‘1987 was a big year for me’

Eighties icon Kim Wilde is back. For Fibes Oh Fibes’ latest album she recorded a duet with the band. ‘It’s a modern song for me, not an Eighties track’, says Kim Wilde.

Kim Wilde and the Göteborg-based band have started dating. Well, for singer Christian Olsson’s sake you can call it that with a little good will. For the collaboration with Kim Wilde for the critically acclaimed album ‘1987’ took shape with her beside the frontman of Fibes Oh Fibes.

‘I was well, um, a bit in love with Kim, back in the Eighties. This is a bit of a dream come true’, says Christian Olsson and casts a furtive glance in Kim Wilde’s direction. She smiles. Despite that, twenty years have passed since that magical decade of which the memories remain.
‘1987, which is the name of the album, was a big year for me. I was 27 and rose to the top of the US charts with ‘You keep me hangin’ on”.

For the guys in Fibes Oh Fibes the Eighties was part of their childhood, but with a lot of music.
‘That was then, when you were 10 or 11 like that, that we started listening to music that really took hold of one’, says Christian Olsson.
That the album is named just 1987, the band explains, has to do with the fact that it was around this year as the music began to have that transformative effect on them.

Kim Wilde agrees and references to her own childhood.
‘I have musical memories from the Sixties, and they will sit forever imprinted in me.’
Besides music, she has since about ten years nurtured a strong interest in gardens and orchards. Till a few years ago, she participated in a number of garden programs on British television.
‘But in the end became too much talk, instead of farming and gardening. That’s what I’m interested in. At home in England, I have just harvested shallots, it’s wonderful’, she says.

Kim Wilde

Age: 48
Born: Chiswick, West London, England
Background: Left St. Albans College of Art & Design 1980.
Career: Started in 1981 with the single ‘Kids in America’. The song didn’t become so big in the USA, but she did strike it big in 1987 with ‘You keep me hangin’ on’. She supported Michael Jackson during his ‘Bad’ tour in 1988.
Now: Still active in music, and has great success in Germany in particular. Engaged in is much garden work, and has participated in several gardening programmes on British TV.
New: The song ‘Run to you’ with Swedish band Fibes Oh Fibes.