These days, there are plenty of gobby girls in the world of pop. Charlotte Church, Cheryl Tweedy, Winebox, Geri Halliwell… you can't move for a lady of the popular music variety wanting to spout off about something or other. But skip back to the late 80s/early 90s and you come face to tit with one of the original purveyors of the ridiculous soundbite: girl-in-a-band Wendy James. The lead singer of the amazingly named Transvision Vamp, Wend was hated by the tabloids, loved by the style press and made ace pop songs. Brilliantly, she's back with a new band, Racine, and some new material – but not that brilliantly, it's, er, nowhere near as good as Transvision Vamp . But never mind! Here's why she was (and probably still is) fantastic.

She said stupid things in interviews!

In an age where pop stars like Leona Lewis don't say anything more exciting than "I just feel so honoured to be working with Simon Cowell", Wendy gave great quote. Even if she sounded like a bit of a tit sometimes. "I'll lay a $100,000 bet with any journalist anywhere that there won't be a point in my career where I won't win an Oscar," and "Imagine the controversy when I am more famous than Madonna," were two of Wendy's finest moments. Obviously, we never had to imagine that controversy and the press crucifed Wendy for it, but who cares? Wend had ambition, and it made for much better reading in Smash Hits than Natasha Bedingfield's blatherings ever could have.

She made brilliant pop music!

Veering between baby-voiced siren and wailing pop-punkster, Wend churned out (with the help of the band) pop hit after pop hit. With songs like Baby I Don't Care and I Want Your Love , Wendy was like a one-woman Girls Aloud - delivering perfect pop songs with an attitude her contemporaries like Sonia and Kylie could only dream of. Sadly, Jennifer Ellison managed to murder Baby I Don't Care when she released it in 2003 but let's skip over that one, shall we?

She bigged up the ladies!

"As a youngster, I believed that glamour was absolutely reality. And I wasn't besotted with any man. Most girls had Donny Osmond on their wall, but all my pin-ups were women," says Wendy. "Because here were these beautiful women - getting what they were after."

She wore amazing clothes!

Peroxide blonde hair, dark eyebrows, leather jeackets, black lacy bras, big pink bows in her hair, silver bum bags, Ray Bans and a frosted-lipstick pout to make men and women weep - Wendy was Sex On Legs in a way that no one else around at that time was. She spawned a million lookalikes, but no one could do the Debbie Harry-does-90s-meets-punk-Barbie-look quite like Wendy. Remember that famously jaw-dropping cover for The Face, where Wend wears pearl nipple tassles and not much else?

She said more stupid things in interviews!

Known for her love of environmental issues, Wendy often talked about them in interviews - even if some of her views were slightly misguided. "Dolphins amaze me," she said. "Dolphins have so much generosity you rarely see in human nature. If some of the world leaders took a few lessons from dolphins there wouldn't be so many wars." Come on KT Tunstall - say something half as amusing. Dare you.

She was funny!

"OK, I'm really old," said Wendy (aged 25. Er...) "But if I was a girl again what would be sexy to me is some cheekbones and a good guitar and some skinny legs and a tight little bum. Not Rick Astley wearing a suit from Joseph."