Venue in Braughing, owned by a group of artists who have worked together for 15 years. Following a very successful show at Ware College, Hertfordshire, in 2005 they decided to take on the challenge of organising exhibitions to promote their own work together with other local artists.

On 1 May 2004, Kim Wilde opened the ‘Everything matters’ art exhibition. She and her daughter Rose contributed a 12″ square painted canvas to the event. All artworks were sold, raising money for two charities: Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust.

On 8 May 2008, Kim Wilde opened the ‘Everyday matters’ exhibition of paintings to be auctioned for charity. The private view attracted over 200 guests, including Kim Wilde, who opened the event. Over the two following days 112 canvases were sold. The final total raised was an amazing £8,000, which will go to the Norma Adams Crocus Appeal at Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

On 28 May 2010, Kim Wilde opened the ‘Nothing Else Matters’ exhibition of canvases that have been purchased by a variety of artists and the general public to paint, draw, and collage or place photographs on. The content, which can be anything the artist desires, ranges from portraits and landscapes to floral or still life. There are oil paintings, watercolour and acrylics, pencils, felt tips and textiles, contributed from artists of all ages. This year the event was organised to raise money for The British Heart Foundation in memory of Patrick Jordan, who died last year of a massive heart attack and The Norma Adams Crocus Tribute Fund at Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

On 17 May 2012, Kim Wilde opened the ‘Tiles don’t matter’ exhibition of paintings to be auctioned for charity.

In February 2016, Kim’s daughter Rose performed live at Gravelly Barn. She mesmerised her audience with a mixture of cover songs and her own compositions. Mum Kim and Granddad Marty were also in the audience. The event raised £1,400 for their chosen charity Waste Not Want Not.

On 26 May 2018, Kim Wilde opened ‘Choice Matters’, the sixth 12-inch canvas for charity exhibition. Almost 480 blank canvases were sold and just under 400 finished pieces were exhibited. There was painting, acrylics, embroidery, sculpture, knitting, woodwork, metalwork and working electric models. A variety of charities benefited from the proceeds, including Breast Cancer Now, Razed Roof, Arthritis Research UK and Vasculitis UK.

Grzegorz Olszowka is a singer, songwriter and producer from Berlin (Germany).

In 2018 he released the album ’33’, featuring his cover version of Kids in America.

German band, based in Berlin. They released a cover version of Kids in America as a CD-single in 1996. The track was subsequently included in a compilation album called ‘Quote 97’ from 1997, released by the local radio station Fritz.

The Manchester Guardian was founded by John Edward Taylor in 1821, and was first published on May 5 of that year. It was published weekly until 1836 when it was published on Wednesday and Saturday. In 1855, when the abolition of Stamp Duty on newspapers permitted a subsequent reduction in cover price, the paper started being published daily.

As the influence of the Manchester Guardian grew beyond its Northern hinterland, a new challenge faced the paper in 1944. The limited number of pages in the paper, poor quality of the printing and sometimes peculiar news agenda were once perceived as part of the regional charm of the paper. When compared to national newspapers The Manchester Guardian lacked the resources (despite costing slightly more expensive than the others) and the commercial instincts to make it really successful.

When the editor of the paper moved to London in 1964 the Guardian was facing an uncertain future. They were made worse by financial problems. There were even talks of a merger with The Times, but they came to nothing. Investments in printing were made, plus an expansion programme that included the revamping of the paper. In the political climate of the late 1970’s and 1980’s The Guardian was able to position itself as a strong voice of opinion of the left during the right-wing Thatcher years. The opinion pages were the birthplace of the SDP, and the letters page was where the battle for the future direction of the Labour Party was played out, while the coverage of industrial disputes including the 1984-1985 Miners’ Strike defined the paper’s position.
In 1993 the intensely competitive market was again thrown into confusion by the reduction of the cover price of many newspapers, started by The Times. The Guardian didn’t participate in this price war but instead invested resources in journalism and distancing itself from the price war through marketing, product development and consistently breaking big stories.

Investigations by the Guardian in the late 1990’s on important news stories caused critical acclaim from all sides – including the prestigious Newspaper of the Year Award in both 1997 and 1998.

In 2002, Kim Wilde started writing a gardening column for The Guardian’s weekend magazine. Entitled ‘Wilde side’, she answered horticultural questions from readers from June 2002 until March 2004.

In the summer of 2005, DJ Ian Finch met BBC producer Phill Deacon at a funk sessions club night in London. Having found out they shared the same passion for house music and remixing; numbers were exchanged and GrooveNut was born. GrooveNut built their first studio in a disused stable in North London and began working on their ideas. The first fruits of their labour was the track Love You More, a remix of Kim Wilde’s track You Came. It was due to be released in 2006, but in the end they couldn’t get clearance for the samples used. Later in the year it became obvious why: Kim Wilde released a re-recording of ‘You Came’. However, Groovenut were approached to re-make ‘Love You More’ with the newly sung samples of You Came (2006). Their remix was released on the CD-single for ‘You came (2006)’.

Kim’s next single, Perfect Girl contained two remixes. The ‘Perfect chill mix’ was remixed by Groovenut, whereas the ‘Ian Finch Elektrika Edit’ was made by Ian Finch on his own.

Born in Glasgow as Claire Patricia Grogan on 17 March 1962. Both she and her two sisters attended the Notre Dame Convent School.
Whilst working as a waitress at the Spaghetti Factory restaurant in Glasgow, she was spotted by film director Bill Forsyth. He casted her for the film ‘Gregory’s girl’. Just three months before filming, she was at the Pollok Inn, a public house in Glasgow. A fight broke out between several patrons. A broken bottle was hurled in her direction as she was fleeing, and she was left severely injured with a prominent scar on the left side of her face. In light of her severe facial wound, despite objections from the producers, Forsyth refused to recast the role and Grogan was filmed mostly profile. When filmed in close up, makeup artists covered Grogan’s scar with mortician’s wax.
Around the same time, Grogan developed her singing career as the lead singer of Altered Images, originally a five-piece that included Johnny McElhone (later of the Scottish rock band Texas). The band had a string of hits in the early 1980s, including ‘Happy Birthday’, ‘Don’t Talk to Me About Love’, ‘I Could Be Happy’ and ‘See Those Eyes’. The group split up after the release of their third album, ‘Bite’ (1983).

A year later Grogan resumed her acting career, playing Charlotte in Forsyth’s Comfort and Joy. In 1985 she was the receptionist in the BBC Television version of ‘Blott on the Landscape’. She had a recurring role playing Dave Lister’s would-be love-interest, Kristine Kochanski, in series 1, 2 and 6 of the TV show Red Dwarf. In series 7 she was replaced by Chloë Annett. Grogan has also appeared in Father Ted (episode ‘Rock-a-Hula Ted’) as a feminist rock singer and in EastEnders as Ian Beale’s love interest, Ros Thorne (1997–1998).

In 2002, Grogan performed as Altered Images on the Here and Now Christmas Party. She performed on similar tours in 2005, 2008 and 2009. On 18 December 2015, Clare Grogan was a special guest at Kim Wilde’s Christmas Party concert in London.

Grogan married Altered Images band mate Stephen Lironi in Glasgow in 1994. The couple live in Haringey, and in 2005 they adopted a daughter.

Kim about Clare Grogan

I can say lovely Clare Grogan now, but in 1981 I was so jealous of her, she kept nicking all the covers of the Smash Hits and all the magazines I was trying to get on the cover of. I suppose all these years later I can concede that she was a great popstar. (1)

I used to be really jealous of Clare Grogan but only because I thought she was gorgeous and I loved the band and I bought her records but I wouldn’t say there was any real rivalry. (1)

Clare Grogan about Kim

So everyone around me was going ‘Go for it’ and so I had a conversation with Kim Wilde, and I said to her ‘Kim, the thing is, I’m forty… I’m not going to get up and sing ‘Happy Birthday’ at forty!’, and she just said ‘Clare, I’m up there singing ‘Kids in America… why are you prejudicing yourself like that?’ and I just though she was absolutely right, I’m not an ageist person so why was I being ageist to my own self? (3)

It was actually Kim who twisted my arm to do [the Here and Now tours] because at first I wasn’t sure if it was something I could re-create. By that time I was in my forties, and I thought, is it appropriate to be singing Happy Birthday aged 40? Then I thought, why not? There’s something kind of liberating about it, getting to revisit your past on your own terms. I hadn’t sung the songs for 18 years, so it was a huge thing for me. It’s fun – I kind of like being able to reclaim it all. (4)

Interview sources

(1) Not fade away, VH1 (UK), January 1997
(2) Interview, Top of the Pops website (UK), January 2002
(3) Altered Images (Clare Grogan) Interview [2002], This is not retro website (UK), 2002
(4) Interview: Belinda Carlisle and Clare Grogan, OK! (UK), 9 November 2010

Born Glenn Peter Gregory in Sheffield, England on on 16 May 1958. When Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh left Human League in 1981, he was contacted by Ware to join Heaven 17. He had been singing and playing bass in bands with Ian Craig Marsh since 1973.

Glenn has remained with the band and enjoyed many hits, most notably ‘Temptation’ (no. 2), ‘Come live with me’ (no. 5), ‘Sunset Now’ (no. 24), ‘This Is Mine’ (no. 23), ‘ … (And That’s No Lie)’ (no.  52) – and the albums ‘The luxury gap’ (no. 4) and ‘How Men Are’ (no.12) – all between 1982 and 1985. In 1992 ‘Temptation’ was re-released and went straight to No.4, and Glenn has since featured on over twenty studio, compilation, and live albums with Heaven 17.

In 1984 Gregory sang on the Band Aid single, ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’, singing the line ‘No rain nor rivers flow’. Outside of Heaven 17, Gregory has been a member of the bands ABC, Ugly and Honeyroot, as well as working with Tina Turner, Grace Jones, Propaganda, Terence Trent D’Arby, Ultravox, La Roux and John Lydon.

In 2010, Glenn Gregory recorded a duet with Kim Wilde called Greatest Journey. In 2011, Kim Wilde joined Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware’s band B.E.F. on stage for a concert in London. They also recorded the track Every Time I See You I Go Wild together.

Green Jelly formed in 1981 in Buffalo, New York, USA. They focused on performing ridiculous stage shows in local punk clubs. After a few years, they decided to move to Hollywood to start over and attract new audiences. After many shows this finally led to a record deal in Los Angeles.
In 1992, the debut album ‘Cereal killer’ was released. The album went gold in the U.S., Canada and New Zealand, and platinum in Australia. This was partly thanks to the single Three little pigs, which was accompanied by an incredible cartoon-style video.

Kim Wilde was actually handling one of the three little pigs during a live performance of ‘Three little pigs’ in Countdown. Green Jelly’s career continued with the second album ‘333’, to little chart success outside the US.