Vicki Heather Wickham (born 1939) is an English talent manager, entertainment producer, and songwriter.[1]
Wickham was an assistant producer of the 1960s British television show Ready Steady Go!, and was fashion consultant for the short-lived The Mod's Monthly magazine, first issued in March 1964 by Albert Hand Publications, and edited by Mark Burns.[2] [3] However she is probably best known as the manager of well-known pop/soul acts Dusty Springfield and Labelle.[4]
Wickham co-wrote (with Simon Napier-Bell) the English lyrics to Springfield's only British No. 1 hit, "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me", adapted from the Italian song "Io che non vivo senza te". With Penny Valentine, she co-wrote Dancing with Demons: The Authorised Biography of Dusty Springfield.[5]
Wickham is gay, but has said that her sexuality was never a problem, stating that she "wasn't out in the 60s. I didn't know what I was, really. Everyone knew I was gay, but we were so unpolitically conscious".[1] In 2012 she told BBC radio listeners: "I found somebody in 1970 and have been with her ever since. I wouldn't swap it for the world."[6]
Her long-term partner is the musician Nona Hendryx.[7]
Wickham was given a Music Industry "Woman of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award" in 1999,[8] and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours List, for services to music.