‘It’s just been a phenomenal phase of my life’

With a new acclaimed album and tour, Kim Wilde is enjoying something of a career renaissance. The singer talks to Casey Cooper-fiske about her life in pop music.

Thrust into the limelight in her 20s as her debut single Kids In America stormed to number two in the UK singles chart, Kim Wilde was thrown into the temptations of the music industry at an early age. But now at the age of 64, the Brit Award-winning pop star is proud of the way her younger self handled fame, even if she did allow herself a few indulgences.

The singer has recently released her 15th studio album, Closer, and is currently touring the UK to promote the record, which is inspired by her 1988 LP Close. Closer sees Wilde present a collection of new wave-tinged pop, and includes the singles Trail Of Destruction and Midnight Train, as well as a collaboration with Ultravox singer Midge Ure called Sorrow Replaced.

Since her breakthrough single, she has even turned her hand to gardening, winning a gold award at the Chelsea Flower Show for her courtyard garden in 2005.

Speaking about her early days in the music business, Wilde, whose father is 1950s rock and roller Marty Wilde, says: “I became a pop star very young, and I was thrown into the heart of it, but most of that was wonderful. It was meeting lots of great people, meeting all my idols, travelling all over the world, having a lot of success, and the opportunities that it brought, I mean they were all great gifts, and I recognise them for that. Of course, I did get caught out with a few bad habits, especially with alcohol, I think over those years, it was just a mainstay of most events after a gig, before a gig, at a party or anything. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just I took a decision after abstinence for a while. And noticing how well I felt during that abstinence, it was a Stoptober thing, just before I stopped alcohol, and I felt so alive and so healthy, and a lot of small health ailments seemed to disappear, and I thought, this is can’t be a coincidence. So I thought I’ll just keep going and so nine years later, and I’m feeling very much better, I know, now, than had I not made that decision. But I had a lot of fun during those days, I don’t regret much, I’m really proud I never got into drugs at all, ever, not remotely. I think that could have really destroyed me.”

She credited the likes of The Pretenders’ singer Chrissie Hynde, Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry and the late Kirsty Maccoll for inspiring her when starting out, saying the latter had “a big influence on me as a songwriter”, adding that she knew the singer and liked her “very much”.

Wilde also praised modern artists such as “clever” songwriter Taylor Swift, and drew similarities to her own career with that of Billie Eilish, who works with her brother Finneas O’connell, having worked with her own brother, Ricky, and father on Kids In America. The singer says there had always been strong women in music, but there needs to be more female representation in executive positions in the industry.

“People in positions of power sometimes don’t handle it very well, and you have to be very wary and stand your ground, because you have what they want, more than they have what you want. You’ve got the power, and you have to recognise that and really acknowledge it, and sit with it, and treasure it, and guard it completely.”

Wilde has scored eight UK top 10 singles throughout her career, including Chequered Love, You Keep Me Hangin’ On and You Came, and has also achieved two UK top 10 albums in her self-titled debut and Close. Fast-forwarding to the present day, the Chiswick-born star says she has been “amazed” by “outstanding” reviews for her latest record.

She continues: “That has been a really wonderful thing to have at this stage in my career, to be 64 and have an album that’s been received so positively and enjoyed, and the fact that we had so much joy making it, and now performing it live. It’s just been a phenomenal phase of my life, that’s kind of come out of quite a lot going on in my personal life in the last few years. And then to have something so positive come out of something, I wouldn’t say difficult, but there were some challenging things going on in my life in the last few years, and then to have this thing of beauty emerge out of it, it’s phoenix-like. I’ve got this amazing band, and we’re just itching to get out there and present these new songs alongside the old ones, and all the old hits.”

Wilde says the new record and supporting tour is “much sweeter” having come off the back of a number of health issues for her.

She explains: “First thing that happened was I slipped a disc, and I was in a huge amount of pain, and that went on for several months, until I managed to recover. And after that, I started training to strengthen my core, to make sure that it might never happen again, which is ongoing. Of course, I’m still doing that, but in the last year or so, I also got affected by Covid quite badly, and that really knocked me out, and has lowered my immune system. I really battled to get on top of that. But I feel like I’m back to full strength right now, but I have had a bit of a hammering with that.”