What does she think of [’21qu now‘.’ ‘l‘m still really proud of it — I look back on it and think. that's alright for a kid. But it was my first album so it was definitely a learning curve.‘
She says she was ‘looking forward to the end of my contract with 19‘. Then she qualifies that: ‘it wasn‘t so much la case of]. "l have got to get away from 1‘)". It was more. “I don‘t like going to work at the minute ‘cause there‘s not people around me that I get excited with".‘
It was a former manager. she says. who tried to make her go to rehab. She admits that. while she was squirrelled away writing Back To Black. she was drinking too much and not eating properly. She‘d endured a bad break-up with a boyfriend and was feeling miserable.
She had lost weight. When her then-manager
saw her for the first time in a while. he was alarmed at her apparent ill—health. He turned up at her dad's house and insisted she seek help. ‘My last manager. he‘s a lovely fella. But ‘cause I wasn‘t working as much. they just had no idea — she‘s drinking. throw her in a . . .
home! They had no idea really. It's not their
fault.‘ But with her current manager. whom she‘s known and worked with for a long time. ‘if my behaviour is sliding he can tell straight away.‘
Her resolve also found form in the music she
wanted to make for Back 'Ib Black. A lover of
both hip hop and 7()s legends like Donny Hathaway. she wanted to infuse her honest soul searching with both a classicism and a punchy sonic adventurism.
'I knew there were specific sounds I wanted. But it‘s very hard to get what‘s in your head 100 percent on (I). A lot of people never get that. ever. With my first album I practically had it although I wasn‘t really sure what I wanted it to be like. But on the second one I surpassed what I thought I could have done. I‘m really proud of it.‘
In part this meant going to New York. to work
with Mark Ronson. The British—born producer
is the hottest noise in music right now. courtesy of his work with Lily Allen. (‘hristina Aguilera
and on Robbie Williams' Rude/my. He and Winehouse clicked in their vision for a record that would sound like the best of the ()()s (the Motown shuffle of ‘Rehab‘). the best of the 7()s (the aching but sassy funk strut of ‘I Know I‘m No Good. her current single). and the best of what‘s going on in the mind of an artist who‘s a resolutely honest chronicler of what it means to be a young woman in contemporary Britain.
"l‘his time I was like. "fuck it. I know what I‘m talking about". You definitely get a self- belief. Whereas before you’re like. “well. the record company must know what they're talking about". They do know what they're talking about from a marketing standpoint . . .‘
But even the best record company in the world couldn‘t do the marketing job that Amy Winehouse is doing for herself. More power to her (occasionally boo/.y) elbow.
Amy Winehouse, Carling Academy, Glasgow, Wed 27 Feb.
1 Mar 9007 THE LIST 15
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