A striking set of clothing was designed for Kim in 1984 when she was preparing a new image for her fourth studio album Teases & Dares. When it was presented it generated a fair amount of publicity, for the press concluded that Kim herself had changed dramatically by wearing this. Soon after, Kim called the outfit a mistake, and a blemish on an album she was otherwise very proud of.

Kim about the Teases & Dares outfit

This outfit was made for me to wear for the cover of the “Teases & Dares” LP. It really is hideous – blue crushed velvet with silver panels and strips of blue everywhere. I wanted to change the picture for the LP cover but the record company held me up to ransom and said that the LP would miss the release date if we didn’t go with that sleeve. I should have stuck up for myself but I didn’t. This outfit was made by a woman who’s employed to make clothes for me. Now she does make some really great clothes, clothes that I really enjoy wearing a lot and she’s very good, but this particular outfit was one of her less inspired creations and it made me look dreadful. But I do believe I wore it on Wogan, so I suppose at the time I must have liked it. We all make mistakes and do things we regret later on. That’s part of growing up in public, which all us pop stars have to do. (1)

Interview source

(1) My least favourite things In: Smash Hits (UK), October 1987

Take That was one of England’s most popular bands in the first half of the nineties, and thanks to a loyal following of mostly young girls they had a lot of number one hits.
Gary Barlow (born 20 January 1971, Frodsham, Cheshire, England), Mark Owen (born 27 January 1974), Howard Paul Donald (born 28 April 1968, Droylsden, Manchester, England), Jason Thomas Orange (born 10 July 1970, Manchester, England) and Robbie Williams (born 13 February 1974, Port Vale, England) formed the group in Manchester, England. They attracted some attention with the release of their debut single ‘Do What U Like’ on their own label in July 1991. The press attention was mainly focused on the nudity in the accompanying video, in which the boys showed their buttocks.

The interest of RCA Records was soon attracted as well, and they signed them on in September of the same year. June 1992 brought the group their first UK chart hit with ‘It only takes a minute’, formerly performed by Tavares in the seventies. The single was the first indication of the hugely successful ‘Take That and Party’ album, which entered the album charts on number 5 in the UK. The single ‘A million love songs’ reached number 7 in the singles charts, and by the end of the year most popularity polls indicated that the youth of England had fallen for the five cleancut boys.

In 1993, the album ‘Take That and Party’ climbed to number 2 in the UK album charts, and the single ‘Could it be magic’ reached number 3. In April the single ‘It only takes a minute’ and the album were released in the United States, but the releases were very unsuccessful. Meanwhile, ‘Pray’ and ‘Relight my fire’ became number 1 hits in the UK, officially establishing Take That as the most popular group of 1993.
When the album ‘Everything changes’ was released in October, it debuted at number 1 in the UK album charts. In December, ‘Babe’ became their third charttopper.
While the group remained successful in 1994 and 1995, with further number 1 hits like ‘Sure’ and ‘Back for good’, the group decided to call it quits when a Greatest Hits compilation was released in 1996. The last single was a Bee Gees cover, ‘How deep is your love’. Meanwhile, Robbie Williams was kicked out of the group, supposedly for drug abuse.
After the group split, Gary Barlow and Mark Owen took a stab at a solo career, but neither of them were as successful as the group had been. Robbie Williams was more successful and has already released several millionselling albums.

In 2006, Take That reformed – albeit without Robbie Williams, who was suffering from a depression and addiction problems – and seemed to pick up their fame without trouble. Hits like ‘Patience’ and ‘Rule the world’ confirmed their status as one of Britain’s most successful male groups. In 2010, they did reform with Robbie Williams for the album ‘Progress’. After he left again, three other members continued without him.

Kim Wilde has stated a few times that she liked Take That.

Kim about Take That

I’ve met them a few times and swooned hopelessly all afternoon – but, of course, they’re too young for me… aren’t they? (1)

They’re quite good really, aren’t they? I love their records and I met them a few weeks ago, met Jason… (sighs) (2)

Interview sources

(1) unknown
(2) Gimme 5, ITV (UK), 17 July 1993

Formed in 1986, this UK group began as a songwriting partnership between vocalist Carol Decker (born 10 September 1957 in London (UK)) and guitarist Ronnie Rogers (born 13 March 1959 in Shrewsbury (UK)). While recording a demonstration disc, they were joined by session musicians Michael Chetwood (born 26 August; keyboards), Paul Jackons (born 8 August 1961; bass) and Tim Burgess (born 6 October 1961; drums). The group then signed to Siren Records as T’Pau, the name being taken from a character in the science fiction television series Star Trek.

Having acquired the services of producer Roy Thomas Baker, T’Pau recorded their first sessions in Los Angeles. The group’s first two singles failed to make any impact in the UK market, until “Heart and soul” abruptly established them in the US charts, where it climbed to number 4 in 1987. The song was re-promoted in Britain and repeated that chart placing. In order to bolster the line-up, lead guitarist Dean Howard was recruited and a major UK tour followed.

Decker’s strong, expressive vocals were highlighted on ‘China in your hand’, a classic song which topped the UK charts. Their debut album ‘Bridge of spies’ fared as well, reaching number 1 in the albums chart. Further top 20 hits were ‘Valentine’ and ‘I will be with you’, taken from the aforementioned album.

The second offering, ‘Rage’ (1988), was a disappointment. Only the first single, ‘Secret garden’ scraped to number 18 in the UK charts, but further singles didn’t make much of an impact in the chart. It took T’pau three years to come up with ‘The promise’, but by then their momentum was gone. The band finally broke up and Carol Decker embarked on an unsuccessful solo career.

Carol reinstated the name T’pau in 1998 by releasing the album ‘Red’ with a totally different line-up behind her. It failed to make a chart impact due to distribution limitations, although the album was released in the US a year later.

In 2001, Carol joined Kim Wilde and others for the Here & Now Tour 2001 in November. She repeated this in the Here & Now Greatest Hits Tour in 2003, together with Ronnie Rogers.

T’pau returned with a new album ‘Pleasure and Pain’ in 2015.