Kim Wilde on working with legendary producer Mickey Most, the 80s revival and an alien encounter​ in her back garden

KIM WILDE always seemed a very down-to-earth pop star.

She retrained in horticulture during her first pregnancy and has won awards for her landscape gardening.

But then you see that her first UK album in 25 years is called Here Come The Aliens — and that the title was inspired by “a real-life close encounter in Kim’s back garden”.

“It was in June 2009, the day after Michael Jackson had died, and we’d spent the evening in hospital because my son, Harry, had all the symptoms of swine flu and we were really worried about him,” explains Kim.

“We got home about 10 and went out into the garden to have a glass of wine. This bright light was just hanging in the sky.

“We’d seen helicopters with bright lights fly over the house so we just assumed it was another one searching for someone, that this was a searchlight.

“But as I sat there, I realised the light was still hanging in the sky behind some low cloud, and I could tell it wasn’t the moon or the sun as it was dusk.

“I knew there was something a bit strange about it so we walked down the garden and looked up. It started to move very quickly and silently for several minutes.

“It zigzagged across the sky, then a smaller one joined it and we saw this intense light.

“It was just incredible.

“I told everyone who’d listen that weekend and they all gave me a funny look and thought I’d had too much Pinot Grigio — which I hadn’t!

“But it turned out lots of people had seen it in Welwyn Garden City, and someone had taken a photograph of this giant flying sphere in the sky.

“So it was good to have it confirmed because otherwise I’d have thought I’d imagined it!

“There’s definitely something out there and on one song on the new album, 1969, I sing that if the aliens did come down to this planet, they’d probably just fling us off it because we’ve just cocked it up so badly and we’d deserve it!”

Kim recorded the album at legendary producer Mickie Most’s RAK Studios, where she’s recorded throughout her career and where it all started with her debut single Kids In America, which reached No 2 in 1981.

“I always get emotional when I go back into that studio,” says Kim, still stunning at 57.

“I remember the very first time I walked in there. I was wearing a pair of black-and-red striped trousers, I’d recently dyed my hair blonde. I’d just left art college and here I was meeting Mickie Most.

“My brother, Ricky, was a producer there. Everything happened so quickly — Mickie recognising Ricky’s talent and then wondered who this girl was who was hanging around!

“Kids In America came up very quickly, and the rest is history.

“But Mickie was a massive part of our story, a total legend, he believed in us so much.

“He shouldn’t have gone so soon, but RAK Records hasn’t changed, everything is exactly the same. The curtains are the same, the furniture’s the same, everything’s the same as when he was there. His office is untouched.

“There are posters downstairs of Mickie when he was part of the Most Brothers and my dad Marty when they were all on the same bill somewhere back in the 50s, so we sort of had this long family background without even realising it at the time.”

Kim continues: “The last UK album, apart from my Christmas album a couple of years ago, came out in the early 90s and that’s a big old chunk of time.

“I’ve been very busy in Europe meantime, as I was very fortunate that I was handed a hit on a plate by the German singer Nena.

“We did TV at the same time in the early 80s. She asked me to do a duet with her in 2003, and before I knew it, it was No 1 in Germany, Austria, Holland and everywhere, and that reignited my career over there.

“It didn’t translate at all here, and I was quite happy to keep my head under the radar in the UK. It suited me and I really enjoy doing all the 80s stuff and turning up at things like the Rewind festival and having fun with the audience.

“The 80s stuff is back with a vengeance!” laughs Kim.

“When I first started doing 80s tours nearly 20 years ago, I thought: ‘Well, this will last for a few years and then it’ll all die out’ but it’s got stronger and stronger.

“But at the same time I was quietly hatching a plan to make this album and, I suppose, a comeback, it would be perceived.”

Kim’s been gigging across the globe in recent years, too, in stark contrast to her early career, when she rarely played live.

“Well, yeah, I’d never played live!” she laughs. “I was suddenly on Top Of The Pops as somebody who’d never done a gig. Of course that was overwhelming.

“But I had to start somewhere. A lot of bands have the luxury of doing a few pubs and clubs with their family and friends coming along, cutting their teeth in that way, but I didn’t have that, I had to be the best right away. There was a lot of pressure.

“But that’s the way it was and I’m a much better performer now than I was then — I don’t know how I got away with it!”

Kim Wilde’s new album Here Come The Aliens is out now on Wildflower Records.