By Neil Durham

Wendy James tours her 10th album The Shape Of History across the UK later this year and took some time out to tell us about what to expect from those gigs, life after Transvision Vamp and its Australian return.

• Read on for reasons including what to expect from Wendy James’ solo tour this autumn

MG: Congratulations on your songwriting and production of the new The Shape Of History LP, which we’re enjoying and you describe as both a love letter and thank you note to life so far, what are your feelings about it now it’s been released?

WJ: ‘I’m just about to enter the stage of rehearsals for this upcoming tour. I haven’t particularly listened to it every single day for the past couple of months. So I’ll be going back in and rediscovering the songwriting. It’s really gratifying to hear my songs through the observations of other people, because, I know how I felt when I was writing them. You know, that eureka moment. And I know how I felt when I was producing them and the musicians were recording their beautiful parts, and then the mixing stage you know, that’s where you’re so deep into it, because you know every note, every millisecond, every move. But now, of course, it’s a few months since the album came out. So I’ve stepped away from it, and now my perspective of those songs is as a listener, like, wow. Yeah. If I may say so, yes, I may. I do go wow.’

MG: You’re touring it later this year, what can the audience expect from those gigs?

WJ: ‘The Shape Of History is my 10th album. So these set lists are getting longer and longer and my band is rehearsing up to two and a half hours worth of material. We won’t be playing for that long but we have material from Transvision Vamp, all those favourites, right through to Racine Number 1 and Racine 2. I’ve got three or four off each album that my poor, hardworking musicians have had to learn and we start getting together face to face to rehearse in September.’

MG: I notice recent setlists have included Transvision Vamp songs like Bad Valentine and I Want Your Love, will you be playing these and any more of those hits on this tour?

WJ: ‘I really enjoy doing Bad Valentine as the final encore. It’s a very nice melodic song, and it’s easy to sing, but it’s also got a little bit of cheekiness to it. You know, you can add some flirtatious sass in there. So it’s a good performance song, and also the audience knows every lyric, so they sing along, and it’s just a good way to close out the evening.’

MG: How do you feel now about these Transvision Vamp songs for which you’re probably best known for?

WJ: ‘My songs are very good, but some of them have aged really well – Down On You and I saw a clip of Trash City when we were playing Germany in 1989 or something and it’s so powerful. I love doing I Want Your Love and Baby I Don’t Care but Trash City‘s going to be really exciting for me, and on the last tour we did Down On You and that really worked well as well. So that’s the point of rehearsals. Some songs work, some don’t.’

MG: Did you get fed up of the press focusing on you as a sex symbol back in the day rather than on your music?

WJ: ‘Well, I straddled both worlds because we were out on the road so much. So when you’re on stage leaping about with a gang of guys, you know, we’re not really thinking like: ‘Am I sexy?’ You’re being a band member. So I think that split personality of Wendy the sex symbol lived very much in the media rather than in the reality of what we were doing in our day to day lives.’

MG: I saw you at gigs in Hammersmith in 89 when you were on top of the world and 91 in Portsmouth when Little Magnets wasn’t released in the UK, how do you reflect on that time?

WJ: ‘Wow, you saw the 1991 tour? That’s the tour that went around the world when Kurt Cobain sported our T-shirt. The reality of Little Magnets was very, very different around the world. It was actually the biggest selling album for us in America. Whereas we were flailing with our record label boss in the UK who decided in his wisdom to shelve it. Uh. He was concerned, like most business people might be, that we weren’t doing another Pop Art. Little Magnets has all those voodoo and New Orleans kind of references and some of the songwriting is fantastic.’

MG: Are you ever tempted to try to get Transvision Vamp back together again?

WJ: ‘In that way, no. I mean, I am going to Australia as Transvision Vamp, and that’s a new chapter for my life. But in terms of going backwards, no. I’ve made my own life with my own music, and I’m very, very happy with what I’ve managed to create and release. And so there would be no reason to go back to something that was, you know, that was fresh and even, you know, pushing the boundaries in the 80s. Why would you go back?’

MG: 1 of my favourite albums of yours was Now Ain’t The Time For Your Tears what do you remember about working with Elvis Costello?

WJ: ‘I like Basement Kiss. The production is a little bit too florid for me. I make a bit more of a filthy sound although I make delicate sounds as well. It worked. You know, music, that’s what they say about great music, is it doesn’t age, or it ages really well. They remain very good songs, so, you know, I’m dissecting it as a producer.’

MG: Since then you’ve worked with Racine as well as solo, how do you feel about this current phase of your career?

WJ: ‘I’m in the right place now because these musicians that work with me, they’ve been in different iterations and lineups. They’ve been with me for 7, 8, 9 years. Dave from Transvision Vamp is also now back in the band. Whenever we would go to Bristol or that neck of the woods in the south west he would always be in the audience and so when I didn’t have a bass player, I asked him and he said yes which was fantastic.’

MG: After the tour, what do you think you’ll do next?

WJ: ‘Transvision Vamp heads to Australia in February. If nothing happens after that I am writing album 11. But I’m imagining other things will happen after that. For instance, I’m getting a lot of requests for Europe and America. So, you know, I’m fluid. I’ve got a good selection of lyrics now, new lyrics, so I do want to sit down and write album 11. So, just work, work, work.’

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Wendy James Tickets
• Have you seen a Wendy James show before and what do you think of the new album? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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