As she hits the road on a new nationwide tour, no one is more surprised than Kim Wilde that fans in their thousands are queuing up to buy tickets to see her, 40 years after her heyday.
In the 1980s she was the most-charted female solo act of the decade. Boys lusted after her, girls wanted to look like her and her career-defining anthem Kids in America sold more than half a million copies in the UK alone.
But fast-forward four decades and Kim admits she was not sure anyone would be interested in hearing her sing again, now she is in her 60s.
“I didn’t really believe that there would still be an audience for me as a married mum of two kids,” she says frankly. “I thought all the romance of Kim Wilde was being single and 21.
“That is a different Kim Wilde to the one that they are being presented with. But the audiences love it, which is a beautiful surprise.
“I think my audience have grown up with me, so there’s a sense we’re all in it together, there’s a joyfulness about that.
“I’m loving singing my hits, I like the way it brings my audience so much happiness and I love how generous they are to me. They know I’m 61 – nobody is pretending anything; they get me warts and all.”
But it has not always been this way. At the height of her fame and having chalked up 17 Top 40 hits, Kim quit the music business to live in obscurity with her husband and two young children.
And she reveals her signature song was partly to blame. “I felt I had to step away from Kids in America,” she says.
“I’d had enough of singing it, which is one of the reasons why I gave up. I fell out of love with it. I’d been defined by that song from the age of 20 to 36 and there was a part of that which is quite confining, so I needed to stop.
“Sixteen years was a long time to go through the turbulence of being a pop star. It was exhausting, so when I met my husband and we wanted to have a family it seemed like a really good time to take a step out and say, ‘Thanks everybody, it’s been fantastic, but I’m off now.’”
Kim met actor Hal Fowler when they appeared in the rock opera Tommy in 1996. Within six months they had married and two years later she gave birth to Harry, followed by daughter Rose in 2000.
After being one of the most recognised women in the country, Kim relished her anonymity. She recalls: “I changed my name to my husband’s – and it was great.
“I could go under the radar with my married name. Once I scraped my hair back and put on dog-walking clothes a lot of people didn’t recognise me. I loved being anonymous.”
Instead, Kim discovered a passion for horticulture when she set about creating a garden for her children.
She enrolled on a course at a horticultural college and when TV stations got wind, she landed a gardening show.
“Gardening evolved because I wanted to make a garden for the kids,” she says. “The whole thing spiralled and I ended up at Chelsea Flower Show with a gold medal. A whole new chapter unfolded.”
Kim was tempted back to performing by the 80s revival circuit and her greatest hits tour celebrates classics including Chequered Love, You Came and of course Kids in America.
“I fell back in love with the song,” she smiles. “Now I’m in my 60s I feel like I’ve gone full circle with my relationship with these songs. There have been times where I’ve fallen out of love with being Kim Wilde and singing those hits, but right now I’m just loving it.”
Kim credits her energy on her good genes – her dad, 60s singer Marty Wilde, is still performing at 83. Her decision to quit alcohol six years ago also helped.
It was partly fuelled by the clip of her belting out Kids in America on a train as she returned home from a Christmas party in 2012. The clip has been viewed by more than 2million people.
“As fun as that was to watch, and I know it made a lot of people laugh, there was something about it that didn’t make me feel entirely happy,” Kim admits today.
“Obviously we had been at a party, but it was a bit of a shocker and maybe I needed to take a little look at getting into such a state when I drink alcohol.
“Within a few years I’d stopped drinking entirely. I felt so much better – more relaxed and happy. These days I have just as much fun without alcohol.”
In the 1980s any pop star worth their salt attended the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party and Kim was twice named Most Fanciable Female.
She laughs: “It was flattering – who wouldn’t enjoy that accolade, but it never stopped me having a completely turbulent and chaotic love life!
“I went out on a few lovely dinner dates with Adam Ant. He was a real gentleman, but generally I didn’t date people in the public eye.”
Meanwhile, Kim toured with David Bowie and Michael Jackson and has fond memories of both experiences.
She says: “I’d idolised David Bowie since I was young. He was an incredibly charismatic, gorgeous man and it was hard not to fall in love with him.
“He was with Iman at the time, but he was very friendly and I’d get the occasional ‘good luck’ before a show.
“At the end of the tour I didn’t know what to get the man who had everything. I thought he might remember my dad, so I gave him a Marty Wilde T-shirt, which made him laugh.
“Michael Jackson was much more of a private individual. I met him briefly for a picture. But he was very polite and I was allowed to watch him from the side of the stage, which was incredible.”
Despite her amazing career, Kim confesses that her feet are kept on the ground by her children – musician Harry, 24, and student Rose, 22, who still have not confirmed whether they’ll be in the audience for any of her shows.
“They’ll definitely be on the guest list, whether they turn up or not is another thing entirely!” she laughs.
“They love some of the music I’ve done, but they’re not so keen on other bits and some of it they really don’t like! I don’t know which bits, it’s not a conversation I want to have with them!”
- Kim Wilde Greatest Hits Tour is on now. Tickets: www.kimwilde.com
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