On 7 March 2017, Kim Wilde and Hal Fowler attended the Up Next Gala. The National Theatre in London hosted its biennial fundraising gala, Up Next, raising over a million pounds to support access to the arts for children and young people across the country.

Performances commissioned especially for the event included a new piece by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, alongside performances by Sir Lenny Henry, Anne-Marie Duff and hundreds of talented young people from across London.

Uvistat is a range of products for sun care. According to their website, Uvistat sun creams are recognised by dermatologists and skin clinic nurses as one of the most effective products for sensitive skin such as lupus, eczema, PLE (Polymorphic Light Eruption), acne and psoriasis.

In 2001, Kim Wilde appeared in an advertorial for Uvistat skin care products, linking her work as a garden designer to having to be protected against the sun. The advertorial appeared in glossy magazines in the UK for a limited period only.

Jiřina Urbanová is a Czech vocalist who first came to prominence as a member of the band Saturn Pavla Skalického. She recorded a handful of singles between 1984 and 1987. One of them was a cover version of Cambodia, called Ať Život Má Svůj Děj, translated by Václav Babula.

Discovering a great fondness for the rock genre, she joined the rock band Unisono. Despite a good live reputation, the band did not record any records. At the end of the Eighties Jiřina renamed herself Ina. The band Ina & Ring released the album ‘Karlin’, which was a mix between hard rock and heavy metal. A dispute with the record company ended a promising career of this band, and their second album remained unreleased.

Ina appeared in the Czech version of the musical ‘Hair’, but suffered injuries during her performance, which led to a year of no activities. After a return to ‘Hair’ and an appearance in the musical ‘Secret’, she formed the band Ina Hany Bany in 2006. Despite some personnel changes, the band lasts for over a decade while Ina continues to star in musicals and movies.

Duo based in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, consisting of Jez Willis (born 14 August 1963, Brampton, Cumbria, England) and Tim Garbutt (born 6 January 1969, London, England). Both were formerly members of MDMA, who practised an unlikely and somewhat unappetising hybrid of electro-gothic dance. They released five 12″ singles on their own Ecstatic Product label, the band name taken from the chemical label for the XTC drug, though neither of the band have actually ever used it. However, both were more than familiar with developments in the club scene. After MDMA Willis started DJing, specialising in ’70s disco evenings, while Garbutt had already done so since the late ’80s onwards. Together they established their name at their own Mile High Club nights at Leeds venue the Gallery. These were such a success that corresponding events also transferred to York and then London. They soon returned to recording, however, using the Utah Saints? moniker salvaged from Nicholas Cage film “Raising Arizona” (it had previously been employed on a MDMA b-side).

The duo’s move into dance, resplendent in samples and a driving backbeat, proved much more successful than the efforts of their former incarnation. After their first chart hit “What Can You Do For Me” (with a sample taken from the Eurythmics’ ‘There Must Be an Angel (Playing With My Heart)’), they moved on to ‘Something Good’. This first international hit was built around a sample from Kate Bush’s ‘Cloudbusting’. They then backed Neneh Cherry on a version of the The Rolling Stones’ ‘Gimme Shelter’ for a campaign for the homeless in 1993, one of several acts to release the song. Their own follow-up was ‘Believe In Me’, this time featuring a sample of Philip Oakey of the Human League on ‘Love Action’.

In 1993, they were approached to do a remix of Kim’s Kids in America for her 1994 remix single, but this remix actually never happened, due to the fact that they were too busy at the time. Kim did mention the Utah Saints’ remix many times during European interviews, but that was apparently before she knew it wouldn’t happen after all.

The band Ursüla formed by Didier Stoupy (vocals, bass, keyboards), Justin Tonnel (drums) and Loic Bethencourt (guitars) in Lille (France) and released their debut album ‘As Punk as You Dare’ in 2011. It was followed in 2012 by the album ‘Bigger Bang’. Some extra content was released the same year, including a cover version of Kim Wilde’s Kids in America. Their third album ‘Inner Child’ was released in 2014.

Born as James Ure on 10 October 1953, Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, Scotland (UK). Guitarist/vocalist Midge Ure began his professional music career with Salvation, a Glasgow-based group that became the bubblegum band Slik in 1974. By this time, he had adopted his more famous nickname, which came about by reversing the name Jim to Mij and altering the spelling.

After musical differences, Ure left the band to join the Rich Kids, a punk-pop group led by former Sex Pistol bassist Glen Matlock. The Rich Kids only released one album, 1978’s “Ghosts of Princes in Towers”, before breaking up later that same year. Ure spent a brief time with the band Misfits before forming Visage with drummer Rusty Egan and vocalist Steve Strange.

He left this group after being requested to replace Gary Moore in Thin Lizzy during an American tour. This was just before fulfilling an earlier agreement to join the band Ultravox. Midge Ure proved instrumental to making the band a household name. Their single ‘Vienna’ (1981) reached number 2 in the UK, but topped the charts in various European countries. The album of the same name remains one of the classics of the 1980’s.

While still writing and recording with Ultravox, he recorded songs with Phil Lynott (‘Yellow Pearl’) and Mick Karn (‘After A Fashion’), and in 1982 enjoyed a UK Top 10 solo hit with his version of ‘No Regrets’, previously a hit for the Walker Brothers.
In 1984 Midge set up Band Aid with Bob Geldof. Their joint composition, the multi-million-selling “Do They Know It’s Christmas?’, was inspired by harrowing film footage of famine conditions in Ethiopia and featured an all-star cast of pop contemporaries. Ure was also heavily involved in the running of 1985’s spectacular rock concert, Live Aid.

In that year Ultravox took a break, which left time for Ure to pursue a solo career. His solo album launched the no. 1 single “If I was”. In 1987 Ultravox recorded their final album and broke up. Ure recorded further solo albums, “Answers to nothing” (1988) and “Pure” (1991), “Breathe” (1998) and “Move me” (2001), none of them achieving the level of success he had before.

While Band Aid and Live Aid are by far the biggest projects Ure was involved in, he did a lot more work for charity. In 1987 he organised the Prince’s Trust concert at Wembley, followed in 1988 by the second edition of Prince’s Trust at Royal Albert Hall and the Nelson Mandela concert. In 1991 he was involved in the Rock-a-Baby concert, together with Kim Wilde among others.

He joined Kim Wilde and others during the Here and Now Tour 2004. Then in 2014 he appeared on the Rock meets Classic tour together with Joe Lynn Turner, Uriah Heep, Kim Wilde and Alice Cooper.

Ure continues to perform live and releases new material from time to time.

Dubbing themselves ‘the hardest dance band in the world’, United Four is a quartet of rockers based in Oldenburg (Germany), consisting of Mazze, Tommy, Kriss and Schüttie. The band came together in 1990, originally playing the singles charts material. Their material soon became harder, until they presented themselves as a hard rock band, still playing covers of Top 40 material.

Their 2011 album ‘Fishing for compliments’ features covers of ‘Take on me’ (A-ha), ‘Flashdance’ (Irene Cara) and Kim Wilde’s Kids in America.

Promotional CD-single featuring three tracks: ‘One more time’ by Joe Cocker, ‘Don’t turn around’ by Tina Turner and Shane by Kim Wilde. This CD-single was released as a promotional item in France only and was a collectors item for Kim Wilde fans because this was the first release of the non-album track ‘Shane’ on CD, before it was included on several compilation albums a few years later.

Bradley D. Hinkle and Les Massengale founded Ultimix Records in 1985. Before this, Bradley D. Hinkle had made several remixes for Hot Tracks.
Ultimix is run from Greensboro, North Carolina (USA) and is still in business.
They made three remixes of Kim Wilde tracks: Say You Really Want Me, You Came and Can’t Get Enough (Of Your Love).