Date: 24 October 1982
Originally published in: Sunday Times (UK)
Written by: Simon Frith
Kim Wilde’s hits came before her show, and her current tour is her first. Her Birmingham concert on Monday was a strangely muted event. She’s got a good act – well paced, well lit, well played – but seemed too anxious to depart from the script, to respond to the audience. In her nervous concern to get the notes right, she didn’t sing her songs as songs, as words carrying meaning. The Birmingham crowd seemed equally unused to live gigs and stolidly accepted her final shout of “Thank you, Manchester!”. She came hastily back to apologise, and the encore was the best part of the show – awkwardness is a more movnig quality than professionalism.
