Kim Wilde's Christmas Party

I am not really into Eighties Revival stuff. But a mate of mine expressed an interest in seeing Nik Kershaw, and he was supporting Kim Wilde in a pre-Christmas show on Shepherds Bush, so off we went. My mate now works in Leeds so he was coming down to stay with me overnight for this gig. Spending a day with him did make me wish I had spent more time with him when he was working down in London, and indeed just down the corridor from me. We had a very pleasant day, collecting him from Kings Cross (which can look quite smart at Christmas)

going to the British Museum to see the Colombian gold exhibition,

 then onto a Polish restaurant for dinner and finally the Kim Wilde gig.

Unsurprisingly, this was a gig for the more mature audience. James was one of the youngest members of the crowd. Nik Kershaw's set was ridiculously short, but did include his biggest hit, the memorable "Wouldn't it be good?" and also something he wrote but didn't perform - one of the all-time great one-hit wonders, "The One and Only" "by" Chesney Hawkes.

Nik Kershaw now

And then

Kim Wilde is, I would have to remark, a very handsome woman for her age. My mate had wondered whether the attractive backing singer, who didn't seem to add much to the whole performance apart from look attractive, might be her daughter. He looked very smug when it turned out she was her niece. Pretty close guess. Kim also had he dad on stage for a couple of numbers - Marty Wilde - who also looked in pretty good nick for a man in his Seventies, although thankfully he didn't sing "Teenager in Love" which would have been weird from a senior citizen whose heyday was in the late Fifties. Kim herself is in her Fifties but as I say looked and sounded very good. Still her encore of "Kids in America" sounded a bit odd from a middle-aged woman, however glamorous.

Kim and her dad Marty

Another guest performer, wasted even more than Nik Kershaw, was Rick Astley. This guy also looks pretty good for his age. Maybe dropping out of the music scene almost as soon as one becomes a success is a good life move.

But having said that, and waving a few very cheesy Christmas songs (although one of these was a very decent cover of Slade's "Merry Christmas"), it was a perfectly enjoyable gig. A bit more drinking rounded off a good night.

A young Kim Wilde