DECEMBER 2021 • 9Send letters to [email protected]
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and use them in all print and electronic mediaWE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
Your Kim Wilde interview
brought back happy memories of
my teenage years, in particular of
Saturday afternoons spent with
friends at the skating rink. I’d be
sporting a stripey T-shirt, tight
jeans and my treasured roller
skates: deep blue with chunky
red wheels and long white laces.
We skated in wide circles on
the polished wooden floor, arms
outstretched, grabbing for each
other’s hands. We gathered
around the DJ to repeatedly
request our favourite song. Oh,
what joy when it came on. For
those heady few minutes as
we sang along with Kim,
the drab weather and
algebra homework
were completely
forgotten. We were no
longer in an Essex
town. We were
cool. We were
wild. We were the
Kids in America.
— Mary Ross,
EssexWILD FOR KIM
I was only 12 when Kim Wilde’s “Kids in
America” hit the UK charts and I vividly
remember the appearance on To p o f t h e
Pops that she described in the I Remember
article in October’s issue. At that age it
never occurred to me that she was only
nine years older than me, or that she could
be terrified when she looked so cool.
Nineteen-eighty-one is the year that
I look back on as the time when my
interest in music really blossomed, so I can
pinpoint songs that were released at that
time with an alarming degree of accuracy
and there are some real classics to choose
from. The Human League’s “Don’t You
Want Me”, Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” and
Ultravox’s “Vienna” all come
to mind, not to mention
“Kids in America”, and
they all still sound
fresh and energetic.
I think it’s the
talent within songs
like these that draws
people to the retro
1980s tours that
Kim Wilde has been
a part of, as well as
memories of a time
when we were all
much more energetic!
— Lisa Best, Cheshire