Amy Winehouse (16 page)

Among those in the American record industry, there was joy. ‘Amy Winehouse is incredible. I think she should have got a little more positive recognition,’ said singer-songwriter
Ne-Yo
. Grammy-winning producer John Shanks called Winehouse’s album
Back to Black
, which included the telling hit ‘Rehab’, ‘an important record’. Shanks added, ‘I don’t think
her troubles are really going to hurt her. I think the sound of that album made an impact.’

First word from Amy herself in response came via the mouth of Mark Ronson. ‘I called her today because the record was something that we went through together… Hopefully she will get into America so we can celebrate. Amy doesn’t get excited about anything,’ he explained. ‘She was never once excited while in the studio. And today she’s just like, “Yeah, Ronnie Chops, we got Grammy nominations.” That’s her. But she’s happy and psyched.’

This was followed by the official statement from Amy herself: ‘Thank you for all your kind letters and emails, I am grateful for all your support. I’m honoured to have my music recognised with these nominations – this is a true validation from people I respect and admire.’

More than anything, Amy and those close to her hoped that these nominations would remind people that, for all the controversy and discussion that surrounded her lifestyle, Amy remains a musical artist and a supremely talented one at that. ‘After a tempestuous year of incredible highs and incredible lows, some people forget that she isn’t just a tabloid queen,’ said an excited Island Records Group UK president Nick Gatfield. ‘She’s actually a hugely talented artist. We are all really pleased about the Grammy nominations, obviously. And we hope things will get better from now on. She must keep busy.

‘It’s a reflection of her status [in the United States] that when you flick through the TV coverage [of the nominations], it’s her image they use above everything else,’ Gatfield added. ‘She’s made a bigger impact than even her record sales would dictate.’ Not that
Amy should or would be getting carried away. ‘Getting so many nods, it doesn’t mean your career is going to take off,’ warned Giant Step co-founder and CEO Maurice Bernstein, whose music and lifestyle marketing company handled the grassroots outreach for
Back to Black
. ‘But this was hands down the best album of 2007. Nothing album-wise has come out that has touched it from start to finish; the quality of sounds, the soul.’

Then came the inevitable discussion about whether Amy would make the award ceremony. The
Charlotte Observer
kicked off the discussion, asking, ‘Now that the Grammy nominations have been announced, the big question is whether British songstress Amy Winehouse will actually make it to the awards ceremony. It’s looking unlikely unless she gets help soon.’ The writer pleaded directly to Amy: ‘Don’t be like Britney at the VMAs and embarrass yourself at the Grammys. You’re more talented than that.’

Those behind the Grammy’s were naturally very keen indeed to see Amy appear at the ceremony. ‘I’d hate to see technicalities prevent creativity from happening on the stage,’ said Neil Portnow, president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. ‘I think it talks about the strength and the excellence of her music and the way that it’s received by our membership.’

Word soon came from Amy that she would of course be attending. The whole Grammys news was music to her ears, because she’d recently had to cut short a UK tour in upsetting circumstances.

On the night, Amy was unable to attend the ceremony due
to visa complications. However, that was not enough to stop her winning five prizes: Record of the Year, Best New Artist, Song of the Year, Pop Vocal Album and Female Pop Vocal Performance. It was a colossally successful evening for her, as she became the first ever British female artist to win five Grammys in one night.

She left rehab for the evening and performed two songs – ‘Rehab’ and ‘You Know I’m No Good’ – via satellite from the Riverside Studios in London. Her performances prompted a standing ovation over in Los Angeles and she said: ‘Thank you very much, it's an honour to be here. Thank you very, very much.’ She also delivered her acceptance speech via satellite, dedicating her success to ‘My mum and dad. To my Blake, my Blake incarcerated.

‘I am so proud of this album,’ she said in reference to
Back To Black
. ‘I put my heart and soul into it and it’s wicked to be recognised in this way. I feel truly honoured to be mentioned in the same breath as many of the artists present tonight and to win is even more amazing.’ She was mobbed by ecstatic band members, friends and family on the stage.

Despite being 5,500 miles away, Amy was the talk of the town in LA. With this latest triumph, her dream of making it big in America came true as the entire nation sat up, took notice and demanded to know more about this remarkable singer who couldn’t make it to the Grammys but still won five awards. America is her oyster.

I
n November 2007, Blake Fielder-Civil, aged twenty-six, and Michael Brown, aged thirty-nine, were due to stand trial at London's Snaresbrook Crown Court on charges of assault causing grievous bodily harm relating to an incident in June of that year. However, days before that trial was due, Blake was also arrested and charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in relation to the assault case. He was remanded in custody to await trial and, as he was led away in handcuffs, Amy shouted to him, ‘Baby, I love you, I'll be all right.' Blake had time to shout back, ‘I love you too' before he was pushed into a police car. Both Blake and Michael Brown denied the charges. He was refused bail. ‘Amy's totally distraught. She kept saying to me, “I love him. He's done
nothing wrong,”' said her mother-in-law Georgette Civil.' She was really upset because she couldn't go and visit him. Amy has told me she'll stand by Blake whatever happens.' Soon, there were six men facing conspiracy charges.

Against this backdrop of pain, uncertainty and controversy, Amy hoped that the UK leg of her European tour would see at least a sense of calm return to her world. Back on home turf, she hoped, she could draw increased wellbeing from her domestic fanbase. It is worth recalling – before we turn to this ill-fated tour – how brilliant Amy can be onstage when she is on form.

Somerset House has been described as ‘Britain's first office block, built when Britain suddenly realised it had an Empire, but a capital city that looked like Scunthorpe', by
The Times
, which added that as a concert venue it was ‘much too posh for a mosh pit'. Amy performed there in the summer of 2007 and charmed all present. Described as being ‘as meek as a kitten' by
Gigwise
, she was certainly in a mellow mood. She confessed to the audience that she ‘was not the most organised of people – but I've been looking forward to this gig for I can't tell you how long'.

Introducing a blistering cover of ‘Hey Little Rich Girl' by the Specials, Amy gave a cheeky nod to her recent no-shows at concerts, saying, ‘This is a song I've been doing when I'm away. That's obviously when I show up for a gig.' She hopped off stage a few times to kiss Blake, who was waiting in the wings. As she announced the final song, ‘Valerie', some of the crowd booed her impending exit from the stage. ‘Boo you,' she joked. ‘I've been here at least an hour and I haven't even collapsed once.'

Caspar Llewellyn-Smith, writing in the
Observer
, acknowledged Amy's relatively punctual arrival on stage and added,

The
Sun
said ‘she deserves a champagne reception'. During ‘Rehab', Amy had been joined onstage by friend Kelly Osbourne. Amy had indeed been looking forward to these open-air concerts. ‘I'm really looking forward to it, because I never went to any festivals when I was younger,' she says of her hefty summer touring schedule. I used to go camping but by the time I was old enough to go to them I wasn't interested any more.'

So, all was well at Somerset House. However, the opening night of the winter 2007 tour at the Birmingham NIA was far from a calm affair, and the press coverage in the ensuing days only added to the sense of controversy and danger that surrounded her. ‘It was one of the saddest nights of my life,' wrote the
Birmingham Mail's
music critic Andy Coleman in his review of the concert. ‘I saw a supremely talented artist reduced to tears, stumbling around the stage and,
unforgivably, swearing at the audience,' he wrote. He even refused to give the concert the paper's customary star rating, since ‘this was a show by a troubled individual that should never have gone ahead'. Harsh words, and yet these were among the kinder conclusions drawn from perhaps Amy's most controversial concert to date.

The drama kicked off when Amy reportedly locked herself in a backstage toilet, prior to her appearance. ‘I can't go on without Blake,' she screamed from inside the cubicle. ‘How can I live without him? I need him. I need my baby.' According to an eyewitness, ‘Her aides and our staff went into panic mode as Amy refused to leave the loo. We could hear her sobbing from outside. She was saying she couldn't go on without Blake. It made everyone worry she would do something stupid to herself. Eventually, aides convinced her to come out and that everything would be OK, but it was touch and go for a while.'

Then Amy finally took to the stage, wearing a see-through black top and a miniskirt. She was more than half an hour late and some in the audience had already grown restless and frustrated while waiting for her. A slow handclap had started up minutes before she took to the stage. Some started booing her. Introducing ‘Wake Up Alone', she told the audience, ‘This is for my husband.' As the song ended, she said, ‘Nothing's going to bring my husband back.' As the performance became increasingly shambolic, more members of the audience turned on her, with heckles and boos being thrown. Shocked, she said, ‘Let me tell you something. First of all, if you're booing you're
a mug for buying a ticket. Second, to all those booing, just wait till my husband gets out of incarceration. And I mean that.' She then added that the audience were ‘monkey c**ts'.

Also during the set, she dropped her microphone and stumbled into the guitar stand. Finally, she seemed to shed tears prior to singing ‘Valerie' and then walked out before the song had finished. By this time, it is reported, hundreds of fans had already walked out of the venue in disgust. Some of them were demanding refunds. The tabloid press had descended like vultures to the venue, many of their number openly wishing for some tragedy and drama in the evening. There was plenty of that on stage and some of it off. A tattooed, cross-dressing stalker turned up to the venue, promising to follow Amy everywhere on tour to ‘take care of her'. He was evicted, yelling, ‘I can take care of her now that Blake isn't around. I love her.'

Many of the more normal fans were quoted in the press during the following days. One said, ‘She came on stage half an hour late. She managed four songs but was slurring her words and swaying all over the place. It was atrocious. The song dedicated to her husband was so bad it was like swinging a cat round your head.'

Another moaned, ‘Her singing was awful, out of tune and slurred. She sang for around fifty minutes – drinking throughout. I have never seen so many people leave a show. “Valerie” was my favourite song – she massacred it!'

Kinder sentiments were forthcoming, though. One fan, Zoe Giorgio, said, ‘When she did sing she sounded phenomenal
but she was not ready to be up on that stage. She was so weak, so vulnerable.' Another fan said, ‘If my husband was in prison I wouldn't have the bottle to stand up on stage and do that, so I think fair play to her I really do. Her fans should support her.'

They should indeed. It must be asked what these disgruntled fans expected when they bought their tickets to the show. As Helen Brown wrote in the
Daily Telegraph
,

This author, too, supported Amy, writing on the
Guardian
website,

Andrew Lloyd Webber was, somewhat surprisingly, a member of the audience and the music impresario was impressed with her performance, which he said ‘showed flashes of genius with
an Ella Fitzgerald quality'. To him, the reports of a disastrous performance were strange. ‘I thought there were moments when she was absolutely magnificent,' he explained. ‘I didn't notice her doing anything peculiar. I thought her voice was toned and she was handling material you would not expect a girl of her age to cope with.'

He did, though, notice the negative response of some audience members. ‘It was strange what happened. Suddenly, way into the show, the audience suddenly turned on her and she wasn't equipped to handle it. I was with Sir David Frost and he has seen it all. Neither of us could work out why the crowd turned on her – it just happened in one moment.'

Rounding off his rallying support for Amy, he said, ‘She is a big star and the awful thing about it is she's going to be crushed like a butterfly and it's not right. That girl needs to be nurtured and helped through all of these problems because she is a major, major talent. I'd say there's an Edith Piaf quality to her, which is very rare. She lives those lyrics.'

There were also words of support from the band Girls Aloud. Nadine Coyle said, ‘Amy Winehouse is just such a talent. Her voice has brought something back that hasn't been around for decades.' Sarah Harding chimed in with, ‘Isn't it weird that the really talented people always seem to crumble under that kind of artistic pressure?' Cheryl Cole added, ‘She's absolutely amazing, but it's a shame that her personal life overshadows the talent.'

Amy's old teacher, Sylvia Young, wrote an open letter about Amy at this point. It read,

Also, in Amy's defence, it must be remembered what stresses she was under at this point. She had spent the afternoon visiting Blake in prison – and had her beehive searched on the way in! – and was utterly distraught by the experience. A friend of hers insists that Amy ‘wasn't drinking before or after the gig and stuck to Lucozade all night'. Frankly, even if she was drinking before the gig, only the coldest heart could blame her for doing so after she'd gone through the horrific experience of visiting her husband in jail and having to leave him there and perform at a concert in front of thousands of expectant fans.

Lloyd Webber's words were balanced, considered and fair, which is more than could be said of the media storm that descended upon Amy in the wake of the Birmingham concert. Scenting blood, the press reported that her tour manager had quit. Thom Stone found traces of heroin in his system from, he claimed, passively inhaling the fumes when Amy and Blake took drugs. He showed Amy a doctor's note warning her that the pressures of being her tour manager had been ruining his health. ‘He was constantly bailing her out,' said a source. ‘He
was watching them get off their head on drugs and wondering whether Amy was even going to get up on stage. It was a nightmare job.'