Wednesday, November 02, 2005
The NME Years - The Advertising Girls; Part one
Alex Kerr-Wilson
Alex was a fun person, who worked at NME for about four years during the eighties. She initially handled the mail order advertising, before moving across to cover the Live! adverts later. She had strawberry blonde, spiky, hair, a large chest, and skinny hips; she liked to wear leopard skins trousers at least once a week into the office! She was also easily embarrassed, so she didn't venture down the stairs to our office too often unless he had to.
Alex had a fairly long term relationship with Zeke Manyika, who was the drummer with Orange Juice at that time. Alex knew all the band, and was also friends with Marc Almond and Matt Johnson (The The ), and I remember her having a booze-up/party where Zeke, Edwyn Collins and Marc all turned up.
Zeke was a nice guy and he joined us for drinks in The Stamford Arms one lunch time. I think he was surprised that I bought him a beer, but that was the norm in those days (I'd get anyone a drink!).
We had a good chat and said we should do it again, but Alex never got him back over to the south bank again unfortunately. When Zeke's solo album (the wonderful Mastercrime) came out, I helped give its adverts prominent positions in the paper, and Alex kindly gave me the CD for free. It's an amazingly frank album (produced by Matt Johnson) dealing with love, South African apartheid politics, and music - the mainstays of Zeke's life really.
Alex eventually had enough of the NME ad sales politics and moved on, initially to a recording studio near Tower Bridge where almost immediately Enya recorded her very successful first album.
Just before she left, she suggested that a friend of hers work at NME; an amazingly mad, sexy, woman nicknamed "Action" Jackson. An ex-kick boxer, Jackson took great pleasure in showing me her non-white bits after a holiday in the Caribbean luckily for me! She didn't stay too long but it was fun while she was around...
I understand that Alex is alive and well and found the picture shown here on the web recently (Alex is second left).
Apparently she is now at Probe Productions and/or representing Plenty Hot Records, though I can't find any more info on her (or either company) from Google searches...
Claire Davies
Claire was another lovely woman; an ex-air stewardess, she moved into ad sales but it never really suited her, even though she tried her best. She had a lovely smile, a very fit and attractive body, and dressed well too.
She had a long-term boyfriend - Dominic - who was much younger than her (by about six years) and, although not tall, he was built like a brick-outhouse! Claire told me a story about her time with him on some beach in the south of France; she said that as they both lay there sunbathing, she noticed Dominic ogling the other women, so she took off her bikini.I asked if she minded going topless and she said that she was already topless, and she had taken her bikini bottom off! She confirmed that that got Dominic's attention away from the other sunbathers! She also asked me one day, while standing by the lifts, for an opinion on her new fancy underwear - it was very nice, lacy, beige, and dead sexy! I think I blushed... She really was without fear sexually - she had a picture on her wall at work of a very fit and muscular black man, completely naked, posing. Art or pornography? It probably wasn't any worse than the images that guys had of women on their walls around the offices, but it was brazen for a woman to do something similar in the early eighties.
Claire worked on the mail order ads for a few months, and then moved onto external ad sales, but couldn't hack it really. After her three months probation in the new job were up she left rather sadly; she liked working with us, and us with her, but she didn't meet the right work profile I guess.
Marian (Maz) Cowler
Along with Wendy and Sunie, Maz made up a crazy triumvirate of great girls who worked at NME in the late seventies/early eighties. If Wendy was the blonde (albeit peroxide), Sunie the redhead (albeit henna), then Maz was the true brunette.
I used to love being around them all, as it was always such fun. The three of them became good friends at that time, and Sunie and Maz actually shared a house for some time in Essex Road. They also shared with a girl called Donna Tracy, who was better known as Honey Bane (see pic - left), a punk singer who didn't quite live up to expectation, though she is still singing/acting today. Donna eventually got the boot from the house as she had broken a window to get into the empty house one evening after forgetting her keys, and then gone out again without blocking up the window! Not very sensible...
During their time in Essex Road, the girls (Maz and Sunie) were joined by an Irish friend who needed somewhere to crash after recently crossing the Irish Sea. He was a singer in a new, up-and-coming band called U2 , and his name was Bono. Sunie got very upset one day when she found that Maz and Bono had got it together one afternoon while she was out! He didn't hang around too long, but I believe it was the first place he stayed (and/or strayed?) after arriving in London.
It was Maz who introduced Wendy to Mark Woon (see Wendy's pen pic from 12th October).
One party I went to at Essex Road (and there were plenty while they were there!) was during winter, and I wore my white cricket jumper as it was quite cold. Also at this party was a singer with another band, and he saw me and later copied my "style" big time - his name was Richard Jobson and he wore cricket jumpers quite a lot in the following years as he became more famous as a singer with The Skids and as a TV presenter (01 for London, etc).
Eventually, Maz moved out after one argument too many, and she shared a flat in Maida Vale with, among others, a girl called Linda Fox. Linda became infamous in one of those kiss-and-tell stories to the Sunday papers, as she recounted her one night stand with David Bowie - I believe she got £10,000 for that! I crashed at that flat after Mark Woon's 21st birthday bash; the problem for me was that the bash was on a Monday night, and I had to catch the train up to Kettering for the NME press day the next morning.We eventually got to bed about 3am - Maz telling Linda off for starting to undress in front of me - and I had an alarm clock which I'd set for 6 o'clock so I could get myself away in time for the early train. Still fairly drunk, I was woken by a ringing noise which I presumed to be the clock; I fumbled around trying to turn it off, but couldn't for some reason although, confusingly, the ringing did stop, then start again. Eventually, in my stupor, I realized that the noise was in fact coming from outside my room, and I walked into the hallway, wearing just my underpants. I realized that it was the doorbell ringing, and picked up the answer phone. A slurred voice asked me to let him in, but I couldn't tell who it was so wouldn't agree to do so (even if I had known how to let him in!); I kept saying I couldn't and a conversation of a type continued until, woken by my talking, Maz emerged and sorted everything. It was Mark, returning after the party finished, who had come round to crash here too! I was just so out of it I hadn't recognized his voice...
Maz came back home with me one summers night after we'd been out to see a band somewhere, and got on really well with my mum. When we got up in the morning, my mother was already in the garden, weeding, but she took pleasure in letting her have a cutting of some funny plant (I'm not very good at botany!), which I know Maz cultivated and still had growing in a pot when she lived in Balham.
Maz also took me to see the later re-incarnation of The Members (who, like Maz, were from Woking); Nicky Tesco's new band were called Bad Man Wagon, hoping that the BMW monicker would catch on. The only problem was they weren't very good... I met Nicky quite a few times at gigs and the like, and he was a decent bloke really.
Maz left NME to work for Polydor Records, and she had quite a good thing going over there. I don't really know what she was meant to do, but she enjoyed the time; I visited her in her office one lunchtime, and she was the life and soul of the place. She then left Polydor to work for a PR company near London Bridge, where Sunie had worked a few years previously I think. She ended up working with one band (who's name I can't recall, but they didn't amount to very much) and had a relationship with one of the members; the only problem was he had a girlfriend already and that caused problems for them both. I used to meet her for lunch (as it was short walk from Kings Reach), and remember quite a few beers being drunk in the pubs by the river.
She eventually got herself a nice boyfriend, and they settled down together in Balham, eventually having a baby (called Jerry I think).
The last time I saw her was just before she fell pregnant, at one of my birthday bashes in a Covent Garden pub, when I embarrassed myself somewhat. She's probably got a few kids now, and has had to work hard to make ends meet. A lovely girl, I hope she has enjoyed her life.
Alex was a fun person, who worked at NME for about four years during the eighties. She initially handled the mail order advertising, before moving across to cover the Live! adverts later. She had strawberry blonde, spiky, hair, a large chest, and skinny hips; she liked to wear leopard skins trousers at least once a week into the office! She was also easily embarrassed, so she didn't venture down the stairs to our office too often unless he had to.
Alex had a fairly long term relationship with Zeke Manyika, who was the drummer with Orange Juice at that time. Alex knew all the band, and was also friends with Marc Almond and Matt Johnson (The The ), and I remember her having a booze-up/party where Zeke, Edwyn Collins and Marc all turned up.
Zeke was a nice guy and he joined us for drinks in The Stamford Arms one lunch time. I think he was surprised that I bought him a beer, but that was the norm in those days (I'd get anyone a drink!).
We had a good chat and said we should do it again, but Alex never got him back over to the south bank again unfortunately. When Zeke's solo album (the wonderful Mastercrime) came out, I helped give its adverts prominent positions in the paper, and Alex kindly gave me the CD for free. It's an amazingly frank album (produced by Matt Johnson) dealing with love, South African apartheid politics, and music - the mainstays of Zeke's life really.Alex eventually had enough of the NME ad sales politics and moved on, initially to a recording studio near Tower Bridge where almost immediately Enya recorded her very successful first album.
Just before she left, she suggested that a friend of hers work at NME; an amazingly mad, sexy, woman nicknamed "Action" Jackson. An ex-kick boxer, Jackson took great pleasure in showing me her non-white bits after a holiday in the Caribbean luckily for me! She didn't stay too long but it was fun while she was around...
I understand that Alex is alive and well and found the picture shown here on the web recently (Alex is second left). Apparently she is now at Probe Productions and/or representing Plenty Hot Records, though I can't find any more info on her (or either company) from Google searches...
Claire Davies
Claire was another lovely woman; an ex-air stewardess, she moved into ad sales but it never really suited her, even though she tried her best. She had a lovely smile, a very fit and attractive body, and dressed well too.
She had a long-term boyfriend - Dominic - who was much younger than her (by about six years) and, although not tall, he was built like a brick-outhouse! Claire told me a story about her time with him on some beach in the south of France; she said that as they both lay there sunbathing, she noticed Dominic ogling the other women, so she took off her bikini.
I asked if she minded going topless and she said that she was already topless, and she had taken her bikini bottom off! She confirmed that that got Dominic's attention away from the other sunbathers! She also asked me one day, while standing by the lifts, for an opinion on her new fancy underwear - it was very nice, lacy, beige, and dead sexy! I think I blushed... She really was without fear sexually - she had a picture on her wall at work of a very fit and muscular black man, completely naked, posing. Art or pornography? It probably wasn't any worse than the images that guys had of women on their walls around the offices, but it was brazen for a woman to do something similar in the early eighties.Claire worked on the mail order ads for a few months, and then moved onto external ad sales, but couldn't hack it really. After her three months probation in the new job were up she left rather sadly; she liked working with us, and us with her, but she didn't meet the right work profile I guess.
Marian (Maz) Cowler
Along with Wendy and Sunie, Maz made up a crazy triumvirate of great girls who worked at NME in the late seventies/early eighties. If Wendy was the blonde (albeit peroxide), Sunie the redhead (albeit henna), then Maz was the true brunette.
I used to love being around them all, as it was always such fun. The three of them became good friends at that time, and Sunie and Maz actually shared a house for some time in Essex Road. They also shared with a girl called Donna Tracy, who was better known as Honey Bane (see pic - left), a punk singer who didn't quite live up to expectation, though she is still singing/acting today. Donna eventually got the boot from the house as she had broken a window to get into the empty house one evening after forgetting her keys, and then gone out again without blocking up the window! Not very sensible...During their time in Essex Road, the girls (Maz and Sunie) were joined by an Irish friend who needed somewhere to crash after recently crossing the Irish Sea. He was a singer in a new, up-and-coming band called U2 , and his name was Bono. Sunie got very upset one day when she found that Maz and Bono had got it together one afternoon while she was out! He didn't hang around too long, but I believe it was the first place he stayed (and/or strayed?) after arriving in London.
It was Maz who introduced Wendy to Mark Woon (see Wendy's pen pic from 12th October).
One party I went to at Essex Road (and there were plenty while they were there!) was during winter, and I wore my white cricket jumper as it was quite cold. Also at this party was a singer with another band, and he saw me and later copied my "style" big time - his name was Richard Jobson and he wore cricket jumpers quite a lot in the following years as he became more famous as a singer with The Skids and as a TV presenter (01 for London, etc).
Eventually, Maz moved out after one argument too many, and she shared a flat in Maida Vale with, among others, a girl called Linda Fox. Linda became infamous in one of those kiss-and-tell stories to the Sunday papers, as she recounted her one night stand with David Bowie - I believe she got £10,000 for that! I crashed at that flat after Mark Woon's 21st birthday bash; the problem for me was that the bash was on a Monday night, and I had to catch the train up to Kettering for the NME press day the next morning.
We eventually got to bed about 3am - Maz telling Linda off for starting to undress in front of me - and I had an alarm clock which I'd set for 6 o'clock so I could get myself away in time for the early train. Still fairly drunk, I was woken by a ringing noise which I presumed to be the clock; I fumbled around trying to turn it off, but couldn't for some reason although, confusingly, the ringing did stop, then start again. Eventually, in my stupor, I realized that the noise was in fact coming from outside my room, and I walked into the hallway, wearing just my underpants. I realized that it was the doorbell ringing, and picked up the answer phone. A slurred voice asked me to let him in, but I couldn't tell who it was so wouldn't agree to do so (even if I had known how to let him in!); I kept saying I couldn't and a conversation of a type continued until, woken by my talking, Maz emerged and sorted everything. It was Mark, returning after the party finished, who had come round to crash here too! I was just so out of it I hadn't recognized his voice...Maz came back home with me one summers night after we'd been out to see a band somewhere, and got on really well with my mum. When we got up in the morning, my mother was already in the garden, weeding, but she took pleasure in letting her have a cutting of some funny plant (I'm not very good at botany!), which I know Maz cultivated and still had growing in a pot when she lived in Balham.
Maz also took me to see the later re-incarnation of The Members (who, like Maz, were from Woking); Nicky Tesco's new band were called Bad Man Wagon, hoping that the BMW monicker would catch on. The only problem was they weren't very good... I met Nicky quite a few times at gigs and the like, and he was a decent bloke really.
Maz left NME to work for Polydor Records, and she had quite a good thing going over there. I don't really know what she was meant to do, but she enjoyed the time; I visited her in her office one lunchtime, and she was the life and soul of the place. She then left Polydor to work for a PR company near London Bridge, where Sunie had worked a few years previously I think. She ended up working with one band (who's name I can't recall, but they didn't amount to very much) and had a relationship with one of the members; the only problem was he had a girlfriend already and that caused problems for them both. I used to meet her for lunch (as it was short walk from Kings Reach), and remember quite a few beers being drunk in the pubs by the river.
She eventually got herself a nice boyfriend, and they settled down together in Balham, eventually having a baby (called Jerry I think).
The last time I saw her was just before she fell pregnant, at one of my birthday bashes in a Covent Garden pub, when I embarrassed myself somewhat. She's probably got a few kids now, and has had to work hard to make ends meet. A lovely girl, I hope she has enjoyed her life.
