Storm Wendy Wows Them

Nothing You Won't Have Heard Before

Transvision Vamp at Epic Studios, Norwich

25th October, 2026

“Norwich! We never knew!” Wendy James beamed on seeing the packed Epic Studios on Saturday last. Very few of the thousand-strong crowd had been deterred by the howling gale whistling down Magdalen Street.  They were there for her and a trip down Memory Lane, NR3.

"I think we did play UAE when we first started out." she suggested, getting all the right letters for University of East Anglia's abbreviated initialism right, just not necessarily in the right order.  Wendy would go through the evening being a bit vague between songs, but in her dulcet tones, sounding like she was straight outta Norwich's Golden Triangle, no one particularly minded.

I did wonder myself, how could Transvision Vamp sell out one of the city’s larger venues when The Undertones did not?

Transvision Vamp were a pop-rock band who sold a stack of singles during their pomp of the late 1980s. They produced three albums which sold very well in the UK and Australia, before dissolving, allowing Wendy James to push on collaborating with big names, like Elvis Costello and pursuing her solo projects in London and New York.  

It has to be acknowledged that the band name, Transvision Vamp is memorable.  Sadly, I knew the name, but nothing the band or Wendy James produced had ever stuck with me over the years. This was like seeing an entirely new band, but as it turned out, one that sounded strangely familiar.

By the time I got my turn to be frisked by security, I had been granted plenty of time to ask some fellow gig-goers why they were enduring the endless queue. Richard said that Transvision Vamp were the band of his growing-up years: the time of first having the key to the door, a motor to cruise around Norfolk in, with the roof down and going through all those 1980s teenager dream poses. You know the stuff,  jacket sleeves pushed back to the funny bone, collar turned up, hair sharply quiffed.  Yes, good wholesome stuff, with Roxy Music-style, Glam, USA-influenced rock numbers blasting out into the hedgerows. 

For all the people turning out tonight, as it was last week with The Undertones, it was time to put work-place struggles, mortgage worries, or retirement plans aside for a while and turn back the diary to the end-days of Thatcherism and the dullness of an era epitomised by the Grey Man of Politics, John Major. The politics of the day, the economic doldrums cried out for a bit of glitz, (we had tried Glitter in the early 70s). Transvision Vamp were travelling down one shiny fashion path, the Cure and Goth-culture the one less-travelled by colour.

While  queuing it was remarked to me that on-line snipers were saying that Wendy James’ teen-girl role-model, sex-dream-eye-candy appeal wasn’t quite as sweet today as it was some forty years earlier.  I countered with, we all age differently, have you checked yourself in the mirror today? Which seemed to put an end to that line of chat.  With Wendy not assuming the rock chick persona of old,  the band have had to move on from the snarling crotch-thrusting UK’s dirty-Blondie image Wendy James had projected to drive ticket sales decades previously. Today, they have to rely on nostalgia and the music. How would that work out, I wondered.

Wendy James sprung onto the stage at Epic wearing a t-shirt with ‘BORN TO BE SOLD’ across its front and current tour dates on the rear.  This is a slogan with all the boldness of a Lady Gaga song title, a nod to the rapaciousness of the music industry.  Wendy was wearing the tour t-shirt, something I have never seen before, someone modelling their band’s actual tour merchandise on stage.  A creative fan version might have read ‘BORN TO GO SHOP’ to complete the Circle of Consumerism the music industry seeks to satisfy.

The 2026 tour posters for this revival tour by Transvision Vamp leaned heavily on a key aspect of the band’s appeal, the body of young Wendy James.  There is no doubt that she was somebody living the life of a rock star, leading the troupe with sexed-up, hard-girl poses, an attitude captured in the cover of Tell That Girl To Shut Up, originally released by Holly and The Italians.  A rather nasty lyric, mining the deep seam of petty teenage jealousies, sadly so commonly found on school-age social media channels today.  At the time of the single release, Wendy would have just come through her own experiences of school and so the song might have meant a lot to her personally, (and similarly for the her returning fans), but on this wet weekend in Norfolk, it sounded a bit false, if not in poor taste.

Without an art-rock, pop-art stage show to take the crowd back to their collective youth, the focus of the show had to be the music.  With original bass player Dave Parsons, James had gathered up a clutch of powerful rock musicians for this tour. Alex Ward and Pip Stakem dealt the rock riffs and guitar solos, Matt Millership contributed the Roxy Music keyboards and effects. On drums was James Sciavunos, who had worked on some ground-breaking sounds with Lydia Lunch during the New Wave years.  The band was powerful and the singing of James was strong as they rocked through their set, playing numbers from the Wendy James songbook, whether written for Transvision Vamp or not.

Where familiar with the tunes the crowd roared appreciation, for a ballad there was less enthusiasm. Trash City sounded very much like an Iggy Pop tribute song, I Want Your Love went down a treat, a plea for genuine connection from the heart of the heartless Consumer Age. Transvision Vamp don’t seem to have worked unduly hard to produce a sound of their own, drawing heavily on common rock templates. Sister Moon, is a case in point, a reworking of the Velvet Underground sound of the early 1970s, complete with a part spoken in conversational tone. Pressure Time has not stood the test of time at all well, using the rhythm and style of “Waiting for My Man.” singing about “…pressure from the government / pressure from the management…” With its “First you get the pressure, then you get the pressure drop” chorus, the number sounds like it has been written by a high school rock band. “You’re a Dirt-bomb, Lester” is an autobiographical song from Wendy James, carrying her spoken verse account of first living in New York. The song has uptempo rock breaks, but the song might be better left in a diary. Some of the references to Love being as old as the time “When Christ was crucified / When The Conqueror created The British Isles / When Columbus sailed / When the massacre at Lexington was news” are a bit odd. “True Love and anguish, I don’t know what it is.” I’ll admit I found this all a bit naff. You’re The Only One is a pop song for teenagers in love. The ageing crowd loved it. How many of those gathered here tonight were able to realise that dream. All of them I hope.  The Transvision Vamp show went on. The crowd danced along, clapping and merrily singing the chorus lines. They lapped it up and Wendy wooed them with her soft-spoken ad libs between songs.

If Transvision Vamp were part of your growing up, you’ll have a good time if you can get a ticket for this tour.  If the band were not personally important to you, these songs will make you grateful you left your teenage embarrassments behind in a secreted away diary.  Wendy James is happy enough playing to a full house and singing her growing-up songs again, but do not expect her to vamp things up as she used to do - she is all grown up now.

A word about the opening act. I heard one number, through no fault of my own.  The Epic Studios management opened the doors for VIP ticket holders at 17:30h and then waited until 19:30h to  open the doors for the sell-out crowd. With security searches taking place indoors, so the staff were nice and dry, close to a thousand paying customers were left queuing in the piddling rain. I did not get into the venue until 20:35h having been outside Epic since 19:15h. It was very poor. I suspect that FaceBook will be full of complaints and quite rightly.  

YEE LOI may have been fab, but I only heard their last song, which is their new single.  It was a good piece of contemporary rock from a trio of siblings from Merseyside, led by the singer and drummer Matilda Farrell, with Rose Farrell on guitar and Donnie Farrell on base.  They have been described as a melodic power punk trio by Heidi Hardman-Welsh in her blog.  I can’t disagree with that, I was in the queue to get in.  Good luck to them!

A final word about where we are with audiences these days...selfie sticks are being used to film acts, by elevating the phone above the phones videoing the gig. Whatever next, mini-drones videoing shows?

Selfie-Stick in action at Epic

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Spencer Ide

25th October 2026