Amy Winehouse_ The Biography - Chas Newkey-Burden [71]
This author, too, supported Amy, writing on the Guardian website,
She’s for some time been well known to miss concerts, or arrive late and inebriated. So when fans flocked to her shows in the hope of some in-the-flesh experience of her drunken and shambolic lifestyle it seemed extraordinarily hypocritical of them to complain when – gasp! – her shows turned out to be drunken and shambolic. Some of them asked for refunds, too. I wonder how they argued their case? They couldn’t cite the Trade Descriptions Act, surely, because as she veered between genius and disaster, Winehouse kept her end of the bargain impeccably every night.
This contradiction of concertgoers’ expectations seems peculiar to her. Pete Doherty has long been a less than reliable live prospect but manages to get off far more lightly. And when Shane MacGowan was routinely late and drunken onstage he seemed if anything to gain extra kudos among most of his fans. After all, as much as they’d gone to sing along to ‘Dirty Old Town’, they’d also pitched up in the hope of seeing a train wreck.
In any case, since when did we want our artists to be so predictable, tame and clean-living? I’m far more worried about the stars who don’t stagger down the road at 5 a.m. dressed in their bra. Winehouse will be back next year. To those who booed her, I suggest that if they want a Leona Lewis, they go and see Leona Lewis.
Andrew Lloyd Webber was, somewhat surprisingly, a member of the audience and the music impresario was impressed with her performance, which he said ‘showed flashes of genius with an Ella Fitzgerald quality’. To him, the reports of a disastrous performance were strange. ‘I thought there were moments when she was absolutely magnificent,’ he explained. ‘I didn’t notice her doing anything peculiar. I thought her voice was toned and she was handling material you would not expect a girl of her age to cope with.’
He did, though, notice the negative response of some audience members. ‘It was strange what happened. Suddenly, way into the show, the audience suddenly turned on her and she wasn’t equipped to handle it. I was with Sir David Frost and he has seen it all. Neither of us could work out why the crowd turned on her – it just happened in one moment.’
Rounding off his rallying support for Amy, he said, ‘She is a big star and the awful thing about it is she’s going to be crushed like a butterfly and it’s not right. That girl needs to be nurtured and helped through all of these problems because she is a major, major talent. I’d say there’s an Edith Piaf quality to her, which is very rare. She lives those lyrics.’
There were also words of support from the band Girls Aloud. Nadine Coyle said, ‘Amy Winehouse is just such a talent. Her voice has brought something back that hasn’t been around for decades.’ Sarah Harding chimed in with, ‘Isn’t it weird that the really talented people always seem to crumble under that kind of artistic pressure?’ Cheryl Cole added, ‘She’s absolutely amazing, but it’s a shame that her personal life overshadows the talent.’
Amy’s old teacher, Sylvia Young, wrote an open letter about Amy at this point. It read,
I have followed Amy’s career closely from the time she left the school and continue to do so. I am delighted that she has become a singing sensation and, even at such a tender age, has achieved so much.
I love her 2003 debut album, Frank, made when she was just 20, and her debut single, ‘Stronger Than Me’, won an Ivor Novello award for songwriting.
Equally I enjoyed her Back to Black album, released in 2006. At first I was sanguine about her erratic behaviour. I thought she was just a wild child enjoying life to the full, I had no idea it would escalate so much.
It appears that Amy wants to be free to do whatever she chooses. I have only ever felt as concerned about one other ex-pupil, Danniella Westbrook, at the height of her troubles.
She starred in EastEnders but became a cocaine addict with terrible results. Yet she has fought her way to a complete recovery and