“I’m having the best time of my career” Kim Wilde tells Vernon Kay

On Vernon Kay’s BBC Radio 2 show this morning, it was the turn of 80s pop icon Kim Wilde to perform for Radio 2’s Piano Room month.

She was accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra, at the BBC Maida Vale studios.

She sang her previous hit, You Came, a new song – Midnight Train, and a classic cover – Weather With You by Crowded House.

Performing with her, was her niece Scarlett on backing vocals and her brother Ricky on guitar.

She chatted with Vernon about performing at Radio 2 in the Park in Preston last September, working with her family, Kids in America, her new album and tour, gardening and how boredom brought her back to music.

It was Kids in America that started Kim’s success as an artist and so Vernon asked her about it.

“Initially it was the first record I’d ever put out, back in 1981, I was just 20 years old,” she said. “Ricky had written it with my father, Marti, and we had no expectations.”

She explained that it started jumping up the charts quickly and at the time there was a concern that it might have been rigged because it was jumping so fast, so it was pulled!

“They pulled it out of the chart! It was mortifying,” she recalled. “We’d only just been on school coaches, hadn’t we? You know we were used to listening to Gary Davies in the morning and Steve Wright.

“We were sort of used to being in the coach listening to all the great pop tunes and then all of a sudden it was our pop tune on the biggest radio station at that time, which was amazing.”

Kim took some time out of the music business to live normally for a while, rather than as a pop star and Vernon wanted to know if she had anything at home such as a poster or award that reminded her that she was ‘Kim Wilde the pop star’?

“No, no I didn’t actually.,” she replied. “There are things to be proud of in life and I understand that now and I really appreciate it now.”

She told Vernon she wanted to find out who she was without being ‘Kim Wilde’: “That’s exactly what I did, I discovered who I was as a mother and a gardener. And then, once I did that I thought, ‘Oh that’s a bit boring! [laughs] Get me on tour for God’s sake!’ No, no, I’m joking, I’m joking!”

Still talking about returning to music and performing, she admitted: “I’m having the best time of my career right now, Vernon, if the truth be told.”

Kim Wilde performance and interview are now available to hear on BBC Sounds and can be watched on BBC iPlayer from 6pm this evening.