Old school rock and roller Marty Wilde told David Hennessy about his music, his 70 years in the music industry and passing his music on to his children including pop star, Kim Wilde.
87- year- old British rock and roll legend Marty Wilde has just released his latest single, Can’t Stand Losing You.
It follows Let’s Rock This Place and comes from his most recent album of the same name.
Marty has the rare record of charting in eight different decades.
Marty first shot to fame in July 1958 with his Elvis-esque, Endless Sleep.
His song-writing career began with his first self-penned chart hit Bad Boy which was a Top 5 hit in 1959, since then Marty has penned chart hits for daughter Kim.
Marty was also involved with writing hits for Status Quo’s Ice In The Sun, Jesamine by the Casuals, Lulu’s I’m A Tiger, Hot Chocolate’s You’ll Never Be So Wrong and additional recordings by such artistes as Tom Jones, Sandie Shaw, Adam Faith, Snow Patrol and many more.
Hits such as Teenager In Love, Sea of Love, Donna and Endless Sleep, catapulted Marty Wilde into the UK charts as the teenage heart-throb that took the nation by storm.
Since then, Marty Wilde has been a proactive force within our chart industry as a performer, singer, songwriter, and dad to Brit Award winning, Kim Wilde who has over 30 chart hits to date, including Kids In America and You Keep Me Hanging On.
Created in collaboration with Darrell Higham, best known for his long-term touring work with Imelda May, sessions for Chrissie Hynde and Jeff Beck, Let’s Rock This Place celebrates old fashioned rock ’n’ roll in a contemporary way.
Marty took time to chat to The Irish World.
With the new album and tour, you must be enjoying things at the moment..
“Yes, I am.
“I’ve loved music for many years now so it’s a huge, great part of my life but it’s just lovely to be able to do it after all this time really.
“I started when I was 17 so it took a long time to reach this point but I’m still doing it.
“It’s a privilege to be able to do it at my age to be honest with you, it’s a privilege.”
As you say you started it very young, do you think it was always going to be music for you?
“Yes, I do.
“I think music was one of the biggest influences in my life.
“I didn’t really care much for school and most of my life was spent whistling or singing or tapping away to rhythm so I suppose it was an obvious thing but it’s been very rewarding because it’s given me a life which many people don’t have the luck that I’ve had so I’m very fortunate.”
You have achieved the rare feat of charting in eight different decades, that must make you very proud..
“Yeah.
“It came as a surprise.
“All I do, probably the same as you, is I just work away and then suddenly somebody taps you on the shoulder and says, ‘Do you realise you’ve done this’ or ‘you’ve done that’, so it was a great surprise to me but I’m thrilled, I’m thrilled to have done it.”
Your recent track was Let’s Rock This Place was a reworking of a track you wrote with your son Ricky for your daughter Kim to sing, then titled Rage to Love. What was it like to revisit that song and rework it into something new?
“Well I always liked Kim’s version very much and I liked the idea.
“The song I always thought was a great melody line and a great idea and I’d written one set of lyrics but I thought I could better it.
“I thought I could change it, change it to what people want now, what people might expect now which is they like to go out and dance.
“I thought it would be nice to remind them that rock and roll is a great energy, you give out great energy when you’re part of it and you’re dancing and to be able to express yourself like that is a great thing.
“The lyric really was just something which came naturally really to me but I always did like the melody line and I liked the idea.”
Music has changed a lot since you emerged on the scene, how would you like to be starting now?
“I wouldn’t like to be starting out now, not really unless I was in a very individual style because I think everything now is fast food.
“It’s like you see people throw away fast food things in the road, naughty people that they are and that’s just the same as music.
“They listen to your song, ‘Okay’, on to the next one.
“In the old days, they played your record and then they would be singing with you for years and years and years because all the songs from our era have lasted.
“Not all the music is bad, I wouldn’t say that at all.
“Some of the singers are fantastic but I’m not sure they’re going to last.
“There’s too many distractions I think.
“In the old days, you had hardly any stations and TV was limited to about three different stations and now you have dozens and dozens and the same with radio, there’s 1000s and I think that’s what happens: People are moving on all the time.
“Then again things have to change anyway.”
You say you like some of the modern stuff, who do you like of today’s artists?
“I think Beyonce is a great stylist, one of the best voices I’ve heard for a long time and I still don’t hear anyone singing better than Beyonce to be honest with you.
“Bruno (Mars) is a great singer.
“There’s lots and lots of good girl singers so the talent’s there, it’s just they’re up against it because there’s just so much going on and people think, ‘Oh well, I’ll move on there then’, and they leave behind something that’s wonderful sometimes.
“I spend a lot of time- I did over this album- going back in time to listen to past songs and songs from the 50s and 40s because in the 40s, there were some great songs and melody lines and great lyrics.”
You worked with Darrel Higham on this album and you were working to recreate the sound of a bygone era, isn’t that right?
“Yeah, I wanted to fuse together the rockabilly kind of feel with a slapping bass and a strong drum and a good guitar sound and mix that with more contemporary kind of songs instead of just going over the same old rock and roll songs because you can only do that so often.
“I’ve been singing versions of certain songs from the 50s nearly all my life and I felt it was time to move on and try to fuse together the rockabilly sound with contemporary writers.”
Do you still enjoy performing live as much as ever?
“Oh yeah.
“Absolutely I do.
“I love it.
“It’s a privilege to be able to.
“If you can give people just a small amount of happiness for a brief time, it’s a great gift.
“There’s no question if you can put a smile on somebody’s face, that’s worth a lot.
“That’s worth all the gold in the world, I think.”
I believe it was around the time you were promoting Bad Boy that you had a hell of an invitation that you couldn’t accept. Didn’t you get offered the chance to meet Elvis but you just couldn’t go?
“Yeah, I befriended one of Elvis’s personal friends, Lamar Fike and Lamar said that Elvis would be on furlough because he was in Germany with the army.
“He said, ‘He’s got a furlough coming up and it’s on a Saturday. You could come over and meet Elvis at least. I’ll show you that part of Germany and you can say hello to Elvis’.
“And it would have been great but ironically, I had a TV appearance which was to promote Bad Boy and my manager said, ‘You can’t really turn down this, you need to get as much publicity for the song as possible’, so I had to turn it down but it was a great shame.”
It’s a shame you didn’t get to meet the king because he was such an inspiration to you..
“Yes, he was.
“Well he was the biggest inspiration in my life apart from Frankie Lane.
“Frankie Lane is another singer which I used to listen to quite a bit but Elvis was the main one, there’s no question about that.
“I think Elvis not only shaped my life, he shaped most of the other guys’ lives as well, people like Cliff and all the other rock and roll singers.
“We were all influenced by Elvis.
“There’s no doubt about that.”
How did you feel about not getting to go meet him, was it disappointing?
“I wish I had met him.
“It would have been great to have met him but that’s the way it goes.
“It’s just one of those things, you have to accept it.
“You can’t go on thinking, ‘Oh, I wish I had, I wish I had’.
“It would have just been nice because I think that was a very interesting part in his life at that time and it would have been great because he didn’t have all the distractions like he would have had in Hollywood or in America.
“It would have meant I could have spent probably at least an hour with him or two hours to talk to him and ask him questions.
“I think I would have spent most of the time asking him questions trying to learn from him because all of us copied him to a certain extent as much as we could.
“He was a huge influence to all rock and rollers around the world but it would have been nice to have heard it straight from the horse’s mouth.”
You have had an incredible life and career, I heard you were working on a memoir, how is that going?
“I’ve written it but I’ve held off publishing it at the moment.
“I wanted to get a few more chapters in so I’ve been waiting to write some more but the album has taken up most of my time.
“When I’m writing music, I don’t really get much time for writing a book but it will come out.
“There’s a lot of words and a lot of chapters so it will come out eventually.”
I understand it was a health scare that prodded you to get your story down. Is everything okay now?
“Yeah, it’s like all of us.
“As you get older, you’re going to get different things come into your life.
“I think everybody does at some point.
“Health issues are always there and you’ve got to try and sort them out as quickly as possible.
“Most of my health issues, they are controlled.
“I have a pacemaker which keeps me alive, literally but I don’t think about it.
“I’ve had heart problems in the past but I just get on with life, life is so precious.
“Just enjoy every day, don’t think about what might happen.
“Just get on with it and do something.
“So I do every day.”
Music has been such a massive thing in your life and you have passed it on to the next generation not only with Kim being a pop star but your other children Ricky and Roxanne also being singer- songwriters. It must be great to see that..
“Yeah, it was.
“I didn’t think about it at the time but I suppose for me it was just a very natural process.
“It was just one of those things.
“We’re all part of a family so it was a natural thing.
“I was always playing music in the house from when they were babies and I think that when you’ve got that environment all the time, it’s bound to affect you one way or the other.
“I think they could see, as they were growing up, the amount of satisfaction you can get from producing something, writing a song or singing a song that people like or going in front of the public.
“These are all really interesting and good things and lovely things to be able to do.”
Did you always know that they had the talent like, in Kim’s case, to go all the way to Top of the Pops and an international pop career?
“I never thought about it to be honest with you.
“Things just happen that way.
“I always thought Ricky was going to be a really good musician and I thought he would be very creative, which he is.
“With Kim I wasn’t sure.
“Kim had a great voice and she had a little style all of her own and she looked great.
“Her demeanour was very good, she carried herself well.
“She looked great on the screen and I think that played a huge part.
“But I couldn’t honestly say I ever saw her being what she became but I was thrilled obviously when she did.
“It’s a nice feeling to have talented children.”
Kim featured on the track Talking About Elvis on your last record, it must be great to duet together like that..
“It is.
“We did one song when AIDS was such a big thing (Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word, Action For AIDS, Wembley 1987).
“We sang together for charity so it’s nice to be able to do that.
“We very rarely do it but it’s a nice way of entertaining people or trying to make some extra money for a charitable cause.”
Do you have Irish links in your family?
“Yeah, there’s definitely a link and someone came over from Ireland and married someone in this country.
“Moore is the name that comes up.
“I’ve never followed it right through but I’m pretty sure that we have quite a strong Irish connection because the name Moore is a name I’ve always associated with Ireland.
“My grandmother was always talking about the Moores so there is a connection which is lovely because I love Ireland anyway and I’ve always thought the Irish people are wonderful people, colourful people, and adventurous as well.
“They’ve been all over.
“You can’t go anywhere without finding an Irishman.
“You’ll always find one somewhere.
“I mean they’re travellers.
“Their curiosity knows no bounds.
“They’re everywhere, and why not?”
You grew up in a London that was rebuilding after the war. They must have been tough times..
“Well, it was.
“In many ways it was good because it toughened you up.
“When things went right, when you started to make money, instead of just spending it willy nilly, you realised how important it was and how lucky you were.
“I think that when you don’t come out with very much when you start in life and then you do make money if you’ve got any brain at all, any common sense, you realise how lucky you are.
“I’ve always thought how lucky I was and what a fantastic life I’ve been able to have so I feel like a very lucky man.”
What leaps out as a highlight of your career?
“Oh, I would think Endless Sleep, when my first hit record got into the charts, that was one moment but the other moment was Kids in America with Kim.
“When that came out and started selling right around the world, that was one of the highlights, two of the highlights of my life without doubt.”
As you say you have been in music since you were just 17 and you’re now 87. What do you think a 17- year- old you would say about you still playing? I’m sure you don’t think about that..
“No, you don’t.
“I definitely didn’t.
“If someone had asked me, ‘How long would you sing rock and roll?’ I would have definitely have said I would like to sing rock and roll forever because it was such a huge part of my life so that part of me wouldn’t have changed.
“But these things just happen, you can’t plan out long term, not really because fate has a habit of changing things very quickly.”
Can’t Stand Losing You is out now.
Let’s Rock This Place is out now.
Marty Wilde is touring the UK.