Amy Winehouse_ The Biography - Chas Newkey-Burden [57]
A passenger said, ‘Amy was crying, gesticulating wildly and shouting while the man with her was trying to calm her and get her through the gate. She mentioned Blake’s name more than once.
‘Eventually they went through security, but then Amy came running back. She hurdled the security gate then ran up the escalator, shouting and screaming, into Waterloo station concourse. It was quite a sight – this tiny girl with a massive beehive leaping over a barrier. It was pretty clear she was not keen on getting on that train to Paris.’
As Amy ran off, a policeman chased after her. A London Transport Police spokesperson confirmed, ‘We spoke to a twenty-four-year-old female at the Eurostar entrance yesterday. She wasn’t detained and no further action was taken.’ In the end Amy was persuaded to travel after all and she got on the train to Paris.
On her return to England, Amy hit the headlines again when she and Blake hung out with fresh-from-rehab Pete Doherty at his pad in Wiltshire. As he recorded an interview with the radio station Xfm, Doherty said, ‘Apparently I have self-esteem issues.’ Once more, rumours went around that Amy and Doherty planned to work together, prompting further concern in the press at the thought of two such hedonistic artists joining forces. ‘She plays better than James Brown playing acoustic guitar. She thinks she’s shit, but she’s not,’ said Babyshambles guitarist Mick Whitnall of Amy’s guitar skills. ‘I’ve never met a girl who plays like that, let alone a man,’ he added.
Doherty said that a track entitled ‘1939 Returning’ was one of the new songs he had been working on. ‘I’m going to try to get Miss Winehouse to help me with it, hopefully,’ he said. Soon there were rumours that she and Pete would duet at an MTV awards ceremony. A source said, ‘MTV have been trying to persuade Amy to go for ages. When she heard Pete was doing it she thought it could be a laugh. Amy and Pete are going to get together and see if they can work out a duet and get it on the schedule. The organisers wanted to add a bit of danger to what is the squeaky-clean boy band of award shows. They’ve certainly done that. I just hope they know what they’ve let themselves in for. They’ve been jamming for ages with the plan to perform together. This would be a pretty high-profile place to do it.’
Pete Doherty was asked what advice he would offer Amy during her hour of need. ‘I wouldn’t give her any,’ he snapped. ‘She’s fine. It’s all bollocks. People should leave her alone. I went for a drink with her earlier today and she’s totally fine. Perfectly healthy and happy. People are saying she’s out of control, but she’s not. She’s a sensible girl and she knows what she’s doing. She ain’t doing nothing wrong.’
However, Doherty’s words of reassurance could do nothing to stop the avalanche of concern that was coming down on Amy’s head – particularly when reports threw up fresh concern that she was self-harming again. A tabloid photographer snapped her while out shopping in Covent Garden and noticed some red lines on her hands. It was hard to tell whether they were just lines of lipstick or scars. Another snapper around the same time pictured her retrieving a cigarette she had accidentally dropped into the gutter. NO BUTTS, AMY… THAT’S FILTHY! screamed the Daily Mirror, unaware that many consider the tabloid press itself to be firmly positioned in the gutter.
Asked about these latest reports, Mitchell revealed, ‘I wrote a eulogy for Amy myself last month. When she had her seizure and was taken to hospital, I really thought that could be it. The doctors told us even a whiff of another drug could kill her.’
By this time, tabloid fascination in Amy was