Sequins, songs, kids... dance! This is what saved SOPHIE ELLIS-BEXTOR’s sanity during lockdown
....and her wonderfully joyous discos filmed in the family kitchen helped 解除する the nation’s spirits too. She tells Hattie Crisell why Friday nights 一連の会議、交渉／完成する at hers became so precious?
Getting into the groove! Sophie with, from left, 道具, 11, Ray, eight, 足緒, four, and husband Richard Sophie wears dress, 回転／交替 by Birger Christensen at brownsfashion.com. Sandals, Terry de Havilland
Sophie Ellis-Bextor opens the door to me with a toddler in her 武器 ? smiley 18-month-old Mickey ? and her four-year-old son 足緒 behind her, his hair?a 深い shade of 巡査. ‘You have the most beautiful hair I’ve ever seen,’ I tell him, genuinely やめる dazzled, and he replies bashfully, ‘井戸／弁護士席, I’ve just had it 削減（する）.’
Welcome to Sophie’s world: a large and glittering house in West London, packed to the rafters with kitsch, toys, cats and boys. I don’t know how many cats are around, but the boys number five: Mickey, 足緒, eight-year-old Ray, 11-year-old 道具 and 16-year-old Sonny. Managing the lot are the singer, her husband Richard Jones (bass guitar player with The Feeling and the supergroup Loup GarouX), and a nanny, who joins them Monday to Friday during the working day. ‘I used to have a nanny who was with us all the time, and to be honest I felt like it was too much,’ says Sophie. ‘It’s 罰金 if it’s my thing that I think about 24 hours a day, but I think it’s healthy for other people to have their own life away from it all. It’s five kids ? it’s a lot.’
It certainly is, and it’s hard to imagine how 需要・要求するing it must have been during lockdown, when the only one 行方不明の was the nanny. The public got a glimpse of this when Sophie 成し遂げるd a 週刊誌 一連の ‘kitchen discos’, broadcasting them live 経由で Instagram, her husband filming on his phone. They 開始する，打ち上げるd these shows during the bleakest part of the pandemic, and the good will that emanated from them was enormously 元気づける. She would appear in a sequined jumpsuit or rainbow-（土地などの）細長い一片d dress, a pair of 壇・綱領・公約s at the end of her mile-long 脚s, and would serenade the camera while chil dren wandered casually in and out of 見解（をとる）. いつかs her teenage son would jump in to 救助（する） the baby from a 追跡するing wire, or one of the boys would need a cuddle, and their mother would pull them in の近くに, keeping her other 手渡す on the mic.
殺人ing the dancefloor with Ray and Richard. Jumpsuit, Rosa Bloom?
It was charming 大混乱. The music encompassed 攻撃する，衝突するs from Sophie’s 支援する 目録 such as ‘殺人 on the Dancefloor’ and ‘Take Me Home’ ? or ‘Stay at Home’, as she rechristened it ? but also （人が）群がる-pleasing covers and theatrical numbers from shows such as Grease. For the audience, it 申し込む／申し出d uplifting 救済 from the 脅すing reality of the time: climbing death 率s and 孤立／分離. It was 慰安 music, I say. ‘正確に／まさに,’ she agrees. ‘And disco’s always had that for me anyway. It’s so 陶酔的な and joyful, and it’s コンビナート／複合体. In disco you can have the most painful, heartbreaking シナリオs, but they’re in の中で something that makes you want to put your 手渡すs in the 空気／公表する and sing along. I think music can 許す you the space to feel joy and 苦悩 at once.’
I am delighted to find that one end of their large kitchen still looks very much as it did, with the disco ball and a half-deflated helium balloon in place over the sofa. She 確認するs that it’s more or いっそう少なく always like this, perhaps minus the tinsel curtain. Colour and fun are everywhere in the house, from the でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるd retro artworks filling every 塀で囲む, to the ピンボール machine in pride of place. At the other end of the kitchen, a diner-style menu-board for the kids 耐えるs the words, ‘Be polite or no service.’
Leaving the children with the nanny, Sophie and I 長，率いる out to 雑談（する） on a （法廷の）裁判 in the park. She’s wearing an embroidered 海軍 dress and a red fluffy cardigan, with red lipstick that has mostly worn off; at 41, she’s truly beautiful, with very pale green 注目する，もくろむs. にもかかわらず what we’ve seen from her on Instagram, it hasn’t been an 平易な time. For one thing, there was the 落ちる from her bike in June that left her in hospital with a gory 長，率いる 負傷させる. When I について言及する it, though, she 小衝突s it off with, ‘I cannot dine out on that any more.’ Then she 追加するs, ‘I mean, I don’t recommend cycling off a towpath ? it did 傷つける.’
But an 事故 that might have been a big 取引，協定 in a quieter year seems rather trivial to Sophie in 2020. Her stepfather John ? married to her mother, the 小説家 and former Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis ? has 行う／開催する／段階-four 肺 癌 (sadly, he passed away last month just a few days after our interview). ‘He hasn’t really left the house for anything other than 医療の 推論する／理由s since January, and I think that brought home the worry of what was going on,’ she explains.
18-month-old Mickey takes over the 声のs. dress, Roland Mouret at selfridges.com. Cape, Sophie’s own
‘I knew that this was something that was happening in millions of 世帯s. I do worry about all my parents ? I say “all” because I’ve got step-parents 同様に ? but I think really it was 焦点（を合わせる）d on John, because he’s so 攻撃を受けやすい. It’s such a weird, torturous thing isn’t it for human 存在s, if you say that hanging out with someone you love is the one thing that might 現実に 危うくする them? How can you 包む your 長，率いる around that?’
She hasn’t been thrilled with the 政府 messaging around the ウイルス. ‘“Stay at home” is （疑いを）晴らす and concise and all ages get it. “Stay 警報”? I hardly ever feel 警報. I don’t feel 警報 now.
And we’ve all shown we’re good at に引き続いて 指導基準s that make sense, but you can’t keep bending it for people. Look at the 影響 when the 支配するs were made 柔軟な.’ She seems to be referring obliquely to the Dominic Cummings/Barnard 城 debacle. ‘We all thought, “Oh 井戸／弁護士席, if we could have been going off and having day trips all this time, why was I staying at home and not seeing my mum, who lives ten minutes away?” I 設立する that really 堅い.’
The kitchen discos were as much for her and the family as they were for th e audience. ‘It was Richard’s idea. One day we were making 計画（する）s and doing stuff, and the next day it was like, boomph, everything shut 負かす／撃墜する. Suddenly we were just home all the time, all work cancelled, all the festivals… I was supposed to be going to Australia, New Zealand, I had gigs all 一連の会議、交渉／完成する Europe. And Richard was, like, “井戸／弁護士席, why don’t we do a gig here, and it gives us something to do and a bit of fun?” I think we 行方不明になるd everybody.’
成し遂げるing during that time, even 経由で Instagram, gave her a 抱擁する sense of 関係, she says. ‘I honestly don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t had that, and I don’t know how it would have been for our family, because it became really precious.’ She’s now planning a Kitchen Disco 小旅行する next May (there will also be an album, out this October), and hopes it will 申し込む／申し出 audiences a cathartic experience. ‘I want to 供給する a place where people can get lost in the moment. I want them to walk out of there and go, “Oh my goodness, I didn’t know how much I needed that.”’
The final kitchen disco at the end of may
It was no surprise to her boys to see her dressed up and 成し遂げるing; Mickey sleeps in the room where she keeps her fantastic 行う／開催する／段階 wardrobe, and the y’ve all been with her to festivals, gigs and 記録，記録的な／記録するing studios. It was （疑いを）晴らす from their low-重要な presence in the kitchen discos (she left it up to them whether they 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be there or not) that they’re not fazed by it. ‘The older I’ve got, the more the me at home and the me on 行う／開催する／段階 is the same person anyway,’ she says. Her first 単独の album （機の）カム out almost 20 years ago; this one will be her eighth.
She’s also just celebrated her 15th wedding 周年記念日 with Richard. Theirs was a whirlwind romance that stuck: ‘I 設立する out I was having a baby after only about six weeks,’ she says with a smile. ‘We’d known each other for a while ? he’d been in my 禁止（する）d ? but we’d literally just started dating and I hadn’t even really told anybody.’ Sonny was born two months 未熟に, thus arriving only eight months after they’d got together.
And they’ve now got him almost to adulthood, I say. ‘Yeah, and he’s lovely; he’s his own person. You know, parenthood is so much more reactive than I ever thought,’ she says. ‘I thought it was all about what you put in. It’s not. I realised it the day I had him: I looked at this tiny baby and I thought, “Oh my goodness, you’re Sonny, and now I’ve got to help you show me who you are and what you need from me.”’
To raise five children while continually working is no mean feat, and she について言及するs that there were 緊張した moments during lockdown. But she and Richard 明確に make a good team. ‘I guess the thing that’s often not celebrated as much in long-称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 関係s ? and I think this goes for family members, friends, all sorts of 関係s where there’s love ? is that we 現実に really like each other,’ she says. ‘I really like who Richard is, and I 尊敬（する）・点 him and I like spending time with him.’
She took an 延長するd break after Sonny （機の）カム along, に引き続いて a difficult birth. ‘But to be honest, the more babies I’ve had and the older I’ve got, the more 確信して I’ve become about what I can do around 存在 妊娠している and having kids,’ she says. ‘I’ve been better with the last couple at just keeping going with the work either 味方する of it. I have a 職業 where I can 基本的に call the 発射s a bit. I’m very lucky with that and I 全く 偉業／利用する it. Also I like it if I do a big gig and I’m six months 妊娠している ? I feel やめる clever,’ she laughs.
The challenges of this 複雑にするd life have 奮起させるd Sophie’s new 事業／計画（する） ? the podcast Spinning Plates, on which she 雑談（する）s to other working mums, 含むing Caitlin Moran, Fearne Cotton, the mummy blogger Candice Brathwaite, and her own mother Janet. ‘I’ve got such a brilliant array of women, and honestly it feels like a 特権 to sit there for an hour and ask them 負担s of nosy stuff,’ she says. ‘明白に the springboard is the idea of the working mother, but 現実に what really 部隊s us is we’re all women, and there are so many things about 存在 a modern woman… It’s a rich マリファナ of stuff to go through, really.’
Sophie and Richard celebrating their 15th wedding 周年記念日 in June
She loved having the chance to interview her mum. ‘In my 長，率いる she’s always been this real trailblazer and very 確信して. She never seemed to have any 犯罪 with any of her work, and I’m glad, because it gave me a good 役割 model of “It’s 承認する for me to be selfish enough to have my work and keep it separate if I want to, and do the things I want to do.” I don’t think I would have been 確信して enough if I hadn’t had a mum like that; I’ve struggled a bit to give myself 許可 いつかs even with that.’
Another 雑談（する）, with Yvonne Telford, 創立者 of the fashion brand Kemi Telford, made her realise that at times she’s too self-批判的な. ‘She said she hates it when she hears women say, “Oh, I’m such an idiot,” and I was, like, “God, I do that all the time.” Even with the podcast, when I first started 令状ing to people I 手配中の，お尋ね者 as guests, I’d say, “Don’t worry, I know how it goes ? you’re probably too busy to reply.” Then I was, like, what am I doing? I’m 説 to them, “Ignore me!”’ She bursts out laughing. It sounds as though making the podcast might be rather 権力を与えるing. ‘Yes,’ she agrees.?
?Dress, Roland Mouret at selfridges.com. Cape and shoes, Sophie’s own
‘I think I’m doing this for me.’ But for now, we need to 長，率いる 支援する to her house, where Sonny has appeared, and Mickey is delighted to see his mum. Plates are waiting to be spun, and as I let myself out, 足緒 is putting on a show in the kitchen, with Sophie as the audience, sitting under the disco ball.
Fashion Director: Shelly Vella?
Hair: Kevin Murphy. Make-up: Nikki Palmer?using Glossier. ?
Series one of Sophie’s Spinning Plates podcast is out now. Her album Songs from the Kitchen Disco will be 解放（する）d on 23 October, with the Kitchen Disco 小旅行する に引き続いて next May?
