“Family Business” – Kim Wilde with “Aliens” tour in the Ottakringer Brewery!

“Here come the Aliens” – that’s not only the brand new album, but also the current tour of Kim Wilde. They could have been called “Family Business”. Next to Kimberley Smith, born in 1960 in London we can see brother Ricky Wilde (also responsible for the production) and niece Scarlett Wilde (who also designed the creative artwork of the new album) on stage. Which only makes the concert better. You notice the positive chemistry and the ease between the family members throughout the show.

Also the set list and the song versions at the appearance in the extravagant location of the Viennese Ottakringer brewery are cleverly chosen. On the one hand retro back to the big hits of the past (in more rocky versions) on the other hand a cross-section of the new “Aliens” -album. Produced by Brother Ricky Wilde as it was in the 80s, featuring electronic tracks like “Kandy Krush” or “Cyber Nation War” as well as songs (like “Stereo Shot”, the ballad “Solstice” or “Birthday”) could have come from the decade of the Eighties.

To clap along, sing along or swarming over a long time ago served the age-wide wide-spread audience, however, mainly the greatest hits of Kim Wilde from the Eighties. No matter if the US-Nr. 1 “You keep me hangin’on” (a Supremes cover), the New Wave classic “View from a Bridge” or “Cambodia” (which deals with a lost military pilot) or those from the 88er album “Close” Hits “Never Trust a Stranger”, “You Came”, “Hey Mr. Heartache” and “Four Letter Word”. Back then, they were so successful worldwide that Kim Wilde was hired to support the Michael Jackson “Bad” tour as well as the David Bowie “Sound & Vision” tour.
 
The success of the “Bardot of pop music” (as the German teenage gazette Bravo dubbed her once in the Eighties) ebbed in the 90s with the commercial breakthrough of the grunge, techno and house scene. Wilde moved to the musical (“Tommy”), founded a family with two children and was seen on British TV as a landscape gardener. With Nena she stormed the pop charts in 2003 with an English version of “Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann”. Unfortunately, this song was not heard at the Ottakringer Brewery – despite a No. 1 ranking in Austria. Instead, however, as a last encore their first super hit “Kids in America”. For a whole 5 minutes all visitors felt young, cheeky and irresistible again. The great Kim Wilde not least…