Amy Winehouse

[Milky Tears]

Why haven't we got an Amy Winehouse thread? Am I missing something really obvious? (probably! ) She fills enough newspapers and celeb mags to keep a PS thread permanently pinned to the top of the page.

The Sun's "World Exclusive" is all over today's news:

Amy Winehouse on crack (with video)

Will she die before Britney or Doherty?

[Simon R]

Lost, degraded creature.

Her downfall and the soap opera like way it's covered in the media is a horrible sign of our times. Ditto Britney and Dohety.

[Pip Madeley]

Turlough speaks the truth. It's a fact, it's a thing you can't deny. And popcorn. And wotnot.

[Milky Tears]

But who will die first? I demand a Planet Skaro: Celebrity Deathwatch poll!

[Stephen Morgan]

Will she die before Britney or Doherty?

TBH I couldn't care less who dies first, they're all sad, pathetic creatures who don't deserve any sympathy for the state they've got themselves in.
They come on the scene, are acclaimed by all and sundry, and then waste their talents with drugs and hangers on who are just there for the limelight.
I have listened to Winehouse's album and have to admit that it's very good, but why she's got herself into such a state is anybody's guess.
Out of her, Spears and Doherty I would say she is the most talented, and the one I would be most likely to support.

[Wayne]

It's thanks to the constant media coverage that i even know who she is, since i've never actually heard any of her music yet.

*adopts Lemmy mode:
Personally i couldn't give a shit what she does. If people do hard drugs then that's their responsiblity & choice. Ya pays yer money & ya takes yer chance.
She's a right minger anyway. And what's with that ****in' beehive shit? She looks a right twat.

Last year i did a gig with the guy who played sax for her band on her last UK tour. He said she was a really nice person actually, but really '****ed up', & that most people that she has anything to do with are 'complete arseholes'.

[Captain Tancredi]

I don't think I've ever heard any of her music, and the fact that I know exactly where the money's going to go is a fairly good disincentive to buy one of her records. It seems fairly clear, however, that she could do with being locked up and cleaned out for her own good- if she dropped dead tomorrow, we'd have a couple of albums and an awful lot of photos of her standing in the street half cut, falling off her heels and shouting at photographers. That's not enough to get you iconic status- and in any case, an icon of what? Shovelling half the contents of Boots into your system every night?

I just find it hard to see anything to like or respect in the woman- she seems to have bought into her own "damaged" self-image so heavily that she couldn't come out if she wanted to.

[WhiteCrow]

I've been planning for some time to start an Amy Winehouse thread.

She's like some kind of car wreck you can't help but rubber neck to see what's going on.

She is very tallented and has a great voice. I think we're seeing the next Janice Joplin self-destruct in front of our eyes.

Looking forward to her next album, which has the tentative title "Back to Crack".

[Logo Polish]

I have heard some of her music. She always sounds like a younger Billie Holliday to me.

[Pip Madeley]

As Mike says, she's got a great singing voice & lots of talent, it's just a shame she's wasting it away in the same way many others have. Tom Chaplin from Keane was on a similar slipperly slope, but he's got it together & saved himself. Shame she can't do the same. Heath Ledger's death is a timely reminder of our mortality, and if he can die from an overdose of prescription pills, imagine what all that crack is doing to her body.

[Perry Vale]

Her last album was pretty good it must be said, although not really my cup of tea. But why no-one has asked for their money back on any of her live appearances in the last year, is a complete mystery to me. Every performance I've seen of her on tv has been embarrassingly bad.

[Anthony Williams]

2008 - the year of the celebrity death?

[Si Hunt]

That's not enough to get you iconic status

Tell that to fans of Janis Joplin. Or Nick Drake. Or Eva Cassidy.

Si.

[SiHart]

Eva Cassidy is a bit of an unfair comparison, since a) she wasn't really famous while she was alive and b) died of melanoma. Comparing her to a troubled star like Amy is a bit mean I reckons.

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

I wasn't comparing her to Amy, I was saying she had iconic status after less than three albums.

Si.

[SiHart]

Ahh, sorry. I misunderstood!

Si xx

[Pip Madeley]

They try to make her go to rehab...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7207644.stm

[Milky Tears]

This week's News of the World/Amy Winehouse Exclusive:

The Living Dead! Amy Winehouse has three months to live, says Blake

[WhiteCrow]

They try to make her go to rehab...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7207644.stm

No no no!

Of course rehab worked so well for Pete Docherty, George Best and Britney Spears ...

[Milky Tears]

Winehouse was a big winner at this year's Grammy Awards:


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/ar...990&ei=5087%0A

Five!!

Other winners include Kanye West, Herbie Frikkin' Handjob and the Beatles! What year is this?

[Wayne]

Herbie Frikkin' Handjob

[Captain Tancredi]

Possibly not the best thing for her recovery to say "we really like the music you made while you were out of your head". It's interesting how the music industry turns a blind eye to drug misuse but sport has had to clean up its act- perhaps some of these acts might think twice if the record companies adopted a similar policy with anybody convicted of a drugs offence being "suspended" (i.e. not allowed to record or tour) for a year.

[Carol Baynes]

Possibly not the best thing for her recovery to say "we really like the music you made while you were out of your head". It's interesting how the music industry turns a blind eye to drug misuse but sport has had to clean up its act- perhaps some of these acts might think twice if the record companies adopted a similar policy with anybody convicted of a drugs offence being "suspended" (i.e. not allowed to record or tour) for a year.

I think it's a bit more of an issue with sport. I can't imagine a football team staying up all night doing drugs and then embarking on an important game the next day. In music you can get away with it more as its not primarally a physical activity.

Also, to be devil's advocate, if such a policy had been in place in the past just think of the material we'd have missed out on. Imagine stopping The Beatles from recording "Sgt. pepper" and "The White album" in 1967-8 after reports of their drug use!?

[Captain Tancredi]

Fair point- I think what was at the back of my mind was contrasting the whole Amy Winehouse thing with the Dwain Chambers affair- both people who used banned substances to "improve" their performance, but one pays the penalty and is treated like a leper by his sport and the other has the fortune to work in an industry where you can pretty much do what you like to yourself as long as you sell records. In fact you don't even seem to have arrived in the music industry until you've had your first conviction for drugs, drink, fighting or whatever, and as long as that culture is there then young musicians will keep making the same mistakes.

[Carol Baynes]

But "Back to black" is a great album. It really is.