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Transvision Vamp
Wendy James met future band member and husband Nick Sayer in a Brighton Club when she was 17. In the heavily stylised world of mid-eighties pop, there was a gap for a rock band lead by a wailing female banshee, so James and Sayer decided to write a film soundtrack, "Saturn 5". The pair called themselves "Transvision Vamp", moved to London and, along with a few new mates, were snapped up by MCA in the winter of 1986. It's possible that band member Tex Axile was working under a pseudonym.
The 'Vamp took a while to get going. The first single off their debut album "Pop Art" - "Revolution Baby" - floppity flip-flop floodled, and the follow-up, a cover called "Tell That Girl To Shut Up" fared little better. However, third single "I Want Your Love" hit the UK Top 5 and catapulted James into the pop limelight. They could be the only group to mention eighties flop band Halo James in a song-title. James became something of a Smash Hits whore and gained a reputation for being "mouthy". She loudly declared she would win an Oscar by the turn of the century, and that "Kylie Minogue's songs are very dangerous". She had clearly foreseen the Australian pop muffin's career-shredding Manic Street Preachers collaborations some years later.
After re-releasing "Revolution Baby" and "Sister Moon", in 1989 James and her band unleashed new material - the album "Velveteen" going straight into number 1 accompanied by smashing lead single "Baby I Don't Care" which remains great today. James was also good tabloid-fodder that year, especially her on-off romantic relationship with Roland Rivron. Bizarre!
"Velveteen" was wretched, and plummeted faster than shares in Bernard Matthews after a bird flu outbreak. The band took a year off which turned into 18 months, and when they came back they had an exciting album planned called "Little Magnets Versus the Bubble of Babble". I'm saying nothing. Alas, first single "(I Just Wanna) B With U" flopped like a wet fish in April 1991, and second release "If Looks Could Kill" followed likewise. The fact was that people hated Wendy James. She posed semi-nude for "The Face" around this time, along with her trumpeting that she was going to be bigger than Madonna. The third album was eventually released a year later but the public had lost interest and the Vamp were over.
In 1993, following the split, James received an unlikely parcel from Elvis Costello. She had written to him over her anguish with Tranvision Vamp but instead of just replying, the silly old moose had written her an album. The package contained songs she would record for a solo album, "Now Ain't The Time For Your Tears". Alas, singles "London's Brilliant" and "The Nameless One" failed to chart. Apparently she has some kind of record for the shortest record deal of all time, little over a year lapsing between signing and being dropped. In 1995 James plotted the "Lies In Chinatown" album on One Little Indian, but alas the record never got released bar a handful of copies. In 1997 a third solo album was recorded in New York but was again never released. In 2004 she came back back back fronting new band "Racine". Why do these things always have stupid names? An Amazon reviewer cruelly noted of the first album "Racine 1": "To think we laugh at Kelly Osbourne, Geri Halliwell and Mel B for releasing huge flop albums which no one wanted and few bought and yet we forget that this so called album sold even LESS than them. Less than Mel B!". Cruel but fair.
This has got to exist on the fringes of what 99% of the world's populace needs in their lives:
Unless of course you are really desperate to hear the extended version of "Twangy Wig-Out".
This appears to be a "Best Of" which seems to cover all the bases. An Amazon seller comments "Believe me, you won't find another album which has so many excellent songs", despite the fact that, surely, you might.
The above link includes the 'World of Wendy' micro site. Racine's website contains lots of things like "The barbarians are no longer at the city gates... they are in the city." and "Everyone knows our horsemen are invincible". Oh, go away.
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