Amy Winehouse_ The Biography - Chas Newkey-Burden [12]
At the age of twelve, Amy took the first step towards fame herself.
Chapter Two
DRAMA QUEEN
The Sylvia Young Theatre School was originally established in 1981 on Drury Lane. It moved to Marylebone in 1983. Such has been the success of the school that Young herself was given an OBE in 2005. However, it has also been the subject of controversy, with actress Billie Piper claiming in her autobiography that students were encouraged to become ‘lighter, smaller and thinner’ and that eating disorders among the students were often ignored by teachers.
Fellow Sylvia Young graduate Denise Van Outen was outraged by Piper’s comments. She stormed, ‘I was a big Billie Piper fan, but in her book she was very negative about Sylvia and the school and I think that’s wrong and unfair. If it wasn’t for Sylvia, she wouldn’t be where she is. And she really wouldn’t be where she is because she got all her breaks during her schooling years.’ Young herself was more to the point, describing Piper’s remarks as ‘poisonous’.
Sylvia Young remembers Amy very well. ‘It is hard to overstate just how much she struck me as unique, both as a composer and performer, from the moment she first came through the doors at the age of thirteen, sporting the same distinctive hairstyle that she has now,’ she says, adding that she believes Amy could well have become like Judy Garland or Ella Fitzgerald. ‘But the emphasis is on that word “could”. Sadly, there is a danger that Amy will be better known for her personal life than for her God-given musical gifts.’
Young remembers her first encounter with Amy. ‘She was one of a crowd of enthusiastic new pupils milling around the old-fashioned corridors of our school. I auditioned her myself. She did some acting, and showed great potential. She danced for us and proved she was a good mover. When she sang, however, we were blown away. It was not quite such a deep voice as she has now, of course. But her delivery of “On the Sunny Side of the Street” was rich and wonderful all the same.’ Amy was offered a scholarship and Young says that she very quickly realised she had not just a huge talent on her hands, but also a ‘real character’ who was in her own world and insisted on doing things her own way. Like all applicants, Amy was asked to write a short essay, explaining why she wanted to come to the school.
This is what she wrote:
All my life I have been loud, to the point of being told to shut up. The only reason I have had to be this loud is because you have to scream to be heard in my family.
My family? Yes, you read it right. My Mum’s side is perfectly fine, my Dad’s family are the singing, dancing, all-nutty musical extravaganza.
I’ve been told I was gifted with a lovely voice and I guess my Dad’s to blame for that.
Although unlike my Dad, and his background and ancestors, I want to do something with the talents I’ve been ‘blessed’ with.
My Dad is content to sing loudly in his office and sell windows. My mother, however, is a chemist. She is quiet, reserved.
I would say that my school life and school reports are filled with ‘could do betters’ and ‘does not work to her full potential’.
I want to go somewhere where I am stretched right to my limits and perhaps even beyond.
To sing in lessons without being told to shut up (provided they are singing lessons).
But mostly I have this dream to be very famous. To work on stage. It’s a lifelong ambition.
I want people to hear my voice and just… forget their troubles for five minutes.
I want to be remembered for being an actress, a singer, for sellout concerts and sellout West End and Broadway shows.
For being just… me.
The first half of Amy’s first week at the school was spent doing standard academic studies, and then in the second half she studied dance. ‘She was completely focused on her music, showing dedication and high standards,’ Sylvia Young remembers. ‘But nothing else interested her and, when she wasn’t singing, she was naughty. The misdemeanours were never serious,