Kim Wilde: Why there will be a new Kim Wilde (22) during her next tour…

Kim Wilde, who will become 23 years old this next 18 November, has often said there would be concerts in Germany. Now it will finally be right, eventhough her new single ‘Love blonde’ is not yet a hit single. In Finland Kim starts her European tour in the beginning of November with a new band and a new show, then goes to Scandinavia and in the middle of the month she finally comes to us. We visited Kim, who was on stage for the last time a year ago, in the English town Knebworth, where she has built a recording studio of her own with her family. During the interview she sat on the lap of her boyfriend Gary, but didn’t want herself to be photographed this way: ‘I have been raised in a way that I don’t think such photographs are decent.’
With old hits and brand new songs Kim will come to germany. About ‘Dancing in the dark’, the single which is released shortly, she say: ‘The song goes slightly towards David Bowie’s ‘Let’s dance’ – a very hot dance song.’ The title ‘Dancing in the dark’ has inspired the singer, who was formerly an art student, to make a record cover. The new LP ‘Catch as catch can’ shows a portrait of Kim Wilde before a dark city – everything in shades of blue. It’s an image like this which Kim would like the stage of her live concert be set in. ‘Cities by night have an idiosyncratic influence on me. I love looking out of windows, just to look and try to imagine what happens in all those houses.’

During the production of her third album, Kim was there from A to Z for the first time. She has watched her father and her brother, who is not in her band anymore by the way, ‘on their fingers all the time’. Kim knows that the next few months after the months of silence will be important for her career. ‘I’m moving towards a different, slightly harder sound. The new songs are more aggressive, fit more to the real me – because I’m not the glamourgirl I’ve been made out to be anyway. I wasn’t too unhappy that my career went slightly downhill recently, it gave me a chance to free myself.’ In her new show Kim will wear mini skirts, just like she does privately (‘Gary likes me in mini skirts’), but not the refined leather dress from ‘Love blonde’. She tells us an interesting background story about the latter.
‘I didn’t really like the song and protested against my father and my brother by buying the most tasteless, most over-the-top dress I could find. When my family saw this, they all tried to talk me out of it. And just because of that I wore it during a TV performance. That’s just the way I am.’

This dress and Kim’s wearing it during performances have provoked the thought that Kim had grown into some sort of female Rod Stewart. She laughs about this comparison: ‘No, I couldn’t go that far with my sexuality. But of course I have a female side to me, which can feel very sexy when men are looking at me like that… ‘
Whether she believes that being blonde has its merits? ‘Well, it is true that most men seem to prefer blond women. But as you get older you find out that the colour of hair isn’t really that important. The inner self is more important. And good men know this.’ Doesn’t Kim’s boyfriend Gary get jealous, when Kim is admired by fans of all ages? ‘No’, she laughs looking at Gary sideways, ‘he knows that I am not the kind to take advantage of that – flirting is not easy for me.’

While the English fans saw a young girl who was somewhat overwhelmed by the sudden success, they will now see a selfcertain and success-hungry woman. That Kim has been doing intensive bodybuilding for three months, is not a coincidence: ‘I want and have to work during these tour. This is why my brother and father stay home this time around. I want to be responsible myself.’
When the tour has been and gone, Kim moves on to new challenges. In January next year she starts her weekly TV show in England, in which she will present stars and newcomers. And during Christmas she will meet Elton John, to try and record a duet together. ‘I admire Elton John as a person and a musician – a duet with him would be my biggest dream come true!’