Amy Winehouse (18 page)

At least Amy could console herself with the news that the leading US magazine
Entertainment
Weekly
had voted her the ‘most buzzed-about star'. Meanwhile, ‘Valerie' spent its nineteenth week in the Top Forty, retaining its position at Number 5. She also found an unlikely ally in the lead singer of the rockers Queens of the Stone Age. During the closing stages of
the band's concert at Brixton Academy, frontman Joss Home interrupted the song ‘Feelgood Hit of the Summer' thus: ‘They tried to make me go to rehab, and I said “no, no, no”… because that's the kind of guy I am, baby. “Rehab”? We could hang out on the Thursday, but I'm so busy. I'm so busy with with… nicotine, Valium, vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol. We could hang out on Friday, but then there's the…' And then he burst into the song's refrain, loudly shouting, ‘C-c-c-c-c-cocaine!'

By now, the press were flocking to Amy's concerts in the hope of further drama or disaster. The best they could do with her next leg of the tour gave the phrase ‘scraping the bottom of the barrel' a whole new resonance. They revealed that Amy – shock, horror and hold that front page – caught a taxi home after her concert in Brighton.

‘It was really strange,' said an incredulous eyewitness to the drama. ‘She appeared to be taking a gentle stroll along the seafront with a friend. Then a cabbie pulled up and they both got in.' But, then, even the most commonplace events in Amy's life have the potential to make headlines. One story in the
Sun
concerned her going to a shop and stocking up on food. ‘She was buying bread, cereal, mince, butter, crisps – just the normal things you would stock your kitchen with,' revealed an eyewitness! Turning back to the Brighton taxi episode, as she was due to perform at nearby Bournemouth the following night, the media spoke of the ‘mystery' of why she would return to London overnight. Her home is in London and her husband was locked up in prison in London. Not the biggest mystery of the millennium.

The mystery, such as it was, was solved the following day as news broke that Amy had cancelled all remaining concerts and public appearances for the remainder of 2007, after her doctor advised her to take a complete rest. ‘I can't give it my all onstage without my Blake. I'm so sorry but I don't want to do the shows half-heartedly. I love singing. My husband is everything to me and without him it's just not the same.'

The concert promoters Live Nation followed up, saying,

Some claimed that Amy was told to quit the tour after she had partied hard for three days and three nights without sleep. However, those close to her say that she had spent those evenings not partying but working – recording her third album.

News of the cancellation also put paid to the more-
than-fishy
rumour that she had been planning a performance at Pentonville Prison, in front of Blake. Said a friend: ‘Amy has been in pieces ever since Blake was arrested. She can't stand the
thought of him being alone in prison and wants to play a show there. She thinks it would be a fitting tribute to him, it would cheer him up and it would also help her cope with being separated from him.'

Amy had left the tour suddenly for a meeting in London. She was reportedly delighted by the cancellation of the tour. A source says, ‘She was in a terrible state… She looked awful and had been in floods of tears. She was fragile and weak like an old woman. It was depressing to watch. When the tour was cancelled it was like a weight lifted off her shoulders immediately.'

Her mother Janis was quick to give her seal of approval to Amy's brave decision. ‘Amy's got to take the opportunity of getting herself fitter and stronger. She thinks she's strong but she isn't. I hope she uses the chance to fully recover. I hope she'll take it easy for a while and then get back to writing new material. She's got to get herself clean. It's a matter of her personal survival.'

Fans were quick to send Amy messages of support. One wrote, ‘We'll miss you for the little while you're out of the limelight, but we know you'll be back and wonderful and better than ever.' Another wrote, ‘Do the right thing by your health. You'll come back stronger than ever! We'll all be here for you!' Writing on Amy's MySpace profile, a third said,

However, in an online debate on the BBC website, one user was less sympathetic, saying,

Blake's arrest had interrupted a much-needed rest for Amy over the festive break. Before he had been arrested, it was reported, Blake planned to take Amy to India for Christmas. ‘So the beehived singer has agreed to fly to Miami with pals immediately after Hanukkah celebrations with her Jewish parents Mitch and Janis,' said reports. Her hairdresser Alex Foden confirmed this: ‘Amy told me Blake wants her to go away for Christmas to get away from it all. She's not on top of the world. But speaking to Blake on the phone helps. She'll go to Miami if Blake keeps going on about it because she loves him and wants to make him happy.'

In the meantime, Amy stayed in London and was photographed on the capital's streets in the early hours of the morning in December. Wearing just her jeans and bra on a freezing London night, Amy appeared confused and worse for wear as she was snapped at 5.30 a.m. wandering the streets of Bow. ‘She came out of the house, walked down the drive and wandered around on the pavement for a bit,' said a local who witnessed the episode. ‘She looked upset and agitated, but there was no obvious reason for her to have come outside. It was weird.'

Amy's camp put out a statement trying to stem the tide of hysteria that was increasingly surrounding this fragile young woman:

Paolo Hewitt has some sympathy for Amy, who he believes would have had a far more pleasant ride with the press had she been born several decades earlier. ‘Bob Dylan was probably doing just as much gear as Amy but the press just weren't on it,' he says. ‘The Beatles and everybody were going ballistic but there was a gentleman's agreement that you didn't report that
side of things. When Hunter Davies wrote about the Beatles in the sixties, although there were orgies of debauchery going on, none of it surfaced in the biography because you just didn't report that kind of thing. Amy is unfortunate in that she lives in a media-obsessed age. If she'd have come along in the 1960s, we'd just be talking about her music. That's what's been lost because of all this media attention. Instead, it's “Amy Winehouse the drug addict” and “Amy Winehouse the broken wife of Blake Fielder-Civil”. It's not “Amy Winehouse, what a fucking great artist!” I think that's a shame.'

However, Hewitt's sympathy is not without reservations. He wonders whether she has more of an active role to play in all the drama than people might believe. ‘She has contributed to that. I don't think she's completely innocent in all of this. I wonder how it is that a photographer happens to be there at half-five in the morning as she emerges from her house in her bra. I don't get that; how did that happen? She seems to be very complicit in this. It's like the fight her and Blake had at the Sanderson Hotel. If you're going to have a fight, have it at home with the doors shut. This playing her dramas out in public is not a healthy thing. It detracts from what is important, which is her music.' Mark Simpson, asked by the author if he believes Winehouse engineers her troubles for publicity, said: ‘If they are engineered, then she deserves much more sympathy – and respect – than if they were unplanned.'

She may have looked upset as she stumbled around Bow, but she had decided to move home to that neighbourhood after concluding that her previous home in Camden had too many
bad memories, including a drug overdose and numerous memories of Blake. During the move, a ‘rather suspicious bag of white stuff' was photographed in the car boot by the
London Lite
newspaper. ‘In response to photos published in the
London Lite
of “white stuff” in the back of the car in which Amy Winehouse was driven in, [the items in the bag] are in fact the driver's hand towels,' said a statement from Amy's camp. ‘Any implication or suggestion otherwise would be unfair.'

As with the YouTube video, it was obvious to anyone with decent eyesight that the photograph was not of drugs. Once ensconced in her new Bow home, Amy was visited by friends, including Sadie Frost. ‘Sadie arrived looking very serious like she was visiting a patient,' an onlooker told the
London Paper
. ‘It didn't really seem like a social call.'

The tabloids were by this time running wildly conflicting reports about Amy's health. Some had her in rehab and clean, others had her on drug binges, losing all her teeth. ‘Amy is still using drugs when Blake's in prison,' said a source. ‘She's using more cocaine and heroin now than ever. She can't stop crying and keeps saying all she wants is peace. She's not eating or sleeping properly and is in pieces.

‘Amy is very upset about her teeth because they have literally been falling out,' a source said. ‘She has one missing from the front of her mouth, and another one at the back, which is less visible. Her mouth is full of holes and she's desperately worried she's going to lose more. She's actually pulled a tooth out herself, which is absolutely disgusting.'

Only hours before Amy had wandered the streets of London
in her bra, her friend Pete Doherty had dedicated a song to her during a Babyshambles concert in Glasgow. Before the band launched into the anthemic song ‘Down in Albion', Doherty said, ‘She's a great girl and this song is for her.' Meanwhile, Liam Gallagher of Oasis was also speaking out in her defence. He said, ‘She plays with fire, you get burnt. That's the way it goes. If she knows what she's doing's not good then she needs to back up a bit. She's young. I'd probably be doing the same thing – except twice the drugs. I'm sure she'll grow out of it.' Asked about her music, the normally savage and critical Gallagher said, ‘It's all right. I like that “Rehab”. I've just heard stuff on TV. She's good.'

Liam's hero, the Beatle Ringo Starr, also came out for Amy. ‘God bless Amy. She's a great talent and she's going through a situation right now. The good news is that there's more help around now than before.' Then came support from Mary J Blige, who said of Amy and Britney Spears, ‘They're human beings, and they're young, in a business that doesn't give a hoot about you. It's just sad. I hate to see any of these females go through it. I was young, and I did dumb stuff – I was doing worse than that.'

Most worried were Amy's parents. Mitchell said, ‘I'm very concerned for Amy's welfare. She's very, very tired. She's sorry to have let the fans down. She needs professional help.' Referring to Amy's brother, he added, ‘We're a strong family unit and the bond between Amy and Alex is unshakeable. He's always there for her. He's very protective of her and always will be. He doesn't like seeing her hurt or upset. He's upset by the
current criticism of Amy, as we all are, and has asked her critics to be a bit more understanding in view of her youth.'

With Blake's imprisonment and Amy's erratic tour performances making the couple an obsession for the tabloid press, it was inevitable that Blake's mother would speak out. It was reported that Georgette Civil said that she was ‘delighted' that her son was in prison and also claimed that he too felt it was for the best. ‘Blake's more focused now than he has been in years,' she said. ‘He's finally taking responsibility for his behaviour, too, and accepts that he and Amy are totally responsible for the mess they're in. Now he's using the time in prison to overcome his drug habit.' She revealed that her son spent his time in prison exercising and reading.

Civil also tried to bring to the public's attention the ‘true' Blake. ‘Looking at him all dishevelled, gaunt and unkempt, it's hard to remember the bright teenager who won a place at a great local school, who had so much promise.

‘It was hugely upsetting to see my son portrayed as some sort of monster who was accused of supplying his wife with heroin and cocaine and I worried terribly that someone would harm Blake as a result. Then there are my two other sons, aged fourteen and fifteen, whose hearts are breaking seeing their big brother being portrayed like this.'