British Madonna: Eternally young Miss Wilde finally has a new album out

Almost seven years after Here Come the Aliens there’s a new album from Kim Wilde on the racks: Closer. Good news for whoever has been delighted by her since the Eighties – and her voice.

There are some men – we won’t name names – who go wild about goodlooking English women who talk through their nose in affected ways. They think about actress Joanna Lumley, presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell, and, last but not least, singer Kim Wilde.

That this Kim, whose real surname is Smith, would get behind the microphone was unavoidable, when you see from which nest she comes. Let’s take you back to the early 1960’s. In England you had the Vernons Girls, a female singing group that had varying members, some of them becoming very famous in later years. Take for instance Victoria Haseman, who would name herself Vicki Brown (and whose daughter Sam Brown would have a hit in 1988 with Stop!). Jean Owen also had succes using a different name; as Samantha Jones she made the charts with Today (Without You). And The Vernons Girls, who toured the UK with the Beatles in 1963, also had Joyce Baker among them at one point. The – pun alert! – Joyce Baker Selection pertaining to men was Marty Wilde, a rock & roll singer who would write Ice in the Sun for Status Quo later on in the 1960’s. Joyce and Marty got married (with one another) in 1959 and became the proud parents of Kim Wilde on 18 November 1960. She was still called Smith at that point, after her father who named himself Wilde on stage (can you still follow?)

Brother

Kim was born in Chiswick, a now above average neighbourhood in West-London where it smells really good every winter because everyone has a hearth over there. When she was nine years old, she moved with her parents to Hertfordshire. In 1972 the record buying audience got to know her voice when she sang backing vocals for her younger brother’s single I Am An Astronaut. Wait, Veronica Superguide… A record by her younger brother? When Kimmy was just 11 years old at the time?
Yes, dear reader, RIcky Wilde made the record as a young boy. It happened more often. Just think of Little Jimmy Osmond or, closer to home, our own Heintje Simons (and later Jantje Smit).

Although crystal clearly sung, this job was of course a false start for Kim Wilde’s career. Because for her things started for real in 1981, with the debut single Kids in America. Written by… father Marty and brother Ricky! Who was inspired by the popular synthpop of the moment by acts like Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Gary Numan. Kids in America was released on the RAK-label owned by Mickie Most, a man who in the preceding decade proved with artists like Mud, Smokie and Suzi Quatro that he could smell a hit from miles away. 1981 was, by the way, a crazy good year for the non-smiling blonde, because Chequered Love and Cambodia were huge hits as well. The Supremes-cover You Keep Me Hanging On (1986) consolidated her position as Queen of the Europop. You could call her the British Madonna back then, although Kim was much more down to earth. (Speaking of Madonna: look at the sleeve of Closer, Kim’s brand new record. Is that a hommage to Vogue, or a parody?) *

Fast Forward to 2003, when Kim could be found on top of the charts again, this time with the catchy Anyplace Anywhere Anytime. It was a bilingual cover of Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann by German singer Nena, with whom she’d recorded the curious work. Lyrics like ‘Im Sturz durch Raum und Zeit / richtung Unendlichkeit / fliegen Motten in das Licht / genau wie du und ich / Wrap your fingers ’round my neck / you don’t speak my dialect / but our images reflect / drawn together by the flame / we are just the same” were the result. A united Europe in one song!

Sister

And now, so many summers later, there is this fresh disc Closer. Judging from the released single Trail of Destruction it’s still the Eighties for Kim. Not really crazy, because Closer is meant to be the sister of Close, from 1988. She says: “With Closer I show where I am now, musically speaking.” In the last century, that is! Whoever wants to see the forever young singer has to draw the agenda, because Kim tours our country in October. 18/10 Venlo, 19/10 Zwolle, 20/10 Utrecht, 23/10 Rotterdam, 24/10 Groningen, 25/10 Enschede and 30/10 Haarlem. She won’t come Closer!

* It is of course first of all a remake of the sleeve of Close.