Amy Winehouse

[Flowerpotgirl]

When I saw that last auction that was done of her things, I just about lost my shit.
single earrings, bits of eyeliner, DRIVING TEST MANUALS.
You know who was clearly behind that mess…
I just can’t believe they are still making money from her like this. Thank god the hologram tour got shot down.

 

[SamFoxStuckinaCloak]

Around mid 2006 I was at Koko in Camden as a friend was DJing- we were on a VIP balcony, and there was a tiny woman in the corner who was so drunk she was being sick on her shoes. Took us ages to realise it was Amy Winehouse. Pre Back to Black release, so she hadn’t blown up the way she went on to. Such a talent. The documentary is heartbreaking.

 

[shellie]

Yeah, it’s currently at 50% on Rotton Tomatoes (which is another 3% down since I last looked about an hour ago lol).

Back to Black | Rotten Tomatoes

The extraordinary story of Amy Winehouse's early rise to fame and the making of her groundbreaking album, Back to Black. Told from Amy's perspective and inspired by her deeply personal lyrics, the film follows the remarkable woman behind the phenomenon and the tumultuous relationship at the...

www.rottentomatoes.com

From what I've read, they seem to sugarcoat Blake which has pissed off Amy's friends. She also seems to have made Mitch look like Dad Of The Year while those who helped Amy like Mark don't even get a look in. The only one who seems to get a decent review is the girl who plays Amy.

 

[hypoharpy]

I loved her. What a talent. Her dad is a piece of work though, definitely lived his fantasies though her-they should have got her into rehab sharpish at the first signs of drug abuse- but they were too busy pushing her to do gigs and promotion. RIP Amy.

 

[shellie]

Sounds to me like they ve romanticised the relationship and maybe also the addiction side of things. When we know the truth it’s hard to watch something that glosses over the harsh realities.

Sam was asked about it at the premiere and this is her answer :

‘We had to understand why Amy fell in love with him, so it wasn’t about making a one-dimensional villain.

'We had to fall in love with him to understand why she wrote one of the greatest albums about their love.

‘In terms of Blake, it wasn’t my place to cast judgement on somebody who was obviously an addict, and on the two of them having this intense, albeit toxic, love affair.’

If you have to sugarcoat something so much that they are a caricature...or Disney Prince as some called him, rather than the person they are supposed to be, it's fiction and shouldn't be called a biopic. If you want to show why she fell in love with him then you also have to show why she ended up the way she did and it's not villainising him or casting judgement on him when he actually copped to some of the stuff he was accused of and others who were there confirmed the rest. Maybe if it had been a more willing director fine with going there and showing it warts and all it would have come out better. As well as them having people involved who wanted the true story out there and not those who just wanted to make themselves look better regardless if it was the truth or not.

 

[Flowerpotgirl]

I will never stop hating Blake

 

[PeteM]

Am I the only one who thought she was overrated, she had a good voice but I couldn't take to her songs with the exception of F*** Me Pumps and Rehab.

You aren't.

Amy couldn't really get any traction with her first album. I liked a fair bit of it - You Sent Me Flying is probably the standout.

But I found even then listening to more than ten minutes of her voice a bit hard going. It was very mannered and derivative of Billie Holiday, let's face it.

As I've said elsewhere on this thread, she never had a good reputation for being a dependable performer, or even getting to the gig. Her management in the Frank era did well to cover this up. Her later management did the right thing in seeing this as a strength - well, the right thing if you're OK with exploiting someone who had stage fright and was essentially damaged goods. And, as we all know, a person who's damaged does translate to a hell of a lot of press coverage.

It's a very sad ending to her life but, alas, it was predictable.

 

[madgirlcity]

I watched the new Documentary on iplayer and it was sad to say the least. Whilst I don’t believe that anyone is innocent, I also agree that there is only so much parents, friends and family can do. Addiction is stronger than love is a term that hits me. It doesn’t matter who loves you when you have such strong addictions / mental health problems. They still exist. My parents have claimed to love me a million times and have been forceful with getting me help but that didn’t stop me and those addictions and mental health problems are as strong as ever to this day. I feel like Amy was a very troubled soul, perhaps even cripplingly insecure. I was so surprised to hear her say she was insecure in the documentary “I’m a musician, not a model”. She was so beautiful in a very unique way. I think the fame came so thick and fast, too much to handle in such a short time. Constantly being harassed and followed by the paps, pressure about her marriage, addictions, mental health struggles…I think it would be too much for many of us.

 

[Harlot O'Scara]

I wonder about her relationship with Mark Ronson. He obviously cared about her, made a record with her that is a future classic and seemed to bring out the best in her talent and writing. The record also made his career as well I think. As a friend I don’t think he had much influence over her especially with the drugs and alcohol and husband choices but it must be hard for him to think of how the third album could have been. When she sang with Tony Bennett she seemed so happy in the film. I remember watching it and being so sad for her friends and so cross with her dad. Her father and husband manipulated and abused her.

After writing Rehab she should have been put in rehab. The tortured artist trope should be dispensed with, Adele writes soulful songs and is perfectly happy with her life.

This is going way back in the thread I know but I just read the whole thing today.

I may be completely misremembering this but I believe I once read that Amy and Mark argued towards the end of her life because he was supposed to produce her third album but basically told her she was in no fit state to be recording.

He seems like one of the few of her friends/colleagues who was an actual friend and not just a hanger on/enabler.

He dedicated his last but one album to her, as well.

 

[Flowerpotgirl]

The best exhibition they did after Amy died was at the Jewish Center in Camden. I am so glad I was able to go see it. When I saw the big pic of her when you walk in, I cried.

 

[Tweacle]

I cannot believe she wouldn't want to buy a round She was so rich, this is really funny!

Did you have the sense that she was lonely or sad?

What was her serious side like, did she talk about something specific?

Were you and your friends shocked when she died? I remember I was and then I felt stupid for being surprised, given how she spiralled out of control

She wasn’t lonely, she was often in a group of people. She spoke a lot about the future, she wanted a family and had a lot of hopes. You know I wasn’t shocked when she passed but others were. She seemed to be calming down. But who knows ? She really was beautiful inside and out.

 

[Sideboard Bob]

I’d never heard this before, the demo version of Rehab.

I‘d love to know what others think of it, because it’s a bit different to the standard version. I really like it, the guitar style is gorgeous, and her voice sounds wonderful.

 

[HinchythetwattyGrinchy]

Ten years today Amy passed. Such a huge loss - she was extremely talented.

 

[Sideboard Bob]

Very sad. Don't like the blogger. She was excited and would have flogged them all on ebay. It's sad, not thrilling. All that money and talent and Amy was still a little girl thrilled about ballet shoes.

Totally agree, it’s like she was more excited to get a “celebrity story for her vlog“, and missed what a sweet (and yes, sad) insight it was.

 

[Ohflogoff]

I love Amy. Saw her live a couple of times and the last time she was supporting basement Jaxx. You could just tell she was very troubled.

 

[12055584]

I still struggle to watch or listen to her music. Tried to watch the new doc last night but I couldn’t last more than 5 mins. Not even tried to watch the first doc. Is that weird? she’s someone I have never met or even got the chance to see live, so surely I shouldn’t feel so strongly? But she felt so relatable, something about how openly fragile she could be was so endearing to me. Very honest & witty. It’s crazy that my perception of her was strong and outspoken at times, when really she was the opposite. Not the first time I’ve totally miss read someone
I remember buying Frank.. I wish I could remember how I came across her. Maybe saw her on tv? Jazz type music is not my thing at all but the lyrics and the way she sang had me hooked.
Looking back now, it’s vile how much her poor mental health and addiction issues were monetised for back to black. I feel a bit gross for going along with that at the time and not fully seeing how odd that was.
I think I viewed it as she’s been at her lowest but now she’s up top and wrote songs about it all.
I feel like she was a caricature in those days, maybe that’s why it didn’t sink in plus I was in the midst of a quarter life crisis around the time of back to black/her death, heavy drinking (thank god drugs were never on my radar) desperately in love with someone who wasn’t my bf and really not handling it well at all. Maybe it was easy to romanticise both our situations. I guess.
Sorry for the essay - thanks for the therapy ha ga

 

[clueless]

Watched the film at the weekend and now re watching all the documentary’s. One thing I was wondering is Tyler says he was her ‘best friend’ in his book. He says he lived with her right till the end. Her friend Catriona also says she lived with her 24/7 right up till the end. Which is it? Who lived with her? Both of them? Also mad how the Amy doc says her best friends are Juliette and Lauren, Tyler’s book says he was her best friend and the ‘reclaiming Amy’ doc says Catriona and Naomi were her best friends. How many ‘best friends’ can one person have???

This is exactly what I think too and it really annoys me ha! It seems everyone wants to claim that they were her “best friend” but I would be inclined to believe that her best friends were Juliette, and Lauren, and maybe Tyler who I believe did live with her a couple of times and at the last. The Asif Kapadia documentary is the only source I really trust.

And didn’t Tyler say in his book about Catriona living with Amy’s druggie hairdresser or something? And the only pics of Catriona and Amy are when they’re out on the drink. I get hanger on vibes from her, happy to go along with the party lifestyle. And all this talk about being lovers and Amy being confused about her sexuality literally over a decade after her death is just despicable and attention seeking.

Funny we were chatting on here about Naomi and Catriona selling her belongings just yesterday, there’s an article in the Sunday Times supplement today about how Mitch is taking legal action against them and the story around that. Have any of you seen it?

I was giving them the benefit of the doubt for a minute, and I do think Mitch is miffed and thinks that he should have that money. But they say these were things gifted to them, and that Amy would have wanted them to sell them. If true and they were strapped for cash then fair enough, but it says they gave 156 items for the auction. That’s a lot of things to have been gifted, I’d be curious to know what they were as there was a lot of rubbish sold at that same auction - a used candle, a tube of Simple moisturiser, empty perfume and body wash bottles, half-used makeup bits to name a few. It just looked like a total raid of her house, like someone had taken every little thing. But the one that grabbed me the most was a Polaroid photo of Amy and Catriona, I find it shocking that it was being sold. Why would she want to part with that? If it were me I would never want to sell that, I would treasure it. Especially as it’s a personal photo, with my so called “best friend” - to me that tells me exactly what to think of Catriona.

 

[Harlot O'Scara]

From what I've read, they seem to sugarcoat Blake which has pissed off Amy's friends. She also seems to have made Mitch look like Dad Of The Year while those who helped Amy like Mark don't even get a look in. The only one who seems to get a decent review is the girl who plays Amy.

Yeah, all of her friends and colleagues have been pretty much sidelined and Mitch and Blake have been put front and centre.

One review said they only show a single brief scene of her recording anything!

They also credit Blake with introducing her to the 60s girl group/Motown type music that inspired Back To Black.

 

[Tweacle]

Wow, I cannot believe you knew her personally. I am so jealous.

I remember going to her pub in Camden (is it called something "Arms"?) on the day she died and my friend told me about it and it was such a sad atmosphere in the pub. So sad.

What do you mean with she was "tight"? With money? Did she even know how much she spent?

She seemed to not have an evil bone in her body, but she also seemed to be very lost and sad.

I always thought that it was Blake who messed her up and introduced her to drugs.

I love Amy, I want to buy a painting of her to hang up (I considered painting one myself, but .... not sure what this would look like)

She was messed up way before Blake came along. When I say tight I mean she didn’t like to buy a drink . She definitely knew how much money she had. She wasn’t a nasty person, but she didn’t suffer fools either.

 

[Sunshine&clouds]

Remember her famous ballet pumps? She would buy 20 at a time! A blogger in this video visits the shop where she’d get them from, it’s at about 10 minutes in. It‘s kind of heartbreaking, the shop still had her last order of shoes kept aside

Very sad. Don't like the blogger. She was excited and would have flogged them all on ebay. It's sad, not thrilling. All that money and talent and Amy was still a little girl thrilled about ballet shoes.