Place de la République. 29 July 2019.
It’s only taken me thirty odd years to see the wonderful Kim Wilde and her band play live in concert, and she came right to my front door… okay, it was a five minute walk to the stage from where I live, but how much closer can you get to seeing an international pop-rock superstar without needing to take the car or public transport?
When I learned some weeks back that Kim Wilde and her band was going to play a free outdoor concert in town, I couldn’t quite believe it. I cleared out my schedule for that evening and made sure the trusty TVTA camera would be charged and ready to document the event.
Finally that night came, and I arrived early to get as close to the stage as possible, passing the time for the band to come onstage by chatting with Steve, a French megafan of Kim’s, who filled me in on the five albums she’d made since her success in the 80s and early 90s when I first bought some of her singles, an album, and bopped along to her music on the radio. I confess right now, I haven’t listened to Kim in a long while, but that’s going to change thanks to the incredible show I witnessed tonight. There’s her last album for starters – 2018’s Here Come the Aliens, then an upcoming live album (her first) which Kim announced on stage she was going to release.
Onto the show… I’ve seen some fantastic concerts by amazing bands over the years. After tonight, Kim Wilde and her band now rank among the best of them. With a near two hour performance including many of her seemingly endless 80s hits, and a barrage of her newer songs, plus many in between, there wasn’t a single moment when the energy dropped or the foot came off the pedal. How refreshing to see an artist and band enjoying themselves to the absolute limit. As an eight piece line-up which includes Kim, two guitars, bass, keyboards, a backing vocalist/dancer, and two (yes that’s two!) drummers, there was plenty to watch and admire from a band who were quite evidently having the time of their lives.
Top marks to Kim and guitarist/songwriter – her brother Ricky Wilde, for assembling across the years such a talented and enthusiastic troupe, who not only played magnificently but performed magnificently. Top marks must also go to the sound and lighting engineers. And Kim, ever humble and sweet, sincerely thanking and merci beaucoup-ing the crowd in between each and every number. In her own words: “Thank you so much for coming to see us on this beautiful summer night in the South of France, this is just so beautiful. Thank you. Merci beaucoup!”
Beautiful. I couldn’t agree more. Kudos and spaceships and love to Kim and her band and crew, and thank you for bringing a bit of rock, pop and magic to this little city in the South of France.
TVTA bonus!
Going through my French 45 RPM collection this morning I came across this 🙂
Kim Wilde. View From a Bridge. RAK 1982.
TVTA update September 2019!
I bought Kim’s album Here Come The Albums on CD 🙂
Kim Wilde Here Come The Aliens 2018 CD. Artwork by Scarlett Wilde.
Thanks for looking. Words and photographs by the editor. ©TVTA. 2019.
The Vintage Toy Advertiser 
You had a blast!
You also took some excellent shots of a live concert. I enjoyed this post a lot. 😀 xx
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Thanks Resa. I’m still coming down from the concert even after more than a week has passed! Was absolutely brilliant. X
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That’s wonderful! X
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Looks great, how awesome for you! I confess I only know a handful of her singles, but they’re all good. I know what I’ll be listening to while working tomorrow.
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Yeh, it was absolutely brilliant Jacob. I managed to check out her last album yesterday ‘Here Come the Aliens’ – and I loved it. I’m going to order it along with the live album on CDs, even though it sounded tip top enough through headphones on the laptop, some things just have to be blasted on the stereo!
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I listened to that this afternoon – what a revelation! It’s brilliant! Found myself ‘spinning’ Cyber Nation War a few times – that’s just asking for the big speaker treatment!
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Well done, and me too this afternoon! A revelation is absolutely the right word to describe that album! Every track is just so damn awesome and catchy! Really pleased you liked it 🙂
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Totally! Cheers for making this post and bringing Kim back to my attention 🙂
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You know she is from the 80’s by the guy with the Keytar!! I haven’t seen one of those in a long while.
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Same here! He was really cool, he had the regular keyboards in between the two drum kits then every so often he’d grab his keytar and come dancing down the front.
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Glad to see it is still alive and well.
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Hello 2loud2coldmusic, that must mean I’m from the 80’s as I have two keytars! I’ll admit they are the cheap Yamaha home keyboard types (called the SHS-10 and the larger SHS-100) but they have MIDI cable sockets so I could connect them to my more pro equipment and rock around the stage. Why should the guitarists get all the limelight?
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Hi again 2loud2coldmusic, sorry I should have said the SHS-10 and SHS-200! Wrong model number! (I’m getting old and forgetful 😉 )
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Rock On!!! Nothing wrong with that at all. You just don’t see it very often today and you are right, keyboard players should get some glory.
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Keytars are awesome! My sister had the SHS-10; I remember Last Christmas was a demo track and I thought that was about as cool as it got. 😛
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Hello Jacob, yes that is the one! I really wanted a red version but alas only managed to get hold of a grey model. The big brother SHS-200 I think only came in pearl white but I have seen a modified one painted black. Playing Thunderstruck or Van Halen’s Jump is a great crowd pleaser on a keytar!
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I bet ‘Runaway’ and ‘The Final Countdown’ would be cool to see live on keytar too!
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Yay, ‘Last Christmas’ on a keytar! I know it’s still summer but I always look forward to the festive season.
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Hey Ft, that’s cool you have not one but two keytars!
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Hi TVTA, yes I own two but very nearly only had one! I had an accident when the guitar strap snapped and I nearly dropped it…luckily I caught it. I recommend getting a proper heavy duty guitar strap from a guitar manufacturer rather than using the one that Yamaha provide (The fake leather tabs where they hook onto the keytar split easily ;( ) And yes “Runaway” “Final Countdown” and any of the 2 Unlimited era dance tunes work well. I once played “No Limits” and Tocata and Fugue in Dm live as a medley…people thought I was miming till I invited folks on stage and they started pressing keys while I played so they could hear the interference they created!
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Cool. No Limits would sound ace! My brother plays electric guitar and in the old days after a few near misses with the guitar detaching itself he brought some locking clamp straps (I think they were called that) which locked the strap down, plus as you mentioned a heavy duty strap!
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Yeah, unfortunately the Yamaha strap had “Pleather” tabs and it was ok to start with but when the tabs bent or twisted they would crack then tear. No Limits was interesting, me and my bandmate were performing in our local town hall to raise money for a cultural exchange visit, and the crowd was full of motorbikers! My mate said “Oh heck we’re in trouble…they’re gonna hate us” but amazingly the bikers when they heard us got up and started doing the dance routine!
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“We’re the kids in the south of France…woah! We’re the kids in the south of France woah!” OK, maybe not, I’m a keyboard player not a singer! Cool that you got to see a legit 80’s star. And we were just chatting about all the musicians we’d met too.
“Everybody live for the music-go-round….la la la la la lah! La la la la la!”
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Haha, love it FT! She and her band were absolutely brilliant, so glad I got to go, and of course that particular song was the big highlight of the night when played in the encore, and the one I was singing on my way back home 🙂
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Haha…yes and I don’t use autotune! I used to play the song myself as I have the Yamaha synthesizer that features quite heavily in it. I have a real instrument version and a “Soft Synth” emulator on my laptop so I can play the keyboard sounds direct from my computer.
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Better late than never
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Too true! 30 odd years is cutting it a bit fine and none of us are getting any younger. Next year I’ll probably be attending in a Bath chair!
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