Amy Winehouse_ The Biography - Chas Newkey-Burden [65]
Introducing ‘You Know I’m No Good’, she told of a time she had betrayed a lover and then told him, ‘I do love you’, then added, ‘But, like, I get bored. I told you I’m no good!’ The quip drew a hearty laugh from the crowd. LA Weekly said,
Live, Winehouse was noticeably nervous but utterly charming, singing for an audience who knew all the words to all the songs. She was in spectacular voice throughout, backed by a crack band (man, that horn section…) and two chicly attired male backup singers who energetically pulled off synchronized choreography.
Winehouse’s own herky-jerky, off-the-beat dancing and ragged emulation of girl-group style somehow underscored an aura of sincerity (a matted beehive with an unkempt tail; an ill-fitting dress that kept sliding down her scary-thin frame; weathered leopard-print shoes rummaged from the back of some tranny’s closet). Her awkward performance of femininity befits a woman who can’t quite figure how to stop fucking up her relationships and her life.
Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton was in the audience and said, ‘She is the stuff of legend, and on Monday night a who’s who of hipsters and Hollywood players were treated to a tour de force performance by the “Rehab” chanteuse. You never know if Wino is gonna show up to a gig or if she’ll even make it through a show, but she more than held her own at the Roxy.’
And so back to New York. She was interviewed by the prestigious and high-circulation New York Post ahead of her two concerts at the Highline Ballroom. The interview took place in the entirely appropriate surroundings of Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse, a touristy shrine of ‘real’ Ashkenazi Jewish kitsch. Amy ordered the traditional Jewish dish of chopped liver.
‘I’m not ambitious or career-minded. I did an album that I’m really proud of and that’s about it for me,’ she said. ‘The rest of it is all bollocks. I love playing live. That’s about it. I wish I could say something more interesting.’
Based on West 16th Street between the Meatpacking and Chelsea districts, the Highline Ballroom opened in April 2007 and has featured such names as Mos Def, Jonathan Brooke, Spank Rock, Meshell Ndegeocello, Talib Kweli, moe., Disco Biscuits and – of course – Amy during its opening month.
Amy was nervous on the night, according to reports. In front of a sell-out audience, including the likes of Talib Kweli, Samantha Ronson and Jane Krakowski, the gig, said the New York Post, was ‘a drowsy affair because the super-skinny Brit not only has little stage presence, her limited soul style steamrolls her repertoire into flat sameness. One song blended into the next, and her mostly bloodless delivery stood in direct contrast to the music she was singing.’ It also dubbed her a ‘Stepford Singer’ and the best it could bring itself to say was, ‘The show was too short to be really awful,’ adding that, with ‘F**k Me Pumps’ and ‘Rehab’, she was on form.
The New York Times also had some criticisms of Amy, but added much praise to the mix. ‘The moaning, gliding notes took on an ache or a flamboyance, and the pauses became sly and coquettish or pained. Her spontaneity grew both defiant and playful.’ The article concluded on a positive note, saying that, despite her performance being somewhat disappointing, ‘her self-consciousness, and the bluntness she has learned from hip-hop, could help lead soul into 21st-century territory’.
Her growing fame in America was leading soul into some strange territories. At designer Patricia Field’s birthday party at Manhattan’s Cielo, JoJo America of the Ones performed ‘Rehab’ in drag. Then Amy was quoted discussing US socialite and actress Lindsay Lohan.
‘I want to coddle that girl. I really want to hug her,’ she said as she worried aloud about the Hollywood party girl to a US magazine. She