Amy Winehouse_ The Biography - Chas Newkey-Burden [11]
You were never a wayward daughter but you always had a strong will and a mind of your own – qualities your father and I were so proud of. You were well brought up, you had a keen sense of right from wrong and you understood the values we always impressed on you as a family. But you would never be pressurised or influenced into doing something if your heart wasn’t in it.
Do you remember those Decembers long ago when I used to swaddle you in a thick winter coat? I used to wrap you up and give you a kiss on the nose before you went out to play in the cold. ‘Don’t worry about me Ma, I’ll be fine!’ you used to laugh. But, like any mother, of course I worried.
Amy’s naughtiness came from boredom at school. She felt smothered and frustrated by the regimen of education. ‘I didn’t like being told what to do,’ she shrugs, the scowl returning to her face. ‘I was on report all the time. It gets to you after a while, having to sign a piece of paper after every lesson. So I left.’
By this time, Amy had endured the painful experience of watching her parents split up. ‘We never argued,’ Janis remembers of the circumstances leading to the split. ‘We’d had a very agreeable marriage but he was never there. He was… away a lot, but for a long time there was also another woman, Jane, who became his second wife. I think Mitchell would have liked to have both of us but I wasn’t happy to do that.’
For any child of nine, to watch their parents split up would be almost unbearably difficult. For Amy, the experience was typically painful and her mother believes that this has influenced Amy’s music. ‘People talk a lot about the anger in Amy’s songs,’ said Janis. ‘I think a lot of it was that her father wasn’t there. Now he’s trying to make up for that and he’s spending more time with her, but what he’s doing now is what he should have been doing then.’
Interestingly, a live performance at Shepherds Bush Empire once saw Amy spend a lot of time during the show gazing up at Blake, who was in the circle to the right of the stage. As she sang lines about his infidelities, she fixed her focus on him. However, she also spun round and sang a few of the lines at her father Mitch, who was in the circle to the left of the stage. Nowadays, Amy sniffs, ‘My dad was shady. He moved house every two years – I’ve no idea what he was running from.’
An old ‘friend’ of Amy’s spoke about this period of her life in an interview with a celebrity magazine. ‘After Amy’s dad Mitch moved out when she was nine, she felt that she could do anything she wanted,’ reveals the old pal. ‘She started wearing short skirts and makeup. Her mum Janis struggled to control her. Amy lost her virginity at fifteen… and told her mum, who made her go on the Pill. She was treated badly by the boy and I don’t think her head was in a good space about it. It traumatised her and she speaks about it even now.’
Recently, Amy returned to her first school and the visit turned out to be suitably chaotic. ‘My old teacher was there – this cold-blooded bitch, she bleeds ice. She’s had the same haircut since 1840,’ chuckles Amy. ‘I was there with my friend and after the shoot we were like, “Miss, hello, miss, can we have a look round the school?” She was like, grudgingly, “OK”, and we went to the art room and my friend wandered off. Next thing, he shouted, “Run! I’ve smashed the fire alarm!” and the whole school was evacuated. It was the highlight of my life. I was saying, “I do hope it’s just a drill, miss” – and her face was a picture.’
As a child Amy was comforted not only by her love of music: she was also a huge fan of American wrestling. An unnamed friend recalls that she was addicted to shows such as SmackDown and Raw. She even got to meet one of her heroes, Chris Jericho, who was one of the biggest names in the sport. ‘Amy was so excited about meeting him, she wouldn’t stop talking about it. She was much more excited to meet a wrestler than any musician.’ She