Wendy wants your love

by NICK BOND

Wendy James, the platinum blonde singer best known as the frontwoman for late 80s pop rockers Transvision Vamp, is in the country for a month, with a string of DJ dates lined up.

It’s not her first extended visit to our shores; she toured the country extensively when the Vamp were at the height of their pop powers.

We really went off the beaten track; I remember, because we had our own airplane that would take us to all these remote places, she told Sydney Star Observer.

Transvision Vamp Airways?

Well, it wasn’t written on the side of the airplane.

This visit is a taster for a tour by James’s current band, Racine, in January of next year. She acknowledges the support she’s received from Aussie fans over the years, although she’s at a loss as to why.

I don’t know, maybe I just make the kind of rock ‘n’ roll that Australians get. Some countries just don’t get it -” Italy, for instance, is a really weird place for rock ‘n’ roll; they love disco. Australia seems to really dig it.

We do have a legacy of great chick-fronted rock bands.

Ahh, you love feisty women.

Feisty is an apt description for James. Before she dropped out of the public eye in the early 90s she copped a lashing from the UK press for her outspoken nature.

At some point or another, when you get that famous, the tabloids are obliged to write about you, she said. But it was overblown. A few people said they thought I was rubbish, but that was really about it.

James’s exile from performing saw her spend time behind the scenes of the music industry.

I built a studio in London, and I learnt how to play instruments and how to engineer for myself, she said.

That time was spent learning my craft, and really just growing up, because Transvision Vamp had taken me from being a 16-year-old into my late 20s. I hadn’t really had a chance to do the normal things a person does growing up.

Despite this, she doesn’t regret the effect the band had on her formative years.

While [others her age] might be partying in a pub in London, I was on world tours -” so I’m kind of pleased my life worked out like that, James said.

James has been DJing for the past few years as a sideline to her work with Racine, and her approach is organic.

I’m gonna have to feel it, she explained, when asked what Australian punters can expect from her sets.

I play what turns me on, so it’ll be the Detroit scene, also the late 70s New Wave scene, hip hop, a little bit of British indie, and then just one-offs that I am impressed by, like M.I.A. and Santogold.

I usually try and get a bit of Grace Jones in there as well. If it feels right, I’ll do it. I basically just amuse myself, and if the crowd are into it too, then great.

info: Wendy James is DJ-ing in Sydney throughout September-October. Details: www.theracineworld.com.