I’ve been lucky to have some men as love items, but my focus has always been music

2 months ago 16

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.

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.

Transvision Vamp’s bass player, Dave Parsons, worked at Johnsons, inside Kensington Market in London. It’s where I would buy creepers [rockabilly shoes] and they sold Teddy Boy jackets. Billy Duffy from The Cult also worked there. Johnsons was a central place for musicians to hang out. Influenced by Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan, I got my pink dresses, bra tops and boots from Hyper Hyper on Kensington High Street. I was mixing my male and female music role models into one look.

I got to work with Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kaye on my solo album, The Price of the Ticket, in 2016. I lived in New York from 2002 to 2016; we went for coffee in the East Village and became friends. He took over duties to play on my album when Iggy and the Stooges’ James Williamson had to go on tour with Iggy [Pop].

Glenn Matlock [of the Sex Pistols], whom I’ve known all my adult life, and James Sclavunos [who plays with Nick Cave] also played on that record. It was engineered by Ivan Julian from Richard Hell and the Voidoids. I had all the men who actually inspired me to do music in the first place help on that album.

I now live in France with Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth from Talking Heads. I became their house guest for a number of weeks in their countryside home and moved in.

I have never married. I didn’t have children and the rest is private. I haven’t focused my life on romance. I have been lucky to have some men as love items, but the focus has always been music for me. There is someone special in my life now.

Transvision Vamp is touring nationally in February 2026.

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