(As published in Brian Q. Newcomb's Syndicate ... )
Wendy James
Now Ain't the Time for Tears (DGC)
Two years after recording the amazing Velveteen with her trash-glam band Transvision Vamp, Wendy James realized she was sick of her sleazy image as a punk Madonna Ciccone and wrote Elvis Costello, whom she'd never met, an SOS letter. A few months later, she learned that E.C. had written her an entire album that, if she wanted, she could record as was. She did, and this is it. The short, fast songs make the most of James' smoky, pouty voice, and the ease with which she makes Costello's barbed wordplay her own suggests a future in acting. But the long, slow ones, with their formal challenges and grand statements of self-realization, make demands that no ex-punk Madonna can easily live up to. Maybe that's the risk an independence-seeking woman runs when relying a hundred percent on a man to tell her story for her. And maybe the lone short slow one, "Basement Kiss" (as fine a performance as anything James recorded with Transvision Vamp) suggests such risks can nevertheless pay off.
Wendy James
Now Ain't the Time for Tears (DGC)
Two years after recording the amazing Velveteen with her trash-glam band Transvision Vamp, Wendy James realized she was sick of her sleazy image as a punk Madonna Ciccone and wrote Elvis Costello, whom she'd never met, an SOS letter. A few months later, she learned that E.C. had written her an entire album that, if she wanted, she could record as was. She did, and this is it. The short, fast songs make the most of James' smoky, pouty voice, and the ease with which she makes Costello's barbed wordplay her own suggests a future in acting. But the long, slow ones, with their formal challenges and grand statements of self-realization, make demands that no ex-punk Madonna can easily live up to. Maybe that's the risk an independence-seeking woman runs when relying a hundred percent on a man to tell her story for her. And maybe the lone short slow one, "Basement Kiss" (as fine a performance as anything James recorded with Transvision Vamp) suggests such risks can nevertheless pay off.
Geez if you guys (who don't know the TRUE story btw!) insist on writing yet another "version" of Wendy James career..
ReplyDeleteHere's what really happened..
Two years after recording the amazing Velveteen Wendy James...
recorded ANOTHER album "Little Magnets V The Bubble Of Babble".
It flopped badly and was never released in her own country of England.
The media hated her and her band was about to break up following "problems" with their management.
She was backed into a corner and was facing a very bleak future indeed.
Oddly only at this exact moment Wendy decided she wanted to pursue her solo career..
The same solo career she had denied vigorously was ever on the agenda..until it was.
She wrote to Costello..
He wrote a HUGH PRACTICAL JOKE at her expense..
It also flopped.This time worldwide.
Wendy was dropped by her label in 1993..
5 months after launching the album in a blaze of very expensive UNCONVINCING fake publicity..
http://www.myspace.com/drybabyworld
She then decided another change was needed..
She suddenly "retired" in summer 1993 until 2004..
http://drybaby1.blogspot.com/2009/01/marc-jacobscoke-and-poppers-got-her.html
Yes 11 years..
That is over a whole DECADE..!
She came back with a new band Racine on 2004..
She released two albums..
They both flopped and the band never toured the US.
They broke up in 2008 and shut down their website.
http://drybaby1.blogspot.com/2008/12/dont-think-twiceits-alright.html
Wendy is currently unable to release her latest "album" which was recorded in 2009..
In other words no one wants to release it.
No one.
http://drybaby.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/youre-on-fire/
She hates the Costello album now and claims she knew it was a bad idea to do it..
http://drybaby1.blogspot.com/2008/09/doctorwendys-cocaine-ego-is-talking.html
and as for the great and powerful Costello album gamble..
http://drybaby1.blogspot.com/search?q=costello
Sadly she didn't say that at the time..
She is best friends with Cocaine in 2010..
http://drybaby1.blogspot.com/2010/05/broken-english.html
Want to learn the real TRUTH about Wendy James and her career..?
Read all of the DRYBABY sites..
http://drybaby1.blogspot.com/
http://drybaby.wordpress.com/
http://www.myspace.com/drybabyworld
http://www.dailymotion.com/oscare
and you will learn all you will ever need to know..
And stop writing fairy tales likes this.
See ya
D R Y B A B Y