TVI ARCHIVED 2010 INTERVIEW WITH CHUM MEG MATHEWS UK DESIGNER AND ROCK SOCIALITE

Belle Talks To Meg Mathews On Primrose Hill:  
by Peter Jarrette

The first thing you detect on entering Meg Mathews’ Pop Box, the playful name for her slick, condominium style Primrose Hill home, is the gently sweet scent of French Vanilla candles from Yankee Candle & Accessories.  Indeed, this A-list socialite, ex-wife of Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, creates a welcoming ambience for everything she does.  The second and third thing to greet you is the excited Oscar, her Boston terrier, and her more laid back but equally friendly Pug, Pugalicious. Both Meg and I have arrived at Pop Box on foot after a short walking tour of Englands Lane, her local high street in London’s upmarket Regents Park area. We’ve just left Macs Hair Salon where she popped in for an early morning cut and blow dry ahead of that afternoon’s scheduled photo shoot.

During our brisk walk Meg points out the health food shop she visits from time to time, the intimate cafes and bijoux restaurants dotting the street that she knows as well as the back of her hand. “I’m a walk about kind of person,” she states. “On mornings like these I can move faster on my feet.”  Around the leafy enclave every street is snarled with early morning traffic. “I’m embracing being green too. I’m actually downsizing from my Toyota 4x4 to a Toyota iQ.”  However, she adds, “The 4x4 still will come in handy for trips with Anais back and forth to her country boarding school. There’s also all her sporting equipment to bundle in and out too and her riding gear. She keeps a pony that she’s named Megastar.” Anais, born in 2000, is Meg’s daughter with Noel and her only child. An adorable blonde with a confidently outgoing nature she has just begun boarding school and according to her mum, “she loves it!”

Meg Mathews is an interesting contradiction. This is the woman whose little black book is full to bursting with the names of more super famous friends than you can shake a stick at. “I was born in Guernsey, an English Channel island, and moved to South Africa with my family when I was eight.” Financially solvent now she says, “My parents weren’t rich. In fact they economised to make sure I went to good schools but I never excelled academically due in part to the difficulties in studying brought on by dyslexia.” She was however a firebrand at sports and captained several sports teams, which assured her popularity with her peers and honed her amazing people skills, which serve her well to this day. 

The contradictions in Meg are more to do with her life than her person. As a person she is consistent. She is friendly, communicative, engaged with the interests of those around her and of her friends and family, she is loyal and supportive. However the girl with dyslexia returned to the UK, lived in a Brixton squat and eventually, after a series of fashion related sales jobs, debuted on the major music scene as the manager of 80’s pop star Betty Boo. “I had dyslexia, yes,” she laughs, “but now there I was, in little or no time, managing the multi award winning pop act of the year...and I was tone deaf!” In the years that followed Meg founded Flavour Musicand managed many more acts. She was a guest of honour in 1997 alongside her now ex-husband and the top UK’s Britpop stars at the then newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Music Industry Reception at No. 10 Downing Street.

Meg Mathews at 44; the self made, moneyed, trendsetter who knows everybody, has everything and what she doesn’t have she’ll create herself, like her MM range of must have wallpapers and men’s and ladies’ scarves. Today as we enter her Pop Box to be met by Oscar and Pugalicious, Meg is wearing dark Top Shop jeans, black Zara coat, black All Saints boots, a Louis Vuitton scarf and carrying a roomy Alexander Wang bag. “One or two labels mixed with your everyday High Street do the job nicely,” she assures me.  Her chic sunglasses? “A stall in Camden Market!”    

Pop Box is buzzing with activity. An actress friend dashes up the spiral staircase. It’s Sarah Barrand, known to UK telly fans as Shannon from Footballer’s Wives. Meg’s mate has recently finished filming the motion pictureThe Kid by director Nick Moran and she’s also been appointed Ambassador for the Well Child Charity. Sarah is round for a lunch and offers to pop out to nearby Primrose Hill Park to walk Oscar and Pugalicious as Meg tours me around Pop Box. 

In the kitchen, Meg’s chef, Sean Paul, is creating Meg’s afternoon and evening meals. A housekeeper is busying herself, the phone is ringing and deliveries arrive at the door.  Still, amongst all the commotion there is that welcoming French Vanilla scent and large sun-filled rooms; on the walls in the dining area and lounge is Meg’s trademark wallpaper. This pattern - a vibrant pink, faux snakeskin with a scant hint of metallic - bounces a tropical glow into the rooms. There’s a variety of wallpaper arranged across the two floors of Pop Box. 

The Meg Mathews range of wall coverings debuted in May 2010 and is exclusive to Liberty of London, known for their luxury goods and accessories and one of the most prestigious department stores in the city.  She is Liberty’s “golden girl” as she is given unprecedented support by Ed Burstell and Alexander Stylianidis (two of Liberty’s top buyers) as well as Lee Whittle (head of ladies’ wear), and Liberty’s Style Service (the suite for clients using Liberty’s personal shopping service that is itself decorated in MM Wallpaper).

Already Meg has been lavished with two of Liberty’s much sought after windows displaying her MM range of papers and scarves. MM pieces were displayed in an in-house exhibition entitled “Prints Charming” and she’s been given access to Liberty’s print archives and asked to incorporate her design edge to long standing and traditional Liberty brand print designs.

This new design chapter came about in a serendipitous way for Meg. Hello Magazine had done a piece on Meg at home, which showed the wallpaper that she had produced privately for herself. “Victoria Beckham clocked the designs and one day as I was walking down Bond Street I received a call on my trusty white Blackberrydirectly from Posh asking if I would consider decorating one of the Beckham homes in my designs.” She shares and then corrects herself, chuckling, “She actually asked me to please come and do her home. I was so flattered. Thank God for good reception.”   

Since May 2010 Meg has worked in the same way on the homes of TV presenter Myleen Klass, Big Brother UK host Davina MaCall, fashion designer Julien Macdonald, Rolling Stone’s Ronnie Wood’s ex-wife Jo Wood and UK Boxing Champion Ricky Hatton. Meg’s lighter than air silk scarves bearing Russian nesting doll and rock ‘n’ roll skull motifs are proving to be equally as popular.

“Right now this one is my favourite colourways,” Meg claims of the colours of the faux, snakeskin wallpaper in her downstairs rooms. “The faint glow of the pink reminds me of that surrounding feeling of wellbeing you get in warm climes.” In her sumptuous boudoir her bed is populated with plush pillows and cushions and her walls are a soft coral, faux snakeskin. The guest room walls have deceptive grey and black skull wallpaper that reads as a floral from a distance. Skulls are a pet object for her and reappear around Pop Box - a hold over from her darker, more gothic mansion she shared with Noel.

In a bathroom there are two life size skulls, side-by-side, covered in tiny crystals. Anais’ room is like any other young girl’s with bright, playful colours and girlie touches like a mini montage picture shrine to the cast ofTwilight. Unlike most little girls though she has a big, personalised, hand signed picture of mom’s friend, Madonna and across from it an even bigger personally dedicated one from the meteorically popular Taylor Swift.

The walls around Pop Box that haven’t had the MM treatment are hung with photo prints, small paintings and one large piece that she stops to caress, “This one I’m absolutely in love with.” It’s a pop-art composition of a picture of her and Anais given to her by her parents. “It was a Christmas gift and my folks had it produced atSnappy Snaps.”         

Meg Mathews has led a bustling and opulent lifestyle for almost two decades. Her good friendships with super models, music industry giants, film directors, actors, writers, political figures and media greats have given her a rich seam of stories that would easily make exciting reading or in fact a very watchable film. “I’m not ready to publish any sort of memoir, yet,” she says when asked of the possibility.  “I’m still creating and experiencing. It’s like my MM design company. Suddenly it was there. It’s like a lot of what I do, have done. Nothing is planned. It all just evolves from one experience to another. In the case of MM its direction is open ended. I may take things in yet another direction design-wise but who knows. Life’s far too short to try and define things...or do just one thing. I believe it’s alright to sometimes chop and change. Why can’t you try a bit of everything?” 

Meg has definitely tried a lot of everything in her day and talks quite openly of the excesses of a rock royalty lifestyle.  “The drink, the drugs,” she states, “They come with the turf and still do for many. I regret nothing as time always affords you the chance to change, grow, to turn your life around.  That’s if you want to. If you are going to experience something I always feel that you should jump in with both feet. Others will always think what they will but that’s their prerogative, their life. The trick is not to hurt anybody along the way. If you hurt yourself you can recover...like I believe, time will let you.” 

Meg has had the time(s) of her younger life travelling the globe with the likes of her friends Kate Moss and company. She adores her memories of the warm hospitality of Chris Blackwell’s home in Jamaica at Island Records.  She has riotous recollections of island hopping with Kate and Kate’s ex-partner, actor Johnny Depp when Meg was still married to Noel.  After a three month, rum punch fuelled stay on Mustique where Noel recorded What’s The Story (Morning Glory) they hired a private plane on the spur of the moment to fly to any island that sold KFC to satisfy Noel’s craving. They ended up in St. Vincent where she said, “We toured the most amazing botanical gardens I have ever, ever seen.”      

Meg has criss-crossed the world many times and still does, especially with Anais. “Fortunately for us both I can manage to do this and it’s my thinking that travel augments her conventional education ultimately providing her with an overview and a broader understanding of her cultural circumstance and those of other countries.”

For Meg, Caribbean islands have always been a favourite on her world routing. From Barbados’ renownedSandy Lane Hotel to private rentals of some of the region’s most desirable holiday beach homes, Meg, her cover-girl friends and their coveted boyfriends have relaxed in them all. “We’ve been pampered beyond belief at Jamaica’s Strawberry Hill.” The elite spa comprised of 11 Georgian style cottages nestled in the island’s Blue Mountains has seen many high calibre guests. “There’s something madly exotic about the place. You’re only an hour’s or so drive from the sweltering heat of the coast yet you’re snuggled up under their massive duvets in their fabulous wooden beds surrounded by the cool, cool, lushness of the mountains.” Meg has also made repeat trips to Jamaica’s Golden Eye exclusive resort, centred on Ian Fleming’s old island home in Oracabessa, just east of Ocho Rios. “It’s got a really chill feeling. There’s this wonderful cliff side dining room and a suave bar just above your own private beach.”

“What can I say about the Caribbean?” she beams. “I adore your music scene. Lord knows I’ve met many of the region’s recording artists and performers in studios and at parties. I’m always agog at the self-styled dancehall inspired street fashion of some of the Jamaican girls. They’re hot! Everywhere the boys and the girls are just beautiful.” Meg is away. “The mixes of races have created some fabulous faces. And when you get on the dance floor there is some wild grinding and wining going down! One on one, two on two...real sexy stuff but it’s all in fun!”

Meg assures me that food wise she gets her fix of Caribbean flavours when she’s back in Britain. “I’m straight down to Shepherds Bush when the taste for roti, saltfish and jerk chicken takes me. I even like Guinness with condensed milk.”  We briefly discuss Trinidad and Tobago Fashion Week as I drop her a few names of Trinidad’s great designers, design teams and style pundits from Meiling to Claudia Pegus and Peter Elias. Meg’s style appetite is whet. “I’m hearing good things on Trinidad’s fashion week from some industry friends too and I’d love to be invited down and support it. And I have yet to see Carnival though I’ve admired Peter Minshall’s creations from afar for years.”      

As the decade draws to a close Meg Mathews is as busy as ever. She has hosted a variety of radio shows, continued to be a product spokesperson and is very active with a variety of animal welfare campaigns and charities. It was at Stanmer House in September where Meg, Anais, Oscar and I met as Meg and I judged at a dog show for UK TV Vet Marc Abraham’s Pup

Aid Charity against the cruelty of puppy farming, one of her dear charities.

Back at Pop Box Meg describes a typical day. Although she is well into her 40’s her energy level is high. A morning person, she’s up at 6:30. Five mornings a week she’s down to her gym, Spring Health, for a cardiovascular workout. Three mornings a week she works out with her personal trainer, Ben Cook.  By nine she’s back to Pop Box, having walked Oscar and Pugalicious, showered, and had her energy drink. Her days are PR meetings; interviews; photo shoots; liaising by phone with her MM factory in Macclesfield, just outside Manchester and pouring over ideas for other product ranges. She’ll break for lunch, often with a friend and then it’s a round of the shops and designer boutiques but always with an eye for trend seeking, sourcing upcoming colours and textures.

When she lunches at home, as she does today, her chef Sean Paul sees to it that Meg has a meal to reflect where she is in her training and energy levels. Sean Paul, who has cooked for many celebs including Sir Paul McCartney, recently worked with Heather Mills as a consultant at her Brighton vegan cafe V-bites establishing her kitchen and menus.

Sean Paul tells me that he is re-introducing protein to Meg’s diet as her workouts and workload continue to become more demanding. Initially to drop pounds she was protein free.

Her morning energy drinks will be energy rich Hippy Hippy shakes; juices containing spirolina, dried bee pollen as a sugar substitute and a variety of powder supplements.

For mid-morning elevenses he creates smoothies with carrot, beetroot, courgette, cucumber, ginger and seasonal fruit to sweeten, like apples.  She is also fond of his spinach, kale, alfalfa, blueberry, mango, plum and mineral water blend. For lunch Sean Paul will produce perhaps a crunchy Asian salad with sprouting broccoli, green beans, courgette, cucumber, carrots, balsamic and soya dressing with Japanese seaweed, sesame seeds and the dried Japanese condiment, furikake, for a piquant taste, topped with grilled salmon.

For her late meal Sean Paul will serve something like a Puy lentil salad with cherry tomatoes, carrots, basil and yellow peppers.  This might be topped with grilled fish, turkey or chicken. Meg always keeps fruit salads and brown rice, which she’ll top herself with soy dressing for between-meal snacks. “Ever so occasionally,” she says, “I’ll have a piece of red meat when I have a Sunday roast with Anais.” Sean Paul adds, “If you crave it, have it and get over it. If you resist eventually you’ll break down and binge.” 

At night time in Pop Box, when Meg is not required elsewhere in London’s shiny night lights, she relaxes with the box sets of US shows like Mad Men.  On nights when Anais is back from boarding school they cuddle up like best friends and watch movies. Meg is still into her music and currently she’s listening to David Geta and now to a new soon-to-be signed London band Panning For Gold.  Our rock and roll chick is up to her bedroom in Pop Box by 10pm these days where she’ll drift off after another full and productive day with the lingering scent of autumnal bark, smoky musk and Russian leather of a John Galliano candle.  Of the Meg Mathews today she says easily, “I love life...all of my life.” And of the Meg Mathews of time gone by? “Maybe I loved life too much.” 

Connect with Meg Matthews at www.megmathews.co.uk. Connect with author/artist Peter Jarrette atwww.facebook.com/peter.jarrette

- Peter Jarrette