Wendy James (born 21 January 1966) is an English singer-songwriter most notable for her work with the pop band

Transvision Vamp Transvision Vamp were an English pop rock band. Formed in 1986 by Nick Christian Sayer and Wendy James, the band enjoyed chart success in the late 1980s, particularly in 1989. James, the lead singer and focal-point of the group, attracted medi ...

Transvision Vamp

Born in London to Norwegian parents, James was

adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

soon after birth. She left home at the age of sixteen, moving to the

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

seaside resort A seaside resort is a resort town, town, village, or hotel that serves as a Resort, vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, suc ...

town of

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

.Wendy James Biography
. ilikemusic.com. Retrieved on 20 December 2008. There she met Nick Christian Sayer, who became her boyfriend and musical collaborator. Sayer and James moved to London, where they teamed up with friends

Dave Parsons David Guy Parsons (born 1964) is a British rock musician who is best known as the original bassist for English grunge band Bush. Life and career Before joining the grunge band Bush, was a member of punk band The Partisans, and alternative r ...

, Tex Axile and Pol Burton, with whom they formed the

pop-punk Pop punk (or punk pop) is a rock music genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop. It is defined for its emphasis on classic pop songcraft, as well as adolescent and anti-suburbia themes, and is distinguished from other pu ...

band Transvision Vamp. James was the lead singer and

focal point Focal point may refer to: * Focus (optics) * Focus (geometry) * Conjugate points, also called focal points * Focal point (game theory) * Unicom Focal Point, a portfolio management software tool * Focal point review, a human resources process for ...

of the group, and attracted media attention with her sexually charged and rebellious image.Huey, Steve. "

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

. Retrieved on 20 December 2008. The band was signed by MCA in December 1986 and released a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of the

Holly and the Italians Holly Beth Vincent (born Holly Beth Cernuto in 1956) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. In her youth Vincent sang and played drums and guitar in several bands and took part in the Los Angeles punk scen ...

song "Tell That Girl to Shut Up" in late 1987. Months later the follow-up single "I Want Your Love", with its pop/punk crossover appeal, entered the Top 10 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. The band went on to release the hit album '' Pop Art'' in October. 1989 was the band's most successful year, with the number 3

hit single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...

"Baby I Don't Care" and hit album ''

Velveteen Velveteen (or velveret) is a type of cloth made to imitate velvet, which is a type of pile fabric. Normally cotton, the term is sometimes applied to a mixture of silk and cotton. Some velveteens are a kind of fustian, having a rib of velvet pile ...

'' which entered the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

at number 1 and was a hit worldwide.

Solo career, and Racine

When the decision had been made for Transvision Vamp to split, James wrote to

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...

asking for his guidance. In response Costello, collaborating with his then wife

Cait O'Riordan Caitlín O'Riordan (born 4 January 1965) is a British musician of Irish and Scottish descent. She played bass guitar for the Irish punk/folk band the Pogues from 1983 to 1986. She later played with Elvis Costello (her husband from 1986 to 2002) ...

on five of the ten songs, wrote a full album's worth of material for James. These songs made up the tracks on her 1993 solo album ''

Now Ain't the Time for Your Tears ''Now Ain't the Time for Your Tears'' is the debut solo album by English singer-songwriter and Transvision Vamp vocalist Wendy James, released on 8 March 1993 by MCA Records. Background The album was conceived after Wendy James had a chance ...

''. Produced by

Chris Kimsey Christopher Kenneth Kimsey (born 3 December 1951 in Battersea, London, England) is an English record producer, mixer and musician most famous for having co-produced The Rolling Stones' ''Undercover'' and '' Steel Wheels'' albums. He was also an ...

, it reached No. 43 in the

in March 1993. However the album failed to sell in significant numbers, and James "dropped from the music scene". She signed to

One Little Indian One Little Independent Records (formerly One Little Indian Records) is an English independent record label. It was set up in 1985 by members of various anarcho-punk bands, and managed by former Flux of Pink Indians bassist Derek Birkett. In th ...

and began work on an album entitled ''Lies in Chinatown'', which was not completed. James formed a band named Racine in 2004. The group released two albums, ''

Number One Number One most commonly refers to: * 1 (number) Number One, No. 1, or #1 may also refer to: Music Albums * ''Number 1'' (Big Bang album), and the title song * ''No. 1'' (BoA album), and the title song * ''No.1'' (EP), by CLC * ''n.1 ...

'' and ''

Racine 2 ''Racine 2'' (also known as ''Racine Volume 2'') is the second album by indie rock band Racine. Lead singer Wendy James wrote and produced the entirety of the album, as she had done with the band's first album ''Number One Number One most common ...

''. Racine broke up in December 2008, prior to shutting down their official website. The members of the band went on to join other bands and none of them worked on James's next album. James announced on her MySpace blog that she had been working on an album entitled ''

I Came Here to Blow Minds ''I Came Here to Blow Minds'' is the second solo album by former Transvision Vamp and Racine lead singer Wendy James. It was originally released in October 2010 as a digital album, but saw a physical release in March 2011. The album became Jame ...

'', which was recorded in Paris in 2009 and mixed in Australia later that year. Finally, a release date of 19 October 2010 (for digital release) was posted on James's official Facebook page in August 2010. One track from the album had already been made available for download on RCRD LBL. since May 2009. James released an album, '' The Price of the Ticket'' on 19 February 2016. In October 2019, James was touring as "The Wendy James Band" in support of the

Psychedelic Furs Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of ...

, promoting a new album, ''Queen High Straight''.

Discography

Transvision Vamp albums

*'' Pop Art'' (1988) *''

'' (1989) *'' Little Magnets Versus the Bubble of Babble'' (1991)

Solo albums

*''

'' (1993) – UK No. 43, AUS No. 132 *''

'' (2011) *'' The Price of the Ticket'' (2016) *''

Queen High Straight ''Queen High Straight'' is the fourth solo album by former Transvision Vamp lead singer Wendy James. Released on 1 May 2020, it was written, produced and mixed by James. Background The album took three years from inception, through writing s ...

'' (2020)

Racine albums

*''

'' (2004) *''

'' (2007)

Singles

The Nameless One "The Nameless One" is the protagonist of ''Black Isle Studios'' 1999 role-playing video game, '' Planescape: Torment''. In the game, he suffers from a curse of immortality that has spanned thousands of years. Every time he dies, another person ...

" (1993) – UK No. 34, AUS No. 106Australian (

ARIA Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

) peaks: *"The Nameless One", "London's Brilliant" and "Do You Know What I'm Saying?": *''Now Ain't the Time for Your Tears'': *" London's Brilliant" (1993) – UK No. 62 *" Do You Know What I'm Saying?" (1993) – UK No. 78, AUS No. 230

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:James, Wendy 1966 births Living people English adoptees English people of Norwegian descent English songwriters Women rock singers People from Brighton 21st-century English women singers 21st-century English singers