Kim Wilde, 61, proves she’s still every inch the rock chic in a corset and leather fringe skirt

She became a music icon after releasing the hit Kids In America in 1981.

And Kim Wilde proved she could still impress fans with an energetic performance as she took the stage in Manchester on Wednesday at the final stop of her UK tour.

The hitmaker, 61, looked sensational in a black corset and leather jacket as she performed in front of a crowd of fans at the city’s Bridgewater Hall.

Kim showed off her incredible figure by slipping into tight jeans that she layered with a red fringed skirt.

The hitmaker paired her ensemble with a cropped leather jacket embellished with her name, along with spikes and chain detailing.

Adding a pop of color with matching red leather gloves and a lick of lipstick, Kim was in a good mood as she played a plethora of her classic hits.

Kim’s tour will also see her on stage in Birmingham, Northampton, Cardiff and London before heading to France and Germany.

The blonde beauty rose to fame with her 1981 hit Kids In America, which featured the international anthem of the work of her brother Ricky and father, original British rock ‘n’ roller Marty Wilde, and at one point she was shifting 60,000 copies a day.

She had seven more UK Top Ten singles, but never a number one, but her reworking of the Motown classic You Keep Me Hangin’ On, which topped the US Billboard chart in 1986.

Talking about missing out in the UK last year, but achieving the American triumph, she said: ‘Although having a No. 1 in America almost made up for that,’

She has sold over 30 million records and won hearts for her stunning looks – something she was very proud of.

She said ‘I am very grateful to have my mother’s beautiful nose and my father’s fantastic mouth’ but revealed that she was bullied for her ‘Mick Jagger lips’.

She continued about her figure: ‘I had long legs and they went well with jeans. I knew how to wear jeans, that’s for sure.’

In 1987, Michael Jackson invited Kim to join him on his Bad tour, opening 33 shows in Europe and the UK. She observed a superstar alone in his own universe.

She said: “He was an elusive character back then and kept himself to himself. We never sat down and chatted. We had a publicity photo taken together and that was the longest we spent together.

‘I’ve met a lot of very famous people – I grew up with a very famous person in the house, my father was the Robbie Williams of his day! – so fame doesn’t bother me at all…

“But Michael Jackson was by far the most enigmatic character I’ve ever encountered. He was in another world, whatever that was.’

Two years after the tour, her own world came crashing down the day after her 30th birthday, when it dawned on her that her time as a pop phenomenon might be over.

‘I felt really lost,’ she says, ‘like I locked myself in. My inclination was to shut down. The fact that the success I had had, which had been so enormous, was gone was very confusing.”

Then she found comfort in turning her back on her life as it was and saying, ‘Within a year I left London. I moved back to Hertfordshire…

“That was really the big turning point. I started noticing the natural world around me and started gardening and immersing myself in it. Nature has brought me back to life.’

The singer bought and renovated a 16th-century two-acre barn, where she still lives with her husband, actor and writer Hal Fowler and their two children, Harry, 23, and Rose, 21.