WENDY JAMES

WENDY JAMES, born in London, is an English singer- songwriter notable for her work with band Transvision Vamp, collaboration with Elvis Costello, solo work, collaboration with James Williamson from Iggy & the Stooges, Lenny Kaye from The Patti Smith Group and James Sclavunos from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. She has released 10 album from 1988 until 2024.

Transvision Vamp was formed by Wendy James and co-writer and guitarist Nick Christian Sayer. In West London they teamed up with Dave Parsons and Tex Axile. The band was signed to MCA records by Dave Ambrose, the notorious A&R man from EMI records who had also signed the Sex Pistols. They recorded their first LP album ‘Pop Art’ and released a first single ‘Revolution Baby’ and then charted with their second single, a cover version of Holly & The Italians ‘Tell That Girl To Shut Up’, followed by a third single ‘I Want Your Love’ which went to No.5 on the UK singles chart. The album ‘Pop Art’ was released later in 1987 and went to No.3 in the UK album chart. Extensive touring of the UK and Europe continued throughout this year as their success grew, starting on the University circuit and ending with playing two sold out gigs at the London Town And Country Club, taking in the Marquee Club along the way with queues two-fold around the block of Wardour Street, London. The album art was done by Jamie Reid, famous for his Sex Pistols artwork. When the album launched in America, living members of Andy Warhol’s Factory, Sylvia Miles, Danny Fields, Paul Morrissey, threw Wendy her ‘Welcome to New York’ party in celebration of being the new toast of the town in NYC and the album being called ‘Pop Art’. The second album ‘Velveteen’ was recorded in London at Metropolis Recording Studio, Sarm West Recording Studio, Townhouse Recording Studio and Olympic Studios in Barnes, made famous by The Rolling Stones. The album entered the UK albums chart at No.1 position and the main single ‘Baby I Don’t Care’ went to No.3 in the UK singles chart and a hit around the world. The ‘Velveteen’ LP became a hit all over the world, especially Australia and Spain and the band toured it non-stop for 2 years. After a break from touring, instead time spent on new songwriting, the band went into the studio again and recorded their third and what would be the final album ‘Little Magnets Versus The Bubble Of Babble’. It is this album that Wendy has cited as her favorite, in particular, the song ‘If Looks Could Kill’. The album started to take off in USA and the band went there and toured the US twice that year. In the meantime the UK record label, Dave Ambrose having departed his role as Managing Director, started to question the LP and internal politics of the record label in upheaval decided to pull the album from it’s UK release date. Despite this the band did a run of sold out dates around the UK including successive shows at The Brixton Academy and The Hammersmith Odeon in London. In the end the album was released everywhere around the world but only available in the UK on import. The album proved the band’s most successful in USA but by that time exhaustion and record label politics had convinced Wendy and Nick to draw the curtain down on the band, which they did, in San Francisco in 1992. During the span of Transvision Vamp, Wendy was made a cover-star of many magazines all over the world and photographed by everyone from David Bailey for Tatler Magazine and Jurgen Teller for The Face Magazine and I-D Magazine. She became a household name the world over, made numerous television appearances and riots in Australia happened when Transvision Vamp toured there, with streets blocked off and police on horses having to hold back the crowds.

JOY. Present
WENDY JAMES + support
Thursday 30th October 2025
Patterns, Brighton
£23.50 adv + BF
19:00-22:00
18+