Date: 1 April 1985
Originally published in: Rocknews (France)
Written by:
Fast portrait of a fair headstock, bombarded star with his first single, and who is still on track at the end of four albums.
Marty Wilde, in England, is a little the equivalent of Dick Rivers in our country: a pioneer of the rock ‘n’ roll, recognized as such, but whose career never reached the highest peaks. The comparison stops there: Marty Wilde took part in placing a certain Kim into the world, which currently enables him to indirectly satisfy its frustrated ambitions.
That occurred a little less than twenty-five years ago, November 18, 1960, in Chiswick. Aged eight years old, Kim moves with her parents and her Ricky brother to Hertfordshire. It is at this time that she starts to study classic piano, pushed by her father, who evidently intends it for a musical career. A few years later, Kim will however change direction by enrolling in a college of Art and Design, before dropping it again and returning to her first love. A priori, it is in Ricky that Marty Wilde intended to pass the torch of rock ‘n’ roll, but fate decided some differently: while presenting the demos to a producer, Ricky found himself congratulated… for the choruses carried out by his sister.
A few weeks later, Kim records the song of his brother and finds herself at the top of the charts. Following this success flash, Kim has aligned, for five years, an impressive series of hits written – for the biggest part – by her father and her brother: an effective synthetic rock ‘n’ roll on which a strange voice is found. A recipe which also functions on the level of the albums: “Kim Wilde”, “Select”, “Catch as catch can” were platinum or gold discs almost everywhere in Europe, and its new album “Teases & dares “, released a few months ago, is already going the same way.
Astonishing fact: despite her blonde hair and her opulent chest, Kim did not succeed yet in conquering the Americans, who usually let themselves convince by this kind of argument. It shouldn’t be long…
In any case, even if the European press have compared her a little hastily and generously with Brigitte Bardot or Marilyn Monroe because of her blondeness, Kim has an obvious charm, whose secrecy probably lies in the famous sulking pout raised daily by her fleshy, sensual lips. And then, simple clothes (she recently gave up her eternal leather skirts), coming from second hand clothing shops more frequently can be identified. Only key of sophistication: her perfume, “Eau de Calandre”, from Paco Rabanne…
Besides that, one will quickly have understood, reading her interviews, that political or philosophical questions do not bother her much.
She prefers to speek of her house (she still lives with her parents), of her hobbys (cycling, skiing, idleness, shopping), of the boys (she prefers men as tall as herself: a serious problem) and incidentally of music (she adores Chaka Khan). Next stage of its career which could not delay: the cinema.
