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And… I’m in the middle of designing the box set of 5 x 7” Singles from Queen High Straight AND listening through to my demos of Queen High Straight with a view to making them available as well! I can read philosophical and political bias into why my album cover is of great virtue, but the truth is my body was looking fit,” she says. THANK YOU TO JAMES MEYNELL, JAMES SCLAVUNOS, JARED FISHER AND BOB WILSON for being my BAND, MY FRIENDS, MY TRUSTED COMPANIONS, MY INSPIRATION, and for making me SO HAPPY. Thank you to Amanda in Scotland, Jules in Ramsgate, Ben and Cal in London, Bernie in London… Thank you to Ricardo who travelled to UK and took incredible Live shots and always takes the most beautiful photos of me! The picture disc vinyl 12” will be numbered 1 through 250 copies and also signed by Wendy within the vinyl itself. A real collectors item.

Since moving to New York in 2002 (Paris is but a dalliance), James has cultivated a psychogeographical fascination with the grimier neighbourhoods. Wendy James’s third solo album I Came Here To Blow Minds is now available in very limited supplies on this PledgeMusic project.James voice and delivery has changed, it can still be bitter sweet, almost childlike, it can be snarling and deliver menace and lyrically this sweetness can hide a barb and many different levels of message, anywhere to the direct brutal truth downwards. What James also achieves is to make a cohesive record even though each song is so different to each other. The variety is such that I could break down and talk about every song on this album but times dictates you will have to discover them for yourself. Unlike some of her peers, James was unapologetically ambitious, which must have been rather unfashionable, let alone un-English.

He plays in a bar every Sunday near where he lives. Obviously he doesn’t need to do that, but similarly I’ve never known James to take a day off. It’s the same with me; I’m a workaholic. The funny thing is, you’ll never find an interview in which James gets the huff about it. Self-pity is not in the vocabulary. “I’ve got a goldfish memory,” she says airily now, talking down the blower from her apartment in Paris. These are undoubtedly collectors items and of value… especially so as they will never be re-produced. This is the first front cover I ever did. Photographed by legendary David Bailey and styled by an icon of the fashion world, Isabella Blow. I think it looks amazing too! I suppose if I’ve learned anything, it’s that before you burn all your bridges you should take a deep breath and look at the whole picture.”THE WENDY JAMES BAND TOUR is getting bigger and bigger and I really think it’s going to work out to everyone’s advantage that the delay has happened…

Having turned 50 in January, James has lost interest in trash-punk anthems and sending outrage meters into the red. The official artwork has been re-formatted and overseen by Wendy and she personally will be signing the numbers and her signature onto the image before it is then pressed into the vinyl record. Dave, I hadn’t seen for about 15 years, but when we were playing Bristol last year he walked into the dressing room and went, ‘All right, Wendy?’” She laughs throatily. “It was so nice. When you’ve gone through so much with a gang of friends, it really doesn’t matter how many years go by. And while the hunger for fame may have dulled, her competitive edge has not. “If I don’t play the Super Bowl my life’s not going to be a tragedy,” she reflects.That philosophy’s come too late for James’ stash of Transvision Vamp paraphernalia, which she metaphorically burned to a cinder. James neither dwells in the past nor fantasises about the future. “It’s all about the present,” she says firmly. “I’m not the world’s greatest planner. I don’t have… what’s that thing you build up for when you’re old? A pension. I couldn’t even begin to tell you what might be happening in six months’ time. My guiding principle is I want to make music.” If I’d had a boyfriend who was fussing around me, maybe I would have dwelled on it, but I was surrounded by people who said, ‘They can go f*** themselves.’