Wendy James is best known for being the founder and lead singer of rock group Transvision Vamp. Here, the 59-year-old, who is in a relationship, explains why she never married or had children, and how she has worked with many of her musical idols.
Wendy James was adopted, and had a happy childhood.Credit: Ricardo Gomes
I was adopted as a baby aged one; my adoptive parents made sure I knew this early on in life. I also have an adopted brother. My childhood was a typical, middle-class one. I came from a well-adjusted and loving family.
At 14, I went to see The Clash play at the Brighton Centre [in the UK]. Lead singer Joe Strummer provided a lightning-bolt moment of clarity of what I wanted to do with my life. I wondered, “How does one go from being a schoolgirl to a singer in a rock band?” I was fairly studious, yet on career day at school I told them I wanted to be a rocker or a fighter pilot.
My first crush was Richard Hell from the American band Television. I had a type back then: the skinny, gaunt bad boy with a heart of gold underneath, but mean on the outside. I loved his cheekbones and punk hair. I have since met him; I’ve got a poster of him on my wall. God, I haven’t grown up at all.
I met guitarist Nick Christian Sayer at Electric Grape, a bar in Brighton. I was with my friend Zoe. We were both 15, and he looked like he was in the New York Dolls: a skinny rock star with leather trousers and big hair. He was carrying the first album by US band Suicide under his arm. During that evening, he told me he was in a band. I told him I was a singer in a school choir.
We started making demos right away. I had moved out of home, but my parents still kept tabs on me and Nick over the course of a year. The demo became the basis of [Transvision Vamp’s debut album] Pop Art, which we released in 1988. We walked in the doors of [record company] EMI and told them we were going to be famous; that’s kind of how it happened.
As I started to make money, it was great to have a boyfriend who wasn’t threatened by that, as he had made his own money.
Wendy James
I met my first boyfriend, Mick Jones from The Clash, when I was 17. He was very charming, and we fell in love. I was locked down from a young age! I’ve gravitated toward some of the most phenomenal blokes over the years. Mick knew everything about music and wartime history. He was about a decade older than me.
As I started to make money, it was great to have a boyfriend who wasn’t threatened by that, as he had made his own money. We dated on and off for a decade.
