Artist · chart history
Transvision Vamp
Band Putney United Kingdom Active 1986–1991
Transvision Vamp formed in 1986 in Putney, United Kingdom and was active until 1991. Transvision Vamp has 9 chart appearances on 9 radio countdowns from 4 stations on RockLists, spanning 1988–2003. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Tell that Girl to Shut up”, which appears on 4 lists with a best position of #56. The station that charted Transvision Vamp most often is Live 105 (San Francisco, CA), with 3 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1989.
Transvision Vamp came roaring out of Putney, London, in 1986, a sugar-rush pop rock band built around guitarist and main songwriter Nick Christian Sayer and a lead singer who was pure tabloid dynamite: Wendy James, all pout, sneer and rebellion, and the press couldn't get enough of her. Dave Parsons played bass and Anthony Doughty handled drums, keyboards and just about everything else.
Pop Art, their 1988 debut, is exactly what the title promises: cartoon-bright glam-punk with bubblegum hooks, from "I Want Your Love" to the snotty, gleeful "Tell That Girl to Shut Up". Velveteen, in 1989, was the big one, going to number one in the UK and number two in Australia, where they were huge too, with "Baby I Don't Care" as its brash, swaggering centerpiece. In all they racked up 10 UK hit singles.
Little Magnets Versus the Bubble of Babble followed in 1991, with "If Looks Could Kill" among its songs, but by then the late-'80s party was winding down, and the band split soon after.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Transvision Vamp on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tell that Girl to Shut up | 4 | #56 | – | 1988 | |
| 2 | Baby I Don't Care | 2 | #50 | – | 1989 | |
| 3 | B With U | 1 | #33 | – | 1991 | |
| 4 | If Looks Could Kill | 1 | #94 | – | 1991 | |
| 5 | You're The Only One | 1 | #104 | – | 1989 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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