Kim Wilde looks back: ‘I was inspired by photos of Lauren Bacall’
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.