MayerofLondon

203 Followers
317 Following
60 Posts
Author & serial co-founder inc of Women’s Equality Party & Primadonna Festival
Websitehttps://www.catherinemayer.co.uk
With distorting coverage of Paula Yates appearing ahead of a new documentary, I've written about the ways media misrepresents & cartoonifies this brilliant woman. And I've published Dear Paula, originally commissioned by the Globe theatre to reclaim her story https://www.catherinemayer.co.uk/post/everything-you-know-is-wrong-how-the-media-misrepresented-paula-yates-and-continues-to-do-so
Everything You Know Is Wrong: How the media misrepresented Paula Yates and continues to do so

The emails arrive every year without fail, sometimes in a flurry, and often pegged to the anniversary of our friend's death. A new project is in the works that will finally show the real Paula Yates in all her glory. Typically the letter-writers flatter and cajole—we alone can ensure Paula's story is properly told. That happens to be, in large part, true. Josephine Fairley was Paula's best friend and I was lucky enough to become close to both of them. Sometimes these pitches attempt to guilt-tri

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This wonderful photo by Edward Colver shows Gang of Four’s Andy Gill working with the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their first album. With the Chilis on tour, music press keep regurgitating old versions of the history relating to Andy and the band. Sorting through Andy’s archive after his death, I found a notebook giving new insights into the production of that album and a famous disagreement https://www.catherinemayer.co.uk/post/history-isn-t-shit-but-some-music-history-might-be-a-startling-find
History Isn't Shit. Some Music History Might Be. A Startling Find about the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Every death drags behinds it a long tail of grief, disruption and sadmin, the painful process of sorting out the messes left by your dear departed. Some of these will be bureaucratic; always there are the physical accretions of life that must be dealt with, the clothes, the belongings, the paperwork. My husband, musician and Gang of Four founder Andy Gill, bequeathed to me an unusual volume of...stuff. It is one year and ten months since my love died, and still I am only in the foothills of wran

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8 years ago today I stood up at WOW - Women of the World Festival and invited everyone to the bar to discuss setting up a women's equality party. Happy birthday to the Women's Equality Party and all who sail in her and 👋 to WOW & my glorious co-founder Sandi Toksvig

Also to Sara Burns, next to me in this moment and for so much of my life. Gone but never, ever forgotten and, among many other things, co-designer of the party's logo

Three years ago today marked the last full day of Andy’s life—and the eve of #Brexit. Protestors held a candlelit vigil opposite Parliament, by chance outside the ICU that was the focus of a smaller act of commemoration. The image shows Thomas McNeice, the bass player for Gang of Four, sitting with Andy overnight, part of a rota of love. He must not be alone. At dawn someone brought a newspaper with them. I only noticed the headline later. The description of events is from #GoodGrief.
The playwright and author Athena Stevens posted this birthday meditation to my FB page and it is too thoughtful and moving not to share
I’m on the latest episode of New York Magazine’s #onwithkaraswisher podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/on-with-kara-swisher/id1643307527?i=1000595401137 Wasn’t going to agree to more #RoyalFamily interviews but when the legendary Kara Swisher asks… Also far better to be on with Paddy Harverson, who knows more about the royals than he can say, than with any of the ubiquitous talking heads who say more about this subject than they will ever know. And worth it for this photo.
‎On with Kara Swisher: Inside the Prince Harry Book Blitz and What It Means for the Monarchy on Apple Podcasts

‎Show On with Kara Swisher, Ep Inside the Prince Harry Book Blitz and What It Means for the Monarchy - 19 Jan 2023

Apple Podcasts
Funny that the Daily Mail seems annoyed that the “left-wing Guardian” has leaked #PrinceHarry’s #memoir #Spare. Would that be the same right-wing Mail that stole & leaked content from my #Charles #biography in 2015 with some made-up nonsense added in? It would.
We’ve got the #albumcover. Now we just have to record the music. #thetoksvigs #threenonblondesandablonde #cowpunk #showpunk
It would be easy, looking at these photos of #newyear with two of my loveliest, most beloved #lovelydead, husband Andy & best friend Sara, to focus on loss, but that misses the truth. My life was & *is* infinitely the richer for their wonderful, passionate, hilarious, disruptive presence. They are & always will be part of it, & I look forward to spending 2023 in their company & yours. And if you raise a glass at midnight, remember amid the “happy new years” to say “happy birthday to Andy”
On empty chairs and #lovelydead...and living life to the full https://www.catherinemayer.co.uk/post/my-christmas-tree-of-life
My Christmas Tree of Life

Andy was never big on Christmas. Early in our relationship, he suggested we escape the whole business by travelling to a city he imagined wouldn’t be big on it either, Istanbul. No sooner had we checked into our room than the bedside phone rang. It was my brother-in-law, Martin, with glad tidings of great joy. He, his partner Sue and their daughter Rachel had secretly followed Andy’s star to the East, found rooms at the same inn—indeed on the same corridor—and planned to celebrate Christmas with

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