wendy james – devizine.com

Photo credit: David Leigh Dodd

Pioneers of the indie-rock sound which would lead us into the nineties, Transvision Vamp lead singer Wendy James has announced a UK tour in October in support of her recently released tenth solo album The Shape of History, which includes Frome’s Cheese & Grain…..

Wendy will be accompanied on tour by a full band, featuring Transvision Vamp’s bass player Dave Parsons, Jim Sclavunos from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds on drums and Alex Ward (Thurston Moore Group) on guitar. They will be playing songs from across all of her albums, from TVV Pop, to New Wave Punk to Lo-Fi Racine No.1, through to the big productions of Queen High Straight and The Shape Of History, picking off favourite songs from each.

For full tour dates see here, but closest to us is Tuesday 14th October at the Cheese and Grain, and The Fleece, Bristol on Tuesday 28th October.

Wendy James

While The Shape of History doesn’t begin with a sound akin to Transvision Vamp, there’s underlying echoes of it as the album builds. Layers of electronica envelope the familiar vocals, so while it’s not what you were expecting, the effect is as The Independent described, “like a patchwork of memories – victories, heartaches, the feeling of racing down a California highway, no destination in mind.” And Classic Rock expressed that

“The Wendy James of 2024 is an older, wiser and far more intriguing prospect. The Shape of History, never dull, and certainly never predictable.”

“My songwriting has always been a wide mix of sounds, which naturally reflect the different music and references I have and love,” Wendy explained, “The Shape Of History was recorded on Scrubs Lane, West London with Alex Ward, Harry Bohay and James Sclavunos. I then went off to NYC and Brooklyn to record the pianos and organs with Dave ‘The Moose’ Sherman. Overdubbing continued with Al Lawson at the engineering helm in his Shepherd’s Bush studio and then I went back to Berkeley, CA to mix with Jesse Nichols before mastering with Fred Kevorkian in Brooklyn NY. I have spent so much time with this music, I know it note-for-note and love it and am so happy for you to make it your own now”.

“The Shape Of History has a lot about love in it, a lot about appreciation of oneself, one’s life and importantly, of others. It is life’s arc of starting out, blooming into something and in some ways maturing. I don’t think my music has got older, I know I’ve not gone mellow! My attitude can be more ferocious and fearless than ever, but there is an acquired wisdom, which naturally comes after having been alive for a few decades! ‘The Shape Of History’ is a love letter and a Thank you note to life so far. The culmination of my tenth album is the result of co-musicians and engineers who I’ve worked with previously and with whom I share a language. We know each other, we choose to work together. We enjoy each other’s talents and personalities. There is a happiness, a belonging, when we meet up, and an open and determined desire to achieve what we know we have to.”

“From meeting Nick Christian Sayer and forming Transvision Vamp, the two of us walking into EMI Records, and demanding to see the head of Artists and Repertoire, Dave Ambrose. Getting signed and making our hits of the late 80’s and 90’s. From collaborating with Elvis Costello and mixing that album at Sunset Sound in Hollywood where The Stones mixed ‘Exile On Main St’, then moving to NYC to start writing and recording as a solo artist, all the gigs I’ve played and the friends I’ve made around the world, the astounding, incredible, wonderful people whose lives I’ve crossed paths with… I am so grateful for it all.”

Buy Shape of History HERE