Fade to black: Amy's last days

TWO years after her death, Howard Sounes delves into the tragic life of Amy Winehouse.

Amy discharged herself from the Priory clinic on May 31, 2011, angry with those who had persuaded her to go there.

Neither her brief stay, nor her doctor's written warning, altered her behaviour. Amy joked about Dr Cristina Romete telling her that her drinking was putting her life in danger.

"She'd joke and laugh about it," says drummer Troy Miller.

"We'd all laugh - not in a sinister way - she was genuinely joking about it. It's not that she knew it was going to happen, but she was sick."

He means she had psychological problems. "She had a dark sense of humour."

Amy was in no state to sing at a family bar mitzvah, let alone give a concert, yet there were plans afoot for an 11-date European tour, starting in Belgrade, Serbia, on June 18.

Her father, Mitch Winehouse, says Amy wanted to tour, despite the misgivings of her manager.

She ordered new suits for her band and arranged to give a private warm-up show at the 100 Club in London on June 12. It was at this show she betrayed warning signs

of the disaster that was to follow.

Amy had been sober for several days - some say weeks - prior to the 100 Club gig.

But on the day of the performance she was gripped with stage fright, craved a drink and became very bad-tempered.

British singer Amy Winehouse performs at the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, in Glastonbury on June 28, 2008. AFP PHOTO/BEN STANSALL Source: AFP

Finally she was able to perform and the show went tolerably well. But if Amy had got herself into this state at a club gig in front of family and friends, what would she be like on tour?

Five days later, on the eve of the tour, Amy told her father she didn't want to perform. He asked why, but couldn't get a lucid explanation.

The following day she changed her mind and boarded the private plane leased for the tour.

The first show was an open-air event in the grounds of the Kalemegdan fortress in Belgrade. On a hot summer night, Amy and a cast of support acts drew an audience of 20,000 from across Serbia and neighbouring countries. Once again

Amy was gripped with stage fright. Mitch Winehouse (who wasn't present) said she became agitated before the concert and asked her manager for a drink.

"So Raye [Cosbert] allowed her one glass of wine to help her calm down."

Unless that glass was as big as a bucket, it wouldn't account for the state Amy got into.

Either she drank a great deal more than one glass, or she mixed alcohol with medication, or both.

Amy Winehouse performs at the Brit Awards 2008 in London. Source: AP

She was out of her head by showtime and didn't want to perform. But 20,000 people were yelling her name, so finally the band was given the signal to begin.

Amy let the audience sing most of the first verse of Tears Dry on Their Own, while she danced with backing vocalist Zalon Thompson, shouting the occasional line. The song was about ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, and one of the songs she found difficult. She roused

herself to sing a couple of the most vivid lines about their doomed love and then gave up.

The next moment she seemed to nod off, stumbled and grabbed the mic stand for support. People were laughing. Throughout the show Amy alternated between inebriation, pathos and schoolgirl cheek.

The stage manager helped Amy offstage as the crowd howled and booed, furious that they'd paid to see a fiasco. There were no encores.

The tour party left for Istanbul, where the next concert was due to take place. But the show was cancelled, along with the rest of the tour. Amy would never perform a concert again - her career ended in Belgrade.

In a spooky parallel to fellow tragic talent Jimi Hendrix, Amy was booed offstage at her last gig - an open-air concert in a foreign land.

She checked in to theWHotel in Istanbul and was later joined by boyfriend Reg Traviss.

By the time he arrived, she was sober and contrite.

Director Reg Traviss, a close friend of Amy Winehouse is comforted as he looks at flowers left by mourners in Camden Square outside the house following her death, in Camden, northern London. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) Source: AP

"She was taking it seriously. She was like, 'Aw, f*ck, what did I do?'" he says.

Amy and Reg returned to London on June 22. She watched amateur footage of the Belgrade show on YouTube. It was unusual for her to look at herself online, though she did so more than once in her final days.

Amy was sober for several days, then started drinking again, possibly triggered by news that ex-husband Blake had been given 32 months in prison for burglary.

Reg spent Tuesday night, July 19, at Amy's house in Camden Square, leaving for work the next morning at the time Amy's bodyguard, Andrew Morris, returned after a break. Reg said Amy was sober when he left the house, though she got up early to make breakfast.

Morris told the police that when he arrived at 10am he realised she'd been drinking, "Because of the way she was speaking to me." He wouldn't say she was drunk - he'd seen Amy drunk too many times to use the word lightly.

British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse performs at the 46664 charity concert in honor of Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday in London. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File) Source: AP

Amy was going out that evening, to hear her goddaughter, Dionne Bromfield, sing at the Roundhouse venue. It was her last public appearance. Dionne, only 15 but a confident performer with a strong voice, introduced Amy to the audience. She came onstage

chewing gum and looking edgy. Dionne gave the signal for the band to play Mama Said, appearing to want Amy to join her, but Amy merely danced around the stage, looking evasive and high. Still, she hugged Dionne at the end and exhorted the crowd to cheer.

Mitch called by Amy's house on July 21 and found her looking at family photos. He was flying to New York and didn't see Amy alive again. Amy called Reg, who was busy at

work and couldn't come over. Amy disliked being alone and several people she normally counted on for company were unavailable.

Amy's mother, Janis Winehouse, visited at lunchtime on July 22 with her partner.

"When we left, she hugged me and said, 'I love you, Mummy.' She was always calling me that and telling me she loved me. Amy never really grew up. She was like a little girl, permanently fixed in time as a kiddie."

Amy drank throughout the day. In her search for company, she Skyped childhood friend Ricardo Canadinhas.

Cover of Back to Black by Amy Winehouse. Source: News Limited

"When she was on Skype it was because no one was there," says Ricardo, providing an insight into how lonely Amy had become. "She was like,

'Talk to me, talk to me.'"

Attempts to reach others failed. "A lot of people had missed calls. Basically everyone was out," says local publican and friend Doug Charles-Ridler. "Kelly [Osbourne] said she tried to Skype. Naomi [Parry, her stylist] had missed calls. Everyone had missed calls. No

one picked up, and she was alone."

To comfort herself, Amy drank. She drank vodka more or less constantly the last three days of her life. But her GP was satisfied she wasn't suicidal. "She specifically said she did not want to die," Dr Romete told the police.

Amy Winehouse's father Mitch Winehouse (C) and brother Alex Winehouse (R) look at floral tributes left at her house by fans on July 25, 2011 in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images) Source: Getty Images

Amy was alone at the end, in her bedroom suite, although Morris was in the house. It's not known for certain what she did in her last moments, other than drink more vodka, judging by the post-mortem evidence and empty bottles. So she drank to forget herself and her problems, as drunkards do. She drank herself into a stupor in the early hours.

Flowers, pictures and messages are left in tribute to late soul music and pop star Amy Winehouse, near the house in north London where her body was found the previous day, on July 24, 2011. AFP PHOTO/CARL COURT Source: AFP

Then she curled up to sleep as the sky lightened with the dawn. She may not have meant to die, but she'd been living dangerously for a long time. Death had been shadowing her for years, sometimes coming close, sometimes retreating. We can imagine death

materialising at the foot of her bed as the vodka bottle slipped from her grasp and the last grains of sand ran through the hourglass.

This is an edited extract of Amy, 27, by Howard Sounes (Hodder &Stoughton).

Amy 27 by Howard Sounes (Hodder & Stoughton) Source: Supplied

###

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Fade to black: Amy's last days

Dengan url

https://donyblackedet.blogspot.com/2013/07/fade-to-black-amys-last-days.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Fade to black: Amy's last days

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Fade to black: Amy's last days

sebagai sumbernya