Thursday 13 March 2008

Paula Yates


I love Paula Yates - always have done.

The other night I ploughed through hours and hours of Tube footage, and some good tracks were unlocked from the memory, but what really held me aghast were those dresses. I want every single one of them.


Well documented is the confusion over her origin. Until May 1997, she believed that her father was her mother's husband, Jess Yates. However, a DNA test proved that her biological father was Hughie Green, presenter of Opportunity Knocks.

She'll always be an epitome of girly randomness but she was also the near-perfect madonna (she took her children absolutely everywhere with her), and her death was a sharp intake of breath 'WHAT?' moment. What a shame she died so young; a heroine of the first order.

Who else would have persuaded rock stars to pose in their underpants?


Here she is getting down and flirty with Simon Le Bon.
Paula Yates (born 24 April 1959)


12 comments:

Mondo said...

Hello I've taken the hint and beamed over - what a top idea. A few of my personal faves would be

From the punk Scene
Soo Catwoman, Jordan and Gaye Advert

Fictional ones would be

Modesty Blaise (comic strip - not the film)

The Bionic Woman - she could lift cars up and everything

Suzy Norman said...

Hey, I thought I was being subtle! (Need to work on that). Thanks for the compliment. Hey when it gathers pace a bit more I'd love for you to do one of those chicks, if you're willing PM!

Mondo said...

*does theatrical Tom and Jerry gulp* I think I know what you mean by that.

There's an almost endless list isn't there.

The Angels from Captain Scarlet, Vivienne Westwood, Mary Quant Brigette Bardot, Debbie Harry, Wing Chun (she invented Kung Fu), Yvonne whassername as Batgirl, Poly styrene, Suzi Quatro

Simon said...

Paula Yates....I wasn't surprised when she died; it hadn't looked good at all from right when Michael Hutchence went; it felt to me like it was only a matter of time.

But Paula and Jools on The Tube was probably my favourite team on any tv show ever. And man was she beautiful. The press talk about her daughters looking like her, but they don't have that look, not in the slightest. Nor her charisma. Very missed.

Do you know what? It's never occurred to me that I could do more than one blog! Doh!

Suzy Norman said...

I have a lot of time on my hands at the moment Simon. What would your other blog be about?

Simon said...

'songs that people sing' came from a lyric to a song about those bits of life that have sort of disappeared and aren't really recorded anywhere ("somebody should write down the songs that people sing"). Like old folk songs that are handed down by word of mouth - how many of those were never written down and have now gone forever.

Growing up in London you really see progress in it's most negative light. When I was a kid in the 70s there was a narrow little street near me that was still old Victorian tenements, buildings that had no bathrooms or hot water and a dark spooky cobbled road down the middle. They knocked it down in '79 and apart from old maps there's no trace of it left, not even the road.

(I appear to have written a little essay here!) Londonlee's blog Crying All The Way To The Chip Shop, or Saint Etienne are fairly close to what I'm sort of thinking about, an exploration of how we used to live, but at ground level, personal level. I might do just that now I've actually thought about it. Possibly with music, possibly not. Food for thought for sure..

Simon said...

...of course, it's not a negative thing to make sure people have hot water...but you probably know what I mean...

Suzy Norman said...

I'm McEwanesque in my attitude to progress, spiritually it's fantastic. It's good to be critical of any era though. I love the 70s musically and for film and kid's tv but there was a lot shit about it too, women not really being accepted into pubs, crap restaurants etc.
But back to the thread, I'm still waiting for the next Paula. You're right, she was beautiful and her kids just haven't got IT, not even Peaches.

Simon said...

No, I can't imagine somebody doing a blog like yours in 20 years time and naming Peaches as a heroine. She may yet prove us wrong though. Too many of the women in tv are too quick to follow the stick thin orange stereotype that's prevalent these days. There's not many individuals around that I can think of.

My own heroines? Victoria Wood has to be up there for me - except when she's singing - she's not just funny, she's a bloody good writer, as Dinnerladies proves, at least where I'm concerned.

Suzy Norman said...

yup, good one, myself and Mr Norman were watching her 80s show the other night on DVD, it's brill.

Unknown said...
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Paula_Yates said...

I love her... she's my idol... she was so special... and I agree with the other... her daughters don't have her carisma... she is really missed...

Hugs!