Tracks of my years

Kim appears on Ken Bruce’s show, presented by Richard Allinson, on BBC Radio 2 for the third part of ‘Tracks of my years’, talking about two of her favourite songs: ‘They don’t know’ by Kirsty McColl and ‘MacArthur’s park’ by Richard Harris.

They don’t know – Kirsty McColl
The reason I chose that song was because it was released just before my career kicked off and Kirsty is the same age as me – would be about the same as me. I remember thinking ‘Wow! She’s so young, she’s 20 years old, she’s writing these great songs, she’s on the radio, she’s so positive, so gutsy, so I wanted really to be like Kirsty MacColl. She was a great inspiration to really get in there and have my voice heard too. I subsequently got to know her, and in fact for a while we were both dating guys in the same band, Tenpole Tudor, which was great fun! No, not Eddie, you don’t date someone like Eddie. She came to the very first rehearsals that I did in North London for my very first tour. I’ve got lovely photographs that I’ve taken of her at that time.

MacArthur’s Park – Arthur Harris
What a great song. I heard this as a child and I just though ‘What’s all that about?’ and I could see this cake melting. It wasn’t until years later that I could see there was another spin, presumably, on it about the great cake of life, the great mix of tragedy and comedy. To me as a child I loved the beautiful string arrangements and the drama of it and the different movements of it. So it really captured my imagination as a child.