Londoner’s Diary: ‘Andy’s bandmates are ganging up... and rewriting history’

Catherine Mayer, the widow of late Gang of Four guitarist Andy Gill, has criticised his bandmates for “misleading messaging…that rewrites the history of the band” ahead of their new tour.

Mayer argues her husband would have disputed the blurb of a new boxset, which claims the punk band’s best years were between 1977 and 1981. Gill, who died of suspected Covid in 2020, was a founding member of the group in 1976.

In a post on her website, Mayer continues: “A pattern was set within hours of Andy’s death when Jon [King], Hugo [Burnham] and Dave [Allen] launched a Facebook page emblazoned with a new logo, ‘Gang of Four 77–81’, and issued a joint statement: ‘Andy was our brother.’ Perhaps so, but in the spirit of Cain and Abel...Yes, I’m joking, but at the end there was no love lost.”

For your wife’s eyes only, 007

Former Bond girl Madeline Smith appeared in bed with Roger Moore in 1973’s Live and Let Die, above, but there was no chance of anything untoward happening. “I wore a sort of nappy and he was wearing blue boxer shorts,” she told us last night at the Oldie’s 30th birthday bash at the East India Club. But the real clincher was the presence of another party. “His wife was peering through the bars at the bottom of the bed.” Buzz kill.

The secret to my book? Steroids

Most writers thank friends and family when completing a book, but Julia Hobsbawm told us about an unusual debt she owes at the launch of The Nowhere Office last night. She said she finished the book thanks to a serious eye disorder. “I had to be on massive steroids in order to get the condition under control in the short term, and when you have massive amounts of steroids it’s like having 20 cups of coffee,” she told us at the Freud Museum in Hampstead. “I felt like the Duracell bunny.”

SW1A

Angela Rayner has a soft side. Every Friday she takes time out from her duties and rings an elderly woman, “Edna”, for a chat. The two first spoke through a charity phone-a-friend scheme and have not met in person. They discuss, among other things, tomato soup, and Rayner tells Edna: “You and me are kindred spirits.” The catch? Edna is a Tory voter and only knows the Labour deputy leader as a local mother of three. Edna, a New Statesman profile of Rayner reveals, was once watching TV when she saw Rayner appear and speak. She declared to her phone pal that Rayner “can’t talk properly”. If only she knew...

Out last night

Robert Pattinson showed off a giant suit for last night’s premiere of The Batman at the BFI with co-star Zoë Kravitz. At the Young Vic, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Jeremy Pope, Alec Newman and Paul Bettany were at a press night for The Collaboration. Daisy EdgarJones popped up at The Ham Yard Hotel to promote her film Fresh.