‘Not-so-secret Swiftie’ Kim Wilde chats about why she gave up her pop career for horticulture and how that made her eventual return to music even more of a thrill.
Kim Wilde describes her relationship with pop music as an “enduring love affair” she can’t imagine living without. It’s in large part, she says, thanks to her musician father Marty, who has instilled in her the irm belief that age isn’t a reason to stop doing what you love. So, 43 years after her debut, Kids In America, she’s still releasing music and is heading out on tour again next year.
“My dad is just putting out a new single as well,” she tells us from her Hertfordshire home. “And he still gets really excited about pop music. He’s the one that played me tracks from Beyoncé’s new album a few months ago when it came out. We’re all big popheads in my family.
“We’ve loved it since we were children and we still love it now. It’s the enduring love affair of this family.”
While Kim, 63, shares her dad’s enthusiasm for Beyoncé’s diverse Cowboy Carter album, her heart very much lies rooted in the 1980s, where she cemented her own status as a pop legend with hits such as Kids In America, You Keep Me Hangin’ On and You Came.
The first of these was written by her dad and younger brother Ricky, and recorded by Kim the year before in a local studio owned by prog rock band The Enid (Kim once said the studio was “full of reptiles and other slithery things”).
After being shelved for a year – during which time Kim returned to working in a pub – it made such an impact on release, selling 60,000 copies in a single day, that it was left out of the oficial charts because some suspected the numbers must have been faked. They weren’t, of course, and it peaked at No2 in the UK and No25 in the US, as well as landing in the top ive in Finland, Switzerland, New Zealand and Australia.
It’s also been covered by an eclectic mix of artists including The Muffs, who covered it for the 1995 ilm Clueless, Foo Fighters and Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day.
Given its status as an 80s anthem, does she ever tire of performing it?
“Yeah, I did have a period of time where singing those songs became tired for me and I did get bored,” she admits. “So I got out of the industry and I became a gardener. I went back into education and I learnt about horticulture and ended up at the Chelsea Flower Show. So then when I started singing again, it just kind of gained new life for me. I took a long break and I’m glad I did because when I came back I just fell in love with it all again.”
It’s not all pop though – Kim tells us that she is currently listening to an American folk band called Bonny Light Horseman, and that she’s also a “not-so-secret Swiftie”. Sadly, she says her own tour clashed with Taylor’s Eras Tour dates, so she wasn’t able to see her.
“I’d be fascinated just to see the audience, let alone Taylor herself – what a phenomenon! I’ve been really enchanted by the whole parade.”
Another thing she missed this year was watching Glastonbury, which to our astonishment, she confesses she’s never actually been to. Although she’s planning to change that.
“I’m kind of thinking I might do it in a cushy way, – I’m tempted by glamping style,” she says, laughing. “I absolutely love being at festivals. I’ve been to several local to here and they’ve been great. Knebworth House is very close to here so I went to Sonisphere Festival and saw Metallica and The Prodiy. So I’ve seen a lot of live music, I’ve just never quite made it to Glastonbury. But you never know, maybe they’ll ask me one day and put me on a little stage somewhere…”
Kim says the audiences also keep her music fresh for her and after being left virtually bedridden due to crippling back pain last year, she doesn’t take her mobility – on or off stage – for granted.
“The older I get the more grateful I am that I’m in this position,” she says. “These days I’m literally just grateful to get out of bed. Gratitude comes easily to me. There were four months last year when getting out of bed was a real problem for me. I had some back problems, which I’ve since resolved fantastically, but I do know now that getting out of bed is no small thing.
“So, what a privilege it is to sing Kids In America. What a great pop tune, what an anthemic tune. And it belongs to me. I’m very proud of it and I love sharing it with the audience. When you see the joy, when you see people’s faces light up, when that pulse starts at the beginning of that song, it’s hard not to love it.”
Aside from music and her two children – Harry, 26, a guitarist with the band Wunderhorse, and Rose, 24, a psycholoy student, who she had with her ex-husband Hal Fowler – gardening is the lifeblood of Kim’s mental and physical wellbeing.
Her sidestep into the world of horticulture went far beyond the normal hobby levels. She has qualiications in planting and garden design, has written books on the topic and has presented a number of shows including Better Gardens on Channel 4 and the BBC’S Garden Invaders.
In 2001, she won best show garden with fellow horticulturist David Fountain for their All About Alice set-up at the Tatton Park Flower Show and took home a gold award for her courtyard garden at the Chelsea Flower Show four years later.
“One of the reasons I was drawn out into the garden initially was to ind a way of combating some of the stress elements of my life and career, so it’s certainly about mental health as well as physical health,” she tells us. “And there’s nothing in the garden that isn’t physical, – even something easy like planting a bulb is physical because you have to prepare the ground which can be a real challenge.
I go to the gym a couple of times a week to do weights and all that kind of stuff but the garden is like my second gym. It’s just part of who I am. I can’t imagine a year without gardening, in the same way I can’t imagine a year without singing. They’re like breathing to me. I love that I can keep learning and observing and be close to nature. There’s a very spiritual element to it.”
Kim also spends her time wild swimming and seeing friends – and the rest of it doing chores. Her children both still largely live at home and while she admits “kids are always a bit of mystery, aren’t they?” she says she loves still being “a sort of full-time mum, spending a lot of time by the washing machine”. “I feel the strongest physically and mentally that I’ve ever felt in my life,” she says. “When you can’t even get out of bed, it really puts everything into perspective. I don’t want to be a burden to my kids or anyone else. I want to be able to walk off this planet so I’ll do everything I can to keep myself as physically and mentally strong as I can be.”
When it comes to her career, it’s clear she’s got the same determination to make the most of every second.
“When I see my dad at 85 still getting excited about Beyoncé’s new album, I know there’s no hope for me. Music has taken me captive and this is my world. I feel very inspired by it and I can’t imagine ever stopping.”