Magic

Friday was such a magical night! Remember back in September I told you about a day out on Clapham Common with Superduck, my boys and a bunch of their friends where he filmed them "lip-synching" to imagined backing vocals?

So glad to have another reason to publish this photo which I LOVE! Anyway, Friday night was the night of the actual Sigur Ros gig at Alexander Palace. Now, the boys have never been to a proper gig before and the fact that their first one would feature themselves is quite a bizarre and of course wonderful experience (I hope they don't expect that from every gig in the future!!).
Superduck was slightly nervous as to how his films had been edited for the show....would all the children feature? Would they be distorted and rendered unrecognisable? Would there be a mass meltdown of the under tens before they even got to see their tiny moment in the spotlight???

Here's Duke and Grace demonstrating to anyone who'll listen their excellence in the field of "oooh"s and "aaaah"s...

When the moment actually came it was magical....as Jonsi Birgisson asked the audience to join in, there all the children appeared projected behind him, all the kids started to gasp "it's US!" and clambered up on shoulders to get a better look. It was so perfect.

Here's the svengali himself with his cast.....

It would have been great to stay for the whole gig but we'd already done pretty well and thought it best to cut our losses, plus it was quite a schlep home so off we went into the night.....big thanks to Michael, Melanie, Ness and all the kids for making the night go so smoothly, to Johnnycakes for playing daddy and being an extra pair of shoulders but most of all to Superduck for asking the kids to get involved in the first place. His visuals with Sigur Ros really meld into something quite extraordinarily poetic and beautiful and I leave you with the trailer for his documentary "Vid Spilum endalaust" which is going to be available in limited edition to accompany a new book about the band...I've seen the whole film and it's breathtaking!

If you want to check out more of his work....http://www.nicholasabrahams.com/

Madame x

"Superduck Day"

An update on Nick Abrahams' Sigur Ros comings and goings.......of course we know him as Superduck, but let's get professional here.....

This Thursday (2nd October), as part of the Concrete and Glass music and art festival they will be running a short loop of "Vid spilum Endalaust" , a film Nick has shot on Super 8 of the band on tour, alongside photographs by Eva Vermandel at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, Whitechapel Road 6.30 - 9.00pm. Vermandel has spent four months with the band during the recording and performing of their latest album. You'll have to wait until November for a proper screening of Nick's film in its entirety but I for one will be nipping down to the Whitechapel pre-George and Dragon for a teaser.....



Madame xx

A Perfect End....

The boys went back to school yesterday. Duke came home with a blue card - not a good thing - and a "well done" sticker on his sweatshirt - to counterbalance the blue card perhaps. Joe was covered in yogurt and pronounced himself ill this morning. So none of us is particularly thrilled with the beginning of term.....

The last full day I spent with the boys was Monday. I was predicting a day full of name-tag stitching and gathering of school bits, but then Superduck called on Sunday night with a request for a band of singing children that he could film for his Sigur Ros projections project. A bit of phoning around and we spent a sunny afternoon on Clapham Common with seven lip-synching under 11's! It was fun. We went to the Italian ice cream parlour once everyone had given their all and then the kids had a bit of a climb all over the bandstand.....

Lovely, unexpected day out...and if the Super 8 turns out as planned we'll all be going to see their little faces behind the band in November at Alexander Palace.

The holiday ended quite beautifully actually. I drove down to Herne Bay for the last weekend where the boys were already, and while London suffered drizzle, we basked in Kent's micro-climate.


Between going to Gosport and Herne Bay, the boys probably spent about a week in London tops this summer, I'm really pleased, they look brown and healthy, had space to run around, messed around in the sea, on the sea....they seem to have grown about two inches, both schooldays I put Duke's uniform trousers on and they're whipping around his ankles! Even though we didn't go abroad or anything I feel rested after the summer for the first time since they were born!

Still, wish we could squeeze a couple more weeks of summer out....I'm not mentally ready for this jumper....

Madame xxx