It was 18 months ago that Kim Wilde did a concert tour. Meanwhile she changed record companies and her image. She left RAK Records, where she made her single hits under the guidance of Mickie Most, and went to MCA with the aim to have a breakthrough in America (her big frustration) and to build a reputation as an album artiste. She bought, together with her brother Ricky and her father Marty a studio in London (Select Studio) where she recorded the lp ‘Teases And Dares’. Together with London Design Company ‘XL’ Kim designed the clothing for a new image, which had to be a cross between the look of ‘Barbarella’ and ‘Batwoman’, cartoon and film stars from the sixties, naughty but sophisticated.
At 21.15 Kim got on stage, clad in a long white coat, with black stretch trousers and a black t-shirt, the same clothing she wears in the ‘Rage to Rock’ video. She opened with ‘Water on Glass’ and it was obvious from the start that her voice had become stronger and her stage presentation more selfassured. Although Den Haag was her fourteenth concert in a row of sixteen, she looked fresh and happy. Kim was up for it, also because her two sisters and a few more family members had come to Den Haag to see little Kim at work. The band was sharp, eventhough the sound was very loud, everything sounded very good. The concert was very powerful, Kim played a lot of material from her last two albums. ‘Is It Over’ was beautiful and during ‘Fit In’ played the piano herself. There was a lot of response for the song ‘Putty In Your Hands’. During ‘View from a bridge’ the white coat had already been shed and the audience stood up.
The hits followed one another, and an ever wilder ‘Kim fanclub’ went to the edge of the stage, where Kim shook countless hands and received loads of presents, varying between flowers, necklaces and teddybears. The very fast roadies had to pull Kim back from the audience from time to time.
With the hits ‘Cambodia’ and ‘Kids in America’ Kim checks her popularity in the Netherlands and her fans sing every refrain aloud. with ‘Chequered Love’ she ends the concert, knowing that she has given the audience what it came for. ‘Classy power pop’ in high tempo, lots of hits and ‘Rag Doll’ Kim Wilde as the Barbiedoll in perfect fitness, who lets people play with her (Dares) and gets pulled back by her roadies before the audience swallows her up (Teases).
The audience was, as Kim said it afterwards, ‘Putty in her hands’ all evening.