Date: 15 November 1982
Originally published in: Het Parool (Netherlands)
Written by: Jim van Alphen
Kim Wilde in Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, Utrecht.
The English record boss Mickie Most is no dumb man. After the worldwide success of Debbie Harry and her band Blondie he understond there had to be a place for another blonde sexy singer. And she was there: Kim Wilde. She is in her early twenties and blessed with good looks. The sold out Muziekcentrum Vredenburg where she gave the last of two Dutch concerts, left no doubt about how the male audience thinks about her.
The audience in front of the stage became very sweaty and enchanted by the beautiful vocalist. For 90 minutes I only saw grabbing hands, trying to touch her blank panties and high heeled shoes. She looks a bit like a barbie doll, but her performance was far from sugar sweet. Quite the contrary: she is a driven performer of up tempo pop songs. During her very successful career of the last two years she has scored at least three big hits. The support she got was comparable to Kate Bush’s. Kim also has a brother and a father watching over her career. Dad Wilde is the same Marty Wilde who had a series of hits in the Fifties. He writes the lyrics for his daughter, while brotehr Ricky Wilde composes and produces. The formula is very successful, so far. Ricky Wilde played guitars and keyboards in the band, who gave a compact and pushy sound during the night.
It’s pure pop music she made with her band, but very clever in its genre. With her sexy charisma and charm Kim gave the exact amount of aggression and excitement that fits with songs like ‘Chequered love’ and ‘Everything we know’. The band in which mostly saxophonist Gary Barnacle excelled, held on to the high tempo in which Kim’s voice is suited best. Kim Wilde sang almost the whole of her two albums, during which the big hits ‘View from a bridge’ and ‘Cambodia’ were greeted with cheers. And the encore with ‘Kids in America’ was of course very well received too.
