Born in 1960 to rock’n’roll star Marty Wilde and the Vernons Girls’ Joyce Baker, Kim Wilde’s pop career spans 40 years, 20 Top 40 hits and 20 million single sales. Wilde was 20 when she released her debut hit, Kids in America: a track co-written by her father and brother Ricky that laid the groundwork for her to become one of Britain’s most successful female solo acts of the 1980s. In 1998, Wilde went off-grid, retraining as a landscape gardener before presenting horticultural shows on the BBC and Channel 4, winning a gold medal at Chelsea flower show and releasing two gardening books. She returned to the stage in 2001, and Kim Wilde: the Greatest Hits Tour is at venues across the UK from 10 September.
The very gorgeous Anton Corbijn took this photo of me aged 25 and standing outside Rak Records, Mickie Most’s label. I’ve gone for a 60s look – wearing striped trousers and a white belt from Kings Road in London, which is where I bought most of my clothes from. I was very inspired by Hollywood photos of Lauren Bacall, and loved the images of her looking absolutely terrifying. I thought: “That’s a great pose to do in front of the camera.”
