgium)
Written by: Jempi Welkenhuyzen
Whoever can make an LP with great guitar work and is able to draw some singles from that without having had any live band experience, should deserve to be named a hero while alive.
Kim Wilde would have a big chance to be a candidaete. “Chequered love”, “Water on glass” and the many others are all great songs, that have come alive through the masterminds of pop producers Chinn and Chapman (ex-Mud and Racey), who hope to have made a new teenage star with this project. That the family Wilde always handled the guitar well, has got a lot to do with it. Kim grew up with brother Rick, who once had a modest hit as “Astronaut” on the Knokke songfestival, while father Wilde has also had his time in the limelight.
Daughter surpasses the whole family, though. In a few weeks time more than one million records of this 20 year old have left the shelves. Hertfordshire is celebrating rightfully.
Chinn & Chapmann are toasting. In their office on Sunset Boulevard they told me the concept behind Kim. “We look for a beautifully looking girl of around twenty. Physically she has to look like Debbie Harry, but a bit rougher and more mature. We want to seize the market with a sound between pop and hardrock. Call it hard edged pop if you like.”
When it comes to this, the gentlemen have succeeded. For now she doesn’t want to pay the price of fame. There has to be a band and as long as it’s not there, she is not doing anything live. Even a one off gig in a big discotheque in Leuven isn’t in the picture, no matter how much it will earn her. Kim: “Look, I am on the top of the charts very fast, but by being impulsive, I can also go down as fast. My father has been through a period the rock & roll times of the sixties. Sorry, but I’m not about to change my life because of two singles and an album. My work is changing, but I am not.”
Despite everything the blonde one has to spend four days a week fulfilling her obligations. TV-recordings, photo sessions, interviews by phone, it’s all part of it. Kim minimalises it. Near a giantburger in the McDonald’s round the corner of the studio she says: “Partly you have to roll with it. But that’s out of your hands. Why are all these journalists so interested in me? I live like any 20 year old. It’s just that I sing as well. I drive a Mini Cooper and I like to wear trousers. I don’t get into this glamour thing. You will never see me at parties. Take Bob Geldof of the Boomtowns. You meet him everywhere. When you have to be in publicity like that, I don’t like it.”
No, Kim prefers to go to the countryside with her two dogs, dressed in jeans and a shirt, like the average teenager. “Do you know what’s fun?”, she smiles. “Cooking Greek or Japanese for my friends from art college. Or going shopping in second hand shops. Bags only cost 3 pound there.”
For now she can do this. Producer Mickie Most is working on a show concept, that should be perfect. Kim wants to present herself. “I hope that fans will think: she’s just like us, aside from the fact that she’s on stage singing. I’d like to talk to my audience afterwards. Not just about music, but also about their thoughts in general. They are my generation, after all.”
So you see, the beauty doesn’t leave the beast, an there are some ‘brains’ as well. Whoever said that Wilde is so wild and exciting? Blondes may have more fun, but each in their own way.
