Amy Winehouse (17 page)

In the heady atmosphere of the week, this was reported as a major setback for Amy. However, as someone close to her revealed, she was far from disappointed at her tour manager's resignation. ‘When he produced this note, Blake and Amy thought it was a joke. They didn't get on with Thom and were taking the piss when he tried to pull that excuse to leave. They wanted rid of him anyway.'

By this stage, though, the media were relentless in their suggestion that Amy was on the brink of suicide.
The London Paper
's front-page headline was typical: A
MY ON THE BRINK OF MELTDOWN
. The paper's story reported that ‘a bedraggled Amy Winehouse left her north London home early this morning amid fears she was on the brink of a meltdown.' Not that journalists were the only people feeling concern towards Amy. Fans on the forum of her official website discussed a rumour that she had died from a drug overdose.

There were also profound fears for Amy much closer to her home during the same week. In the early hours of the morning, Amy's parents called an ambulance to her house, amid fears that she might be on the brink of suicide. A source said, ‘Amy's family are petrified she'll do something stupid. They know she's very low at the moment and misses Blake terribly. They were trying to reach her on the phone yesterday evening and they were also trying the flat in Hackney where she's been staying but they couldn't get in touch with her. They
immediately feared the worst and called an ambulance and police to go and check on her. But, thankfully, Amy showed up and was fine.'

Indeed she was fine, as her brother Alex confirmed during an interview with GMTV, in which he attempted to bring some sanity to the increasing madness of the media's coverage of Amy. ‘I spoke to her last night. She told me to give her cats a kiss. She sounded fine, definitely,' he said. He said that he had tried to get her to mend her partying ways but said that he hadn't been able to get her to listen. ‘When I've tried to say, “What are you doing?” it just ends up in an argument. However, I know that she has a voice in her head saying, “Calm down”,' he said. Alex concluded, ‘She wanted me to say that she loves Blake, because he's watching.'

Meanwhile Janis spoke out, too, saying, ‘My heart goes out to her. She's under immense stress over Blake's imprisonment. I wouldn't hesitate to tell her to pull out if I feared she was in danger. I don't want Amy destroying herself. But I think she will get by and come through what is a terribly lonely time for her right now.' She also blamed Blake for Amy's woes, saying, ‘Everyone else can see it, but Amy chooses not to. I think he introduced her to them [drugs] and now she thinks, “Oh, this is good, this is OK.” I think she's still a child. Personally, I think it's overtaken her a bit.

‘I step back, look at life and think, “Well, they've put him away.” I can see life taking care of the situation. I was more worried when they were together. I think, while they're apart, she'll wake up and think, “What have I done?” Again, it's a sense of fate. Thank God
he's gone inside, because it's also a case of now he's going to learn.'

And so to Scotland, for the second date of her UK tour. As a spokesman for the Glasgow Barrowlands venue was expressing concern over whether Amy would show up for the concert – ‘There is a worry that she will not front with everything that's going on,' he said; ‘it would be a tremendous shame if she didn't play' – Amy was boarding a flight to Glasgow. She reportedly nipped into the toilets for a crafty smoke, prompting a bitchy announcement over the intercom from one of the flight crew. ‘Our famous little friend is smoking in the toilet,' said the air hostess. ‘It's just that the smoke alarm hasn't gone off yet.' A fellow passenger said Amy seemed to be under the influence of something. ‘She was lolling in her seat and looked totally out of it. She kept locking herself in the toilet. Other passengers were having to troop to the other end of the plane and were getting annoyed.' After disembarking at Glasgow Airport, Amy became annoyed with her security guard. ‘What the fuck is this airport all about?' she screamed at him.

There were screams, too, as she took to the stage at Glasgow Barrowlands later that night. The audience gave her a deafeningly warm welcome and the relief on not just her face but those of her band was clear. Wearing a stunning silk dress, she told the crowd, ‘This is the second night of the tour but it feels like the first. I love you, Glasgow.' Once more, she dedicated ‘Wake Up Alone' to Blake and said, ‘This song is for those people who are lucky enough to wake up every morning with the person they are in love with. This one's for my husband. I love you. I love you, too, Glasgow.'

As she introduced the closing number, ‘Valerie', she said, ‘I might not be able to be with my Blake in a minute. But let me tell you something: my husband is the best man in the world.' As she took her much-deserved bows, she paid tribute to the crowd, saying, ‘Thank you so much for having us. I mean it, and I'm sorry I was late.'

The following night's performance at the Barrowlands was also well received, with one fan describing it as ‘flawless and fantastic'.

Could this performance herald a calming in the media coverage of her? No chance, especially as a video was uploaded to YouTube which, it was claimed, showed her snorting drugs during a concert performance. The footage shows her retrieving something from her beehive and holding it near her nose. It was taken during her performance at Zurich in October. The conclusion that she must have been taking drugs onstage was reached too quickly. She could just as easily have been wiping her nose with a tissue; the footage is inconclusive. At least the
Sun
managed to get a clever pun out the episode, asking: I
S
A
MY MIS-BEEHIVING
? The same newspaper also claimed that, as the tour bus left Glasgow, some clingfilm wrapped in burnt foil was thrown out of the window.

Then news broke that a sixth man, Michael Brown, had been charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in connection with Blake's case. However, with Blake incarcerated, some of those close to her were keen to try to move her away from him.

‘Her friends are trying to pull her the other way now she's
no longer under his influence,' said one. ‘A number of them are over the moon he's been locked away as it gives them a chance to work on her – but she seems determined to stick by him. Her father Mitch is keeping an eye on her as she's so vulnerable at the moment and is known for self-harming, so there are concerns for her wellbeing. Her friends and family are worried she might do herself some harm.'

Amy's uncle, Brian Linton, went as far as sending an email to the
Sunday Mirror
saying, ‘We are still worried sick about Amy but now there may be a chance to break the Svengali-like hold Blake has over her.'

Blake, meanwhile, was also trying to keep an eye on her, albeit from the confines of prison. During a telephone conversation with Amy he said, ‘For the first time in months I've been eating three square meals a day. I feel so much better. But you're taking drugs, not eating and now you're fainting. You've got to eat properly and stop sticking your finger down your throat. Bulimia's taking a terrible toll on you.' There were signs that Amy was ready to take more care of herself when she signed up for a six-month course with a yoga guru. ‘She loves the yoga, which is practised to music,' said a friend. ‘The idea is it gives you a natural high and takes away the desire to do drugs.'

It was a week for people to come out of the woodwork and criticise Amy, using her troubles for their own ends and pinning their own issues onto her. Even Antonio Maria Costa, head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, managed to put the boot in, blaming her for poverty in Africa.
‘Rock stars like Amy Winehouse become popular by singing “I ain't going to rehab” even though she badly needed, and eventually sought, treatment… A sniff here and a sniff there in Europe are causing another disaster in Africa, to add to its poverty, its mass unemployment and its pandemics,' he said.

While being held responsible for poverty in Africa, Amy was simultaneously the inspiration for a photoshoot arranged with controversial
Big Brother
contestant Jade Goody. So impressed is Goody by Amy that she and boyfriend Jack Tweed dressed up as Amy and Blake for the photos. Goody donned a beehive and had fake tattoos over her arm while Tweed donned a trilby hat, Blake-style.

However, what was ridiculous was the tabloid tale that held Amy responsible for the killing of a hamster, allowing the
Daily Mirror
to paraphrase one of tabloid journalism's most famous headlines, screaming: A
MY
W
INEHOUSE KILLED MY HAMSTER
! (This was a nod to a celebrated
Sun
front-page headline of March 1986 that read, F
REDDIE
S
TARR ATE MY HAMSTER
, a claim later denied by both Starr and Max Clifford, the publicist behind the story.) The story concerns Peter Pepper, a former session musician for Amy.

One birthday, he received a hamster as a pet. He named it Georgie Porgie. As Pepper and Amy sank drink after drink one night, he got Georgie out to show her. Eventually, Pepper went to bed, leaving Amy still drinking. After a while, he got back up and found Amy had drunk the drinks cabinet dry. Pepper, now a member of the band Palladium, who opened for Amy at her Somerset House concert, goes on: ‘The next thing I know,
Georgie bites me, runs off and Amy says she'll catch it. I was a bit suspicious when she said she was good with hamsters. Just hours later, the hamster was stone cold and hard. I don't know what she did to it!'

He describes the whole experience as ‘particularly traumatic', explaining, ‘Not only did I have to deal with a dead hamster, but for some reason Amy had also managed to unplug the freezer and flooded the whole kitchen and utility room.'

Sounds like a great night!

Another great night was her next stop on the tour. In Newcastle she appeared on stage forty-five minutes late, apologised ‘from the depths of my heart' for her lateness and gave a triumphant performance, which was received rapturously by the audience. Crucially, ‘she seems to be reconnecting with the simple highs of performing before an audience who love her', wrote reviewer Dave Simpson in the
Guardian
. Having noticed a young girl in the audience with a ‘fantastic' beehive haircut, she passed her a present. She also implored her audience to send a present of their own to Blake. ‘I'm going to send him a bouquet of flowers. And I want everyone here to send Blake a red rose.' She then gave out his address at London's Pentonville Prison, where he was on remand. After a few drinks with her band, Amy went to stay with an aunt and uncle. They watched
Hot Fuzz
and
Shaun of the Dead.

It wasn't only family who were lifting her spirits. Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty was also in regular contact with Amy during this troubling period. ‘I speak to Amy almost every day,' he said. ‘She just wants her man back for Christmas.
They're desperately in love. One good thing is that Blake's got clean since he's been in prison. It's been quite an awakening. Amy stopped doing everything since he went in. She realises how much they have to lose. They're going to lose each other if it carries on. Love, music and melody is the way forward.'

However, Amy had less than glowing words to say about Doherty during Blake's continued incarceration in 2007. ‘Why have they given Pete so many chances? It's not fair that my Blake is locked away,' she said. ‘I thought they would give him bail, just like they do with Pete.'

Then, she was seen giving a cigarette to a random drunk guy called ‘Des', who claimed he had waited for five hours to talk to the singer after he was refused entrance to a club. Amy lent him a smoke, which she signed ‘Amy Civil' before boarding her tour bus. As the following day's papers delighted in reporting, Amy appeared to have a white substance around her nose, sparking conclusions that she had been snorting cocaine. W
INEHOUSE GOES BACK TO WHITE
, said the
Sun
. Meanwhile, the
Daily Mail
quipped, I
S IT IMPOLITE TO ASK IF YOU'VE BEEN TO POWDER YOUR NOSE,
A
MY
W
INEHOUSE
? Then came Blackpool, where she told the crowd of Blake, ‘He would have loved to have been here. I spoke to him last night but I can only call either before or after
EastEnders
.' Nice detail.

Two fantastic concerts at Brixton Academy followed. At the start of the first, Amy bounced onto the stage looking full of life. As the opening bars of the set opener, ‘Addicted', kicked in, she tried to grab her guitar but the strap was tangled in the guitar stand and a desperate struggle ensued in order for her
to make it to the microphone in time for her first verse. This was as close as the evening came to disaster.

However, prior to her third London concert, this time at the Hammersmith Apollo, Amy reportedly locked herself in her hotel room and refused to go to the venue. Her management team spent some time desperately trying to coax her out, with one being overheard saying, ‘I can't take this any more. She's a nightmare!' She eventually turned up on the stage an hour late at 10.15 p.m., by which time boos were echoing across the venue and some fans were already demanding refunds.

Fans were quoted as describing the performance as a shambles. ‘I paid to see Amy, not some spaced-out girl wandering around,' said one. Another added, ‘I've never seen so many people leave a gig early. Get help, Amy.' To be fair, the sentiments aired by fans on the forum of her official website were even harsher. One vowed never to buy a ticket to any acts signed to her record label ever again. The
Daily Mail
slated her appearance, saying her ‘smeared make-up, tattoos and a cigarette clenched between her teeth' shocked her fans. It's safe to say that most of her fans would have been aware that Amy smoked and had one or two tattoos on her body, so their shock would presumably have been minimal at best.