Nora Forster

Nora Maier Forster (6 November 1942 – 6 April 2023) was a German-British publishing heiress, actress and model who was primarily known as a music promoter.[1] Before moving to London in the late 1960s, she worked in Germany with Jimi Hendrix, Wishbone Ash and Yes. In London she helped financially support the punk bands The Slits, the Sex Pistols and The Clash. She was married to John Lydon of the Sex Pistols.

Nora Forster
Forster in 1984
Born
Nora Maier

(1942-11-06)6 November 1942
Munich, Gau Munich-Upper Bavaria, Germany
Died6 April 2023(2023-04-06) (aged 80)
United States
Occupation(s)Publishing heiress, actress, model, music promoter
Spouse(s)Frank Forster
​
(m. 1979)​
ChildrenAri Up
Parent
  • Franz Karl Maier (father)

Early life

Nora Maier Forster was born 6 November 1942 in Munich, Germany, to a wealthy publishing family. Her father, Franz Karl Maier, ran the newspaper, Der Tagesspiegel. She was educated in Munich, and was interested in music from an early age. After she finished school, she went to work for her father's media company.[2]

Forster was a publishing heiress of Der Tagesspiegel; after the death of her father she inherited a large share of his AU$ 120 million fortune.[3] [4]

Career

Forster began her work as a music promoter in Munich. Her home there became a meeting place for "rock royalty".[5] Some of the acts she worked with in Germany were Jimi Hendrix, Wishbone Ash and Yes. She found German society to be too restricting,[2] and decided to move to London with her daughter in the latter half of the 1960s.[3] Their first flat was located in a "cold, damp and dark" basement in West London, near the Chelsea football ground. Following that they moved to a small house off Gowrie Road in South London. During this time she came to be called a "Punk Mummy Warrior" who guided her daughter, Ari Up's musical pursuits and supported the development of her band, The Slits, when Ari was just fourteen or fifteen. Forster hosted numerous musician house guests, and among them was Neneh Cherry, the teenage step-daughter of Don Cherry. Cherry performed backing vocals with The Slits for a time.[2]

During the 1960s and 70s, Forster was part of the bohemian scene in London.[6] Starting in the late 1960s Forster's home in Shepherd's Bush became a crash pad, salon, and meeting place for rock musicians including Joe Strummer of The Clash, Jimi Hendrix, Jon Anderson of the band Yes, and many other bands.[1][7] She helped to financially support the punk bands The Slits, the Sex Pistols and The Clash.[8]

In 1970, Forster began to promote music gatherings in London. In 1975, Forster met John Lydon of the Sex Pistols in west London at Vivienne Westwood's clothing store, Sex, on Kings Road.[9] In 1979, she married Lydon[10][3] who was 14 years her junior. [11] They married in Düsseldorf.[12] Previously, she was the girlfriend of Chris Spedding, a well known musician and rock music producer.[7][13] In 1986, she was a major stockholder of Der Tagesspiegel, a West Berlin-based newspaper.[14] Forster and Lydon moved to California in the 1980s.[9]

Personal life

Forster's first husband was Frank Forster, a German popular music singer, with whom she had a daughter, Ariane,[2] better known as Ari Up, who was the frontwoman and singer of The Slits.[3][10] When Forster's daughter died in 2010 from breast cancer, Forster and Lydon became the guardians of Ari Up's three children.[15]

In 1979, Forster married John Lydon the singer of Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd. They remained married for 44 years until her death in 2023.[15][16]

In 1988, Forster and Lydon were booked to travel on 21 December Pan Am Flight 103 that was bombed over Lockerbie, but missed taking the deadly flight due to packing delays.[2]

In 2000, Forster and Lydon became guardians of Up's twin sons, Pablo and Pedro. Forster and Lydon later became the guardians of Up's third child, Wilton. Up died in 2010 at age 48 from breast cancer.[3][10][2]

Forster was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2018.[17] She lived in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, U.S. with Lydon who was her full-time carer when he was not on tour.[18][19] In 2023, Lydon entered Eurosong 2023 as part of Public Image Ltd with the song "Hawaii", a song dedicated to Forster.[20]

Her death was announced on 6 April 2023, at the age of 80 from Alzheimer's disease.[21][16]

References
  1. Wilkinson, David (2016). Post-Punk, Politics and Pleasure in Britain. Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 158. ISBN 9781137497802. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  2. Lydon, John; Perry, Andrew (2014). Anger Is an Energy: My Life Uncensored. William Morrow Publishers (First edition published by Simon & Schuster). ISBN 978-0-06-240023-9.
  3. Jonze, Tim (13 June 2022). "'I know what it's like to be frightened': John Lydon on loneliness, lyrics and life as a Sex Pistol". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  4. Pryer, Nick; Sheridan, Peter (22 February 2004). "My father died from a heart attack when I secretly married Johnny Rotten". The Sunday Mail (Brisbane). Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  5. "Ari Up". The Daily Telegraph. 23 October 2010. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  6. Roberts, Randall (23 October 2010). "Singer known as the Slits' Ari Up". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 13 October 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Kinsella, Warren (2011). Fury's Hour: A (sort of) Punk Manifesto. Random House of Canada. ISBN 9780307369727. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  8. Howe, Zoe (2010). How's Your Dad?: Living in the Shadow of a Rock Star Parent. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9780857124159. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  9. Rufford, Nick (25 April 2021). ""what's an illness between lovers?' Punk pioneer John Lydon has quit hellraising to become the full-time carer for his wife, Nora, who has Alzheimer's. Is he mellowing with age? Not a bit, discovers Nick Rufford". Sunday Times (London). Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  10. Leland, John (14 June 2007). "Still Rotten After All These Years". Rolling Stone. No. 1028. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  11. Ingals, Ian (2016). Today, Bill Grundy and the Sex Pistols in the book Popular Music and Television in Britain. Taylor and Francis. p. 99. ISBN 9781317078166. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  12. Russell, Rosalind (29 January 1986). "Lydon's secret wife". Evening Standard. p. 18. Retrieved 13 October 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. Savage, John (2010). England's Dreaming Tapes. University of Minnesota Press. p. 298. ISBN 9780816672912. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  14. Spy. Sussex Publishers, LLC. October 1986. p. 16.
  15. Kreps, Daniel (6 April 2023). "Nora Forster, Wife of John Lydon and Mother of Ari Up, Dead at 80 After Alzheimer's Battle". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  16. "Remembering John Lydon and Nora Forster, punk's greatest love story: 'Once I make the commitment, it's forever'". Yahoo Entertainment. 6 April 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  17. Jonze, Tim (13 June 2022). "I can't bear the thought of somebody suffering". The Guardian. p. 6. Retrieved 13 October 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. Sloan, Billy (27 March 2022). "Punk icon Johnny Lydon on caring for his wife as she struggled with dementia". The Sunday Post. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  19. "John Lydon über demente Ehefrau »Sie wird auf jedem Schritt des Weges geliebt werden«". Der Spiegel - Panorama. 29 September 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  20. Evans, Greg (6 April 2023). "John Lydon's Wife Nora Forster Dies Of Alzheimer's Disease; Former Sex Pistol Performed 2023 Eurovision Song For Her". Deadline. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  21. Heslop, Katherine (6 April 2023). "Johnny Rotten's wife Nora Forster dies after Alzheimer's battle". mirror.
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