This unique piece was signed by Robbie Williams and photographer Chris Floyd on the occasion of Robbie Williams' concert at the Lanxess Arena on February 5, 2023.

 

"A private, gated estate off Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles. He has not been here long, there isn’t much of anything in the house, apart from a giant TV, a video game console, and a chef.

In the driveway, a beautiful, white E-Type Jaguar. I’m immediately thinking about William Claxton’s 1962 pictures of Steve McQueen in his right hand drive Jaguar XK-SS, also shot on Mulholland Drive. Claxton stood up in the passenger seat, looking down at McQueen, while McQueen glances back up at the camera, leather gloves on the wheel, Persol 714 glasses, Baracuta Harrington jacket, mod haircut. The shutter speed is fast enough to freeze McQueen’s face and everything inside the car but it’s also open long enough to blur the world beyond the car with its impressionistic streaking which gives us the feeling of speed and motion, the white light, white heat of the 60s coming headlong into the centre of the frame. The whole thing is a template for what it means to be a certain type of male.

“How about we take that for a spin and shoot some pictures of you with it?”

“Do you know what, I would absolutely love that, but I haven’t passed my test, so we’ll just have to stick to the road on the estate. Down at the bottom of the cul-de-sac there’s a big turning circle, so I could just do that and make it look like I’m going really fast. Y’know, just sticking to the estate.”

So down we go, me standing in the centre of the circle. Robbie orbiting me, round and round and round at 3mph, the Jaguar’s big throaty engine just about keeping itself from dying on us all, all the while shooting pictures at 1/15th of a second." - Chris Floyd