Wendy James was the long-lasting frontwoman of 80s indie-popsters Transvision Vamp, and in 2016 launched her third solo album, The Worth Of The Ticket. That yr, she spoke to Jenny Valentish
Once upon a perve, it was inconceivable to depict Wendy James arching boldly in your journal cowl with out then throwing stones at her.
It was just like the Transvision Vamp singer had exceeded the accepted quantity of hydrogen peroxide for a pin-up and should be duly punished.
“What’s she like?!” Choose questioned, beneath an image of James baring her tooth, clad in a brassiere. The Face started one characteristic “Wendy James is a lady all people likes to hate”, then Time Out went one higher and made her the quilt star for his or her ‘Hated 100’ challenge.
NME ran the quilt line “Little Miss Misunderstood – Wendy James pouts it about”. In one other challenge, she topped NME’s ‘gender traitor’ box-out in a women-in-rock characteristic. Bloody hell, she couldn’t win.
The humorous factor is, you’ll by no means discover an interview during which James will get the huff about it. Self-pity will not be within the vocabulary. “I’ve obtained a goldfish reminiscence,” she says airily now, speaking down the blower from her condominium in Paris.
“I can’t bear in mind what journalists have mentioned unhealthy issues about me – it goes in a single ear and out the opposite. I simply do what I do and I think about myself.”
Having turned 50 in January, James has misplaced curiosity in trash-punk anthems and sending outrage meters into the pink.
What endures is her love of the Velvets, Dylan and The Stooges, one thing evident in her third solo album The Worth Of The Ticket with its riff-focused rock’n’roll, every tune a mini-movie melodrama.
The album covers a lot floor, variously submerged in New York, the Nice Plains and her adopted Paris, the latter of which is impressed by lazy French pop of the Sixties, such because the yé-yé spinoff of go-go ladies.
You’ll be able to’t hearken to a coolly disdainful observe similar to Love From The ninth (“you and me, we simply don’t discuss the identical language”) and never image James consuming espresso at Café de Flore, surrounded by the native ‘drageurs’ – the well-heeled divorcées who hone in on lone girls.
“I’ve obtained a reasonably unfriendly stare after I need to have,” she chuckles.
James is a Bardot in no want of a Gainsbourg. She’s the producer, sole songwriter and even the file label: she funded the recording by means of PledgeMusic pre-sales after which utilised the location as a one-stop-shop to shift every little thing from 12-inch check pressings to visitor listing locations.
Being the boss additionally means with the ability to handpick her personnel: ex-Intercourse Pistol Glen Matlock on bass, Lenny Kaye of The Patti Smith Group on guitar, and James Sclavunos (Nick Cave & The Unhealthy Seeds) on drums.
A few tracks have been additional recorded with guitarist James Williamson and the late saxist Steve Mackay, each from The Stooges.
James had identified Matlock since she was a teen, however the remainder of this studio band have been removed from session gamers. “James is one in every of my confidantes, and Lenny… should you met him, you’d fall in love,” she says.
“He performs in a bar each Sunday close to the place he lives. Clearly he doesn’t want to try this, however equally I’ve by no means identified James to take a day without work. It’s the identical with me; I’m a workaholic.
“Different musicians who have been much less comfy of their pores and skin would possibly attempt to throw their weight round, however they only introduced me their huge quantity of concepts and expertise and let me hold issues on observe till it was what I heard in my head.”
Since shifting to New York in 2002 (Paris is however a dalliance), James has cultivated a psychogeographical fascination with the grimier neighbourhoods.
“I’m good buddies with Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth from Speaking Heads, who knew the Bowery when it was a rat-infested hazard zone,” she swoons.
“These days it’s an upper-middle class shopping center for individuals who need to go to Mattress Tub & Past and J-Crew, however it’s nonetheless thrilling that I’m strolling in the identical Union Sq. that Andy Warhol’s Manufacturing unit was in.
“There’s one thing about Downtown, with the artists, revolutionaries, activism, Max’s Kansas Metropolis, Patti and Lenny, the visitors lights, avenue indicators, the rundown tenements… oh god. I may simply eat it each single day.”
James has at all times been a culture-vulture, and ceaselessly namedropped icons within the lyrics of Transvision Vamp songs. “Even now,” she says, “if I discover a image of Edie Sedgwick, I can simply stare at it in rapture. I don’t have the self-destructive gene like she did; it’s not about that. What I like about Edie is her appears and her type.”
That form of fetishisation rears up on tracks similar to You’re A Dirtbomb, Lester (a reference to music journalist Lester Bangs).
“I simply lay there/ With new wave rockers and graffiti and music and kicks in Gramercy” she sings, over a two-chord Velvets-meets- Voidoids chug. A lot of the album is stripped again on this means.
With King Rat, James performs one guitar riff from begin to end, impressed by Howlin’ Wolf, permitting the melodies to vary round it. Each Transvision Vamp tune was constructed up from a killer riff, and now she’s taken on that mantle herself.
Elsewhere, she’s explored her love of nation, with the Rawhide-like Cowboy Rhythm and the June Carter Money-inspired Farewell To Love.
“When Keith Richards writes for the Stones there are these shut harmonies, proper on the sting,” she says. “He was an important advocate of Gram Parsons and I really like, love, love these blended harmonies.”
Even at its sweetest, The Worth Of The Ticket has a sting in its tail. There’s a particular don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-way-out theme, indicating on the very least an absence of tolerance for fools.
“Today I may be extra outfitted to be extra philosophical earlier than I chew somebody’s head off,” she laughs, “however on the entire, I haven’t obtained time to waste – I’ve a black-and-white decision-making course of and you realize the place you stand whenever you’re with me.
“I suppose if I’ve discovered something, it’s that earlier than you burn all of your bridges you need to take a deep breath and take a look at the entire image.”
That philosophy’s come too late for James’ stash of Transvision Vamp paraphernalia, which she metaphorically burned to a cinder.
“In my attic in West London I had platinum information, gold information, each accolade going,” she remembers. “After I determined to maneuver to New York I simply put it out by the trash. It was a radically pragmatic choice. I appeared out the entrance window 10 minutes later and it was all gone.”
She’ll concede that’s fairly annoying now. “I put a few check pressings for this album up on the Pledge website they usually went like sizzling truffles. I emailed Nick from Transvision Vamp and requested if he knew the place our outdated check pressings have been.
“He mentioned, ‘I’ve obtained no thought, most likely within the vaults of Common.’ However what are you going to do? Transfer to New York with a bunch of gold information beneath your arm? The thought of carrying a great deal of baggage was irritating to me.”
This lack of sentiment concerning the previous has been a operating theme in James’ life. She was adopted – she’s of Norwegian inventory – and has by no means tried to trace down her start dad and mom. Neither did she gel along with her adoptive dad and mom, who raised her in a well-heeled nook of East Sussex.
As she informed Michael Aspel on Aspel & Co in 1999: “I began pondering as if I had created myself.” It brings to thoughts the magpie eye Patti Smith describes in her memoir, Simply Youngsters: of being younger and hungry, and developing the self out of little concepts thieved from right here and there.
“I’ve been unfettered,” James says now of her upbringing. “I believe it’s an incredible benefit. Lots of people begin having the identical habits as their dad and mom and I don’t have any of that, nor do I’ve any hang-up about diseases. I haven’t obtained any of these preconditioned fears in my thoughts about sickness or genetic failings. I’ve no roadmap.”
Ever the escape artist, James left house on her sixteenth birthday and moved to Brighton, the place she noticed her first gig – The Conflict – and determined she wanted to hold on the nice work of Joe Strummer.
She additionally met future Transvision Vamp guitarist Nick Christian Sayer, and the pair moved to Ladbroke Grove in West London.
“I’d been up and all the way down to London since I used to be about 14 as fairly a naughty younger woman,” she remembers. “I used to be listening to the Pistols and dreaming of freedom.”
When James began relationship Mick Jones of The Conflict – which turned out to be a long-term relationship – Transvision Vamp have been usually to be discovered hanging at Portobello’s Warwick Citadel, together with Huge Audio Dynamite and varied different faces, together with Neneh Cherry, Jock Scott, and members of The Conflict, Westworld and Curiosity Killed The Cat.
The joint was even immortalised in a photograph guide, 3000 Hangovers Later.
Not like a few of her friends, James was unapologetically bold, which should have been relatively retro, not to mention un-English.
“I used to be blinkered, and I imply that in a constructive means,” she confirms. “The those who make it are the individuals who reside and breathe it 24 hours a day, proper? They’re not anxious about getting married, having kids or having sufficient cash.
“They’re simply centered on what they’re doing. I needed to be well-known, wealthy, on Prime Of The Pops. I used to be in a giant sweet retailer.”
And the way did that go down with the Warwick Citadel scene of seasoned musos? “I didn’t discover any of the jockeying happening round me, or the politics of climbing up the slippery pole, as a result of I used to be completely profitable,” she laughs.
“However this can be a humorous little anecdote – Mick was my boyfriend and clearly he had Huge Audio Dynamite, however Transvision Vamp had No. 1s. I bear in mind one of many music papers asking Mick, ‘So, what do you consider the opposite bands in West London?’
“Mick mentioned one thing like, ‘I’m not conscious of another bands in West London.’ He was extra superior than me in years and success, so he most likely knew the politics of Machiavelli higher than I did. I used to be simply ‘me me me me me me me’.”
Jones did have his makes use of – when James was being hammered by the press, he taught her to take no shit. “Mick had gone by means of all that earlier than me, so he was the most effective counsel to have,” she acknowledges.
“If I’d had a boyfriend who was fussing round me, possibly I might have dwelled on it, however I used to be surrounded by individuals who mentioned, ‘They will go f*** themselves.’
She’s nonetheless in contact with the opposite members of Transvision Vamp. “Nick emailed me the opposite day to say he thought the singing on one of many new songs was lovely,” she says. “I don’t know the place Tex lives… I consider it may be Hong Kong, however from time to time he pops up on the Twitter feed.
“Dave, I hadn’t seen for about 15 years, however once we have been taking part in Bristol final yr he walked into the dressing room and went, ‘All proper, Wendy?’” She laughs throatily. “It was so good. While you’ve gone by means of a lot with a gang of buddies, it actually doesn’t matter what number of years go by.
“We’re not common cellphone talkers by any means however there’s good will between all of us.”
James neither dwells prior to now nor fantasises concerning the future. “It’s all concerning the current,” she says firmly. “I’m not the world’s biggest planner. I don’t have… what’s that factor you construct up for whenever you’re outdated? A pension. I couldn’t even start to inform you what may be occurring in six months’ time. My tenet is I need to make music.”
And whereas the starvation for fame might have dulled, her aggressive edge has not. “If I don’t play the Tremendous Bowl my life’s not going to be a tragedy,” she displays.
“However, should you put me in any scenario the place I’m going toe-to-toe with anybody, in fact, I’ll play to win.”
The self-adoration James practised again within the days of Transvision Vamp wouldn’t garner a lot criticism on this age of social media narcissism.
In reality, it comes as little shock that Miley Cyrus and James have expressed mutual admiration for one another. The most recent album cowl, although, displaying James reclining topless on a settee, has been talked about as ceaselessly in evaluations because the content material.
“I can learn philosophical and political bias into why my album cowl is of nice advantage, however the fact is my physique was trying match,” she says.
“I used to be with a girlfriend, Kym Ellery, who’s an Australian designer. She obtained the beers in for breakfast and mentioned ah, simply take your prime off.
“It’s not a ‘hi there boys’ pose. I’m not trying on the digicam or inviting anyone in. There’s not a single man on the planet that may decide me for something. Their opinion actually doesn’t depend.”
She continues: “I’ll inform you one factor that does irritate me – it’s when ladies pout into the digicam with the newest designer garments on, and that’s their album cowl.
“Perhaps there’s a wind machine they usually’re attempting to look deep and significant as they put on $5,000 of Gucci, which in a yr’s time goes to seem like essentially the most embarrassing factor ever. I couldn’t be bothered to determine ‘which outfit actually exemplifies the place I’m at proper now’.”
