Wendy James (ex-transvision Vamp Now Racine) Plays Ocean Rooms
Published 20th May 2005 by Cheryl Rickman

RACINE aka Wendy James Comes To Brighton.

Former Transvision Vamp star WENDY JAMES returns to the music scene as RACINE with a brand new album 'Racine No 1' and a gig at The Ocean Rooms in Brighton on May 29th 2005. (www.oceanrooms.co.uk: ?10 tickets from the venue tickets@oceanrooms.co.uk). The gig has been organized by music website ? ilikemusic.com ? and will see Wendy and her band performing their recent single Grease Monkey and forthcoming single, Blonde Mink Mimi from the band?s debut album, Racine Number One.

Wendy James is best known as being an inspirational peroxide-blonde bombshell and female representative of 80s punk-pop. Transvision Vamp experienced global fame and success with ?I Want Your Love? and Number One second album ?Velveteen?, while Wendy graced the cover of every style and music magazine throughout the late eighties accordingly. Many festivals, tours and hit singles followed, including the hugely famous Baby I Don?t Care, but a tired Wendy and Nick decided to split.

So what has Wendy James been up to since Transvision Vamp split up in the early nineties? Well, after the end of Transvision Vamp, Wendy James picked up a guitar and started to write. She bought some equipment, built a home studio, taught herself drum machines and bass. She wrote and demoed song after song until she was satisfied that enough of the songs were "keepers". The name Racine came from the drag in Chicago where Al Capone had run his prohibition business. The Pia-K label was conceived to allow Wendy to release the music she wanted to release without having to compromise. Having completed the demo for her solo debut album, Racine No.1, Wendy bought a plane ticket and flew out to N.Y.C. She spent her first four weeks there de-constructing the album demo and re-crafting it as a fully fledged, ready for release album.



Having wowed audiences in London for their debut gigs, Racine return to UK shores on May 21st and will play dates across the UK until June 7th 2005, when the band will return to New York to finish up their second album.



RACINE (Wendy James, Singh Birdsong, Ray Sullivan)

VENUE: The Ocean Rooms

DATE: MAY 29, 05

1 Morley Street

Brighton

BN2 9RA

www.oceanrooms.co.uk

?10 tickets from the venue tickets@oceanrooms.co.uk

8pm doors open
9.45pm band on stage



Review of her show in April at Islington Academy:

With the very funky, very talented Singh Birdsong rocking on lead guitar with some damn fine wa-wa action; Ray Sullivan's stunning accuracy, timing and grinding beats on drums, both oozing NY rock star appeal and Wendy herself picking up the rhythm and bass guitar for many of the tracks, this was an outstanding gig for Racine. Playing 13 songs in all, the set diversified from the fresh fusion of hip hop and throbbing rock on Hip Hop 56 , and kicked off with the lyrical genius of Last American Hero, Wendy?s intelligent spoken word track that takes us to the stock car racing track via Wendy?s inimitable and eloquent style. High energy crowd favourites, Grease Monkey, Blonde Mink Mimi and Heavy Metal Dude followed, along with the divine Deluxe, the awesome construction and deconstruction of Cakewalk, The Man, Princess Patience Blues and That?s The Breaks Junior. This is edgy punk-funk-rock with a twist of blissed-out ambience.

More information about Racine can be found by visiting:

www.theracineworld.com
www.ilikemusic.com
www.towerarts.co.uk

RACINE: WHAT THE PRESS SAY:

Her ?Wendy bubble? is an idiosyncratic, crowded place, where the drum and bass scene in New York or the language of rapper Dizzee Rascal are treated with equal reverence as the essays of Joan Didion and Tom Wolfe. The album is a natural extension of this ? so many sounds constructed and deconstructed, so many ideas honed, layered and crammed in. The effect is somewhat overwhelming, like hanging out with an intense adolescent brimming with the indiscriminate passion of youth. ? Daily Telegraph

?Witty, pared-down lyrics to ?Heavy Metal Dude? and ?That?s The Breaks, Jr? reveal themselves to be subtle, street-life portraits of hard luck heroines and heists gone wrong. A beautifully crafted culture clash that never feels contrived.? Daily Telegraph Saturday .?The 2004 model Wendy James is a sussed thirty-something sophisticate who resembles a forties movie star and shoots sharp words from the hip. A maverick who?s relocated to The Big Apple and reinvented herself as Racine: a lo-fi occasionally leftfield, experiment in kitsch electronic pop.? Playlouder

?Startlingly beautiful, her shock of blonde hair brilliant in the morning sun, and dressed head to toe in Marc Jacobs, James seem inspired. "When I moved to America, I threw all my platinum records out on the street," she says. "Some people obsess about stuff like that but I couldn?t give a shit about the past!" Nylon

"The record is probably the best thing she has recorded, a fresh an unassuming fusion of lo-fi melodies, hip-hop beats and confessional lyrics" The Times

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