Pearl Lowe feels "sorry" for the person she used to be when she was taking drugs.
The former Powder singer and her husband, Supergrass drummer Danny Goffey, were members of the Primrose Hill set in the 1990s, a group of celebrities famous for their penchant for partying.
The friendship group included Kate Moss, Jude Law and his now ex-wife Sadie Frost, former Oasis members Liam Gallagher and Noel Gallagher and their respective ex-wives Patsy Kensit and Meg Mathews, Lisa Moorish, Rhys Ifans and Davinia Taylor among others.
Pearl and Danny took their drug use to extreme levels taking heroin as well as party drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine and since quitting London for a quiet life in the country and getting clean Pearl no longer recognises herself from that hedonistic decade.
In an interview on UK TV show ‘Loose Women’, she said: "I’ve been sober nearly 15 years now, when I look at old pictures I just think, ‘My god, who is that person?’ I actually look at pictures and think I feel quite sorry for her because I was in pain and it seemed like it was this great place to be, at all these parties, but I had young children and I was trying to keep my husband happy, be happy, go out and try to have a career because I was in a band at the time but it was so difficult and obviously something had to give. Basically, I ended up getting rid of my mobile phone and moving to the country."
Pearl, 49, admits the incident that changed her life was when she came down the stairs in her home after taking drugs to find her toddler son holding a bag of pills and realising he could have ingested them she decided enough was enough.
She shared: "That was the moment that I literally went and got help. I was really young, we were in our 20s, early 30s – I guess some people might think that early 30s is quite old to be doing that – but I was like I’ve got to make some massive changes here.
"I’ve got to say that the minute we moved to the country I used to pinch myself every single day when we were looking outside and I’d be thinking, ‘God, it’s so beautiful. Why didn’t I come here earlier?’ "
Pearl – who has three children, sons Alfie and Frankie and daughter Betty, with Danny and famous model daughter Daisy Lowe, whose dad is Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale – insists she didn’t miss the party lifestyle once she made the move to the English countryside and although she had to cut a lot of people from her life at the time she is now back in touch with a lot of her old friends via social media app Instagram.
She said: "I really didn’t miss it [the partying] because I’d done so much of it I was just really thankful to be alive, really thankful to be there and I still had my husband.
"I had to cut everyone out of my life. Me and Danny were part of many sets, it wasn’t just that set. We were in bands so we were close to lots of singers and musicians it was a buzzing time, it was the mid-90s and there were lots and lots of parties.
"When I got clean, of course people dropped me. But it’s funny with Instagram because now I’ve connected with pretty much all of them, I use direct message and I’ll be like, ‘How are you doing?’ But I live in Somerset and it’s three hours away, when we moved to Somerset 11 years ago – because we went to Hampshire first – it was a case that we were so far away that we had to make our friends there, we can’t keep going back to London we really need to be here in Somerset."
Pearl – who has just released her new book ‘Faded Glamour: Inspirational Interiors and Beautiful Homes’ – reinvented herself as a professional curtain maker and fashion designer and now she prefers to spend her time scouring the flea markets and antiques fairs in South West England looking for inspiration and beautiful objects for her and 45-year-old Danny’s home.
She said: "In Somerset there are so many antiques shops and so many markets and so many flea markets and that’s where I spend my time, at the weekends that’s what I like doing. Instead of going to some swanky party I’m probably the first person at the flea market in the morning waiting for the doors to open. The book has definitely come from my love of that."
Pearl Lowe doesn’t recognise herself from partying past
