Amy Winehouse_ The Biography - Chas Newkey-Burden [30]
Amy confirms the widespread tomboy perception of her when she says, ‘I’m not really a girl. I’m not even a boy’s girl. I’m a man’s man – and that doesn’t mean I’m a big dyke. Men are far more straightforward. They don’t dwell on things and play psychological games. I’m not saying all women are like that, or that some men don’t play those games, but on the whole, men are more easygoing and don’t piss time up the wall. Life’s short. Anything could happen, and it usually does, so there’s no point in sitting around thinking about all the ifs, ands and buts.’
Having come so close twice to winning a major award so early in her career, Amy hit the jackpot later in the year with arguably the most prestigious of musical honours. The Ivor Novello Awards were first given in 1955. Named after Ivor Novello, a Welsh composer, singer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the early twentieth century, the awards are now given by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. The Academy, formed in 1999, represents the interests of UK music writers across all genres. The Award itself is a solid bronze sculpture of Euterpe, the Greek muse of music. Former winners of this prestigious prize include Iron Maiden, the Darkness, the Feeling, Madonna, Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Richard Thompson, David Bowie, Ray Davies, Kate Bush, Eric Clapton, John Lennon, Annie Lennox, Phil Pickett, Paul McCartney, Madness, Duran Duran, George Michael, Pet Shop Boys, Dave Stewart, Sting, Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow.
She was delighted to be nominated for an Ivor Novello, far more than she was to be nominated Best Female at the BRITs. ‘The Ivor Novellos are a songwriter’s award and that’s what I am,’ she says. ‘I’m not trying to be best female, I’m just trying to write songs.’ However, in the wake of Frank’s success and Amy’s disagreements with many aspects of the album and its promotion, she found writing songs more difficult than ever.
‘I had writer’s block for so long,’ she says looking back. ‘And, as a writer, your self-worth is literally based on the last thing you wrote… I used to think, “What happened to me?” At one point it had been two years since the last record and [the record company] actually said to me, “Do you even want to make another record?” I was, like, “I swear it’s coming.” I said to them, “Once I start writing I will write and write and write. But I just have to start it.”
‘I take out my anger and frustration by writing songs and that’s really where Frank came from. And now I’m having a great time – everything is going really well with the record. I’m doing a lot of gigs and singing is the thing I love doing most. I’ll have to start writing for a new album at some point, so I think I’m going to have to take time off and live a normal life so that things can happen to me again that aren’t all good. Otherwise, I’ll have nothing to write about on the next album.’
As we shall see, Amy’s hope that normal things ‘that aren’t all good’ would happen to her came true – but surely in a bigger way than she could ever have expected.
Chapter Five
BACK ON TRACK
When she returned to the public eye with her new album, Amy’s hairstyle had moved towards the beehive style she is now synonymous with. From Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, to Bet Lynch in Coronation Street, to Marge in The Simpsons, to Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous through to most of the women in the cartoon The Far Side, the beehive hairstyle is a popular one. It originated in the 1950s when Margaret Vinci Heldt, a hairdresser from Elmhurst, Illinois, was asked to create a new style. ‘It’s kind of nice to know maybe in my own way I was able to give something to my profession that became a classic,’ she said. ‘It still has a touch of glamour, doesn’t it?
‘It was sort of the