The early death of Amy Winehouse saw the loss of one of the most interesting and unique voices within the music industry at the time. The talented artist’s life was cut short in 2011 when she passed away due to alcohol poisoning. The Amy Winehouse Foundation was subsequently established by Winehouse’s family to help spread awareness of the impact of drug and alcohol addiction and to help disadvantaged youth see all the wonderful things they are capable of.
On August 22nd, the Foundation will open a home for women struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. The home, called ‘Amy’s Place’, will be a safe place for women to work through their addiction problems and any “physical, mental and psychological” issues they are also dealing with, as the Amy Winehouse Foundation’s special project director Dominic Ruffy told The Guardian.
“There are about six women-only rehabs, and beyond that, there’s an even greater paucity of women-specific recovery housing beds. There is only one other women-only recovery house in London and it’s only a four-bed with a six-month waiting list,” he said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojdbDYahiCQ
The home allows residents to engage in a number of activities, including yoga classes and employability based workshops. Ruffy explains the way in which this is different to an every day rehab centre in terms of the help and support they provide to recovering addicts.
“Picture a person who is 14 years old, has come from a broken home, hasn’t engaged at school, ends on a path of addiction and winds up at 25-26 years old going to rehab, learning how to get clean, and then leaving rehab and being told to get on with it. It can be as simple as not knowing how to go about getting your benefits or engaging in college,” he said.
Jane Winehouse, Amy’s stepmother and Managing Trustee at the Foundation, agreed that the home will make a difference in the lives of many women, providing them with the safety and support they need to get their lives back on track.“Fresh starts are difficult to make, full of challenges, but at Amy’s Place, we will give young women the tools and support to help make this a reality,” she said.
Amy’s Place will open in East London on August 22nd.
Image: Billboard
A set of previously unreleased Amy Winehouse photos will be revealed later this year as part of a book documenting her early days as a musician.
According to The Fader, photographer Charles Moriarty captured the shots in the lead up to the release of her award-winning debut record FRANK in 2003. The full collection of pictures from the shoot will be released in the album Before FRANK, which has been successfully funded through a Kickstarter campaign.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u40o_yHYkQk
The latter part of Winehouse’s career is well documented, with the intense media scrutiny on her lifestyle and addictions resulting in a never-ending dialogue of negativity and sadness.
These new photographs however reveal the singer, then just 19 years of age, in a much happier head space with the entire world at her feet.
Moriarty took the previously unseen shots in New York and London, with other shots from the session going on to be used in the artwork for the record itself.
On the Kickstarter page, Moriarty shared some reflections on the shoot, remarking how it was an important developmental stage in his own career as a photographer.
“Although I remember this time with Amy well, when I look at these images I can’t help but smile, you can see the freedom and joy of youth in them; they are also a reflection of my life at the time, and were key to my development as a professional photographer.”
Introducing the photographs in the foreword of the book, Asif Kapadia, director of the Oscar-winning documentary Amy notes that “Over the years I have seen thousands of images of Amy, by brilliant photographers from all over the world, but Charles Moriarty’s photos stood out.”
The campaign has 55 hours to go at the time of writing, and is nearly 10 thousand pounds beyond its initial goal of 15,000.
Speaking to i-D magazine, Moriarty explained that he was inspired to publish the book after seeing the Oscar-winning documentary, Amy. “I came away [from seeing Amy] with this deep sadness and I wanted to leave people with something happier,” he said. “I think it’s an amazing documentary but Before Frank is something different and casts her in a fresher and happier light. For me it feels like sharing a memory I’ve had for a long time. I think they needed to come out. We were kids when these photos were taken, Amy was just twenty, and we just had such a fun time.”
All images: Charles Moriarty
The Amy Winehouse documentary, Amy, received the 2016 Oscar for the Documentary Feature category last night, with the popular film’s director, Asif Kapadia, and the documentaries producer, James Gay, both claiming an Oscar.
The film follows Amy Winehouse’s rise to fame, following her through her Grammy wins, but also documenting her struggles with drug addiction and bulimia, both factors which may have in some way contributed to her early death on July 23, 2011.
While accepting the award, James Gay was quick to thank the fans, saying, “This is for the fans, Amy’s fans, who loved her through thick and thin. That is all she really needed.”
While Asif Kapadia, the director, went in a slightly different direction, choosing to instead thank the films contributors and Amy Winehouse herself.
“To the contributors, everyone who trusted us to actually make this film. Really, this film is all about Amy, this is all about showing the world who she really was: not her tabloid persona, the beautiful girl, the amazing soul, funny, intelligent, witty, someone special, someone who needed looking after. We just wanted to make a film to show the world who she really was.”
The interesting choice of words at the start, which mention people trusting the director and producer to make the film, could well be in reference to Amy Winehouse’s family and friends, who would often not want anything to do with the film after seeing early cuts of it. As the producer himself stated in an interview with Deadline.
“It became a Catch-22, whereby her really close friends would say, ‘You’ve got to tell the truth, and we need you to help us,’ and then, ‘I don’t want to be involved.”
Perhaps no one has been more vocal about his complete disgust for the documentary and its director than Mitch Winehouse, Amy Winehouse’s father. While appearing on This Morning, Mitch Winehouse slammed the documentary labelling it a “sham”.
“They left lots of stuff out… Anybody who was any part of Amy’s life in the last three or four years was not in the film.”
He was also not impressed after the documentary took home the Oscar, tweeting, “always proud of my baby. Amy will not get an Oscar though. Just Asif Kapadia. That is what this is all about…Asif. He’s fooled everybody.” Following up with another Tweet several minutes later, making it clear that Oscar or no Oscar, his opinion on the film will not be that easy to change.
I am not changing my stance just because film won Oscar. It's a negative, spiteful and misleading portrayal of Amy. We will fix this.
— mitch winehouse (@mitchwinehouse) February 29, 2016
While it is understandable that Mitch Winehouse is not pleased with how the director chose to portray Amy Winehouse in the documentary, since a lot of parents have an opinion of their offspring which sometimes puts them in a better light than who they actually are, the real question is why the director and producer decided it was a good idea to continue with making the documentary, when almost every friend and family of the deceased artist expressed their dislike for the film.
Image: indiawest
Oh..right.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJAfLE39ZZ8]
Main Image: tumblr
Amy was undoubtedly one of the most successful films to hit screens during 2015. So successful is it that it’s the top pick to take out the Oscar for best documentary. Following the acclaim they gained through their feature film on the late Amy Winehouse, film makers Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees have already announced two further projects: one being a series focusing on the life of soccer great Diego Maradona (Maradona) and an as-yet unnamed project on Brit-Rock Royalty Oasis.
However, one of the film makers has said that both those projects would be happily put on hold were they presented with the opportunity to make a film about the late David Bowie. In an awkward turn of phrase, Gay-Rees told Hollywood Reporter, “We would kill to make that film. We would do anything to make that film.”
Though he followed his comments up admitting that it is far too soon after the iconic singer’s death to discuss making a film about him, the cogs already seem to be turning, with Gay-Rees stating that trying to fit everything into one 90 minute feature film would be difficult. “There’s so much great material to work with,” he says. “Trying to do that in 90 minutes would be tricky.” Coincidentally, they’re already looking to make a foray into “more documentary series, more for the platforms in the States, the Netflixes and the Amazons…they’re the people we’re talking to a bit more now.”
While a Bowie documentary series would, undoubtedly be a massive hit if done well (and in the trusted hands of the Amy film makers, there’s confidence it would be), it seems particularly early to be discussing one. Gay-Rees added “If his estate is listening, please give us a call…but it’s far too soon. But if there was ever a conversation to be had around it….”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw
Boy & Bear took to the triple j studios for this week’s Like A Version, where they delivered a really unique cover of Amy Winehouse‘s beautiful Back To Black, off her album of the same name.
Like A Version’s are always best when the band offers a totally different take on a song we know so well, and Boy & Bear really delivered in that regards. The track, originally a slinky R&B number, has been updated with choppy guitars, a big rhythm and singer Dave Hosking’s uniquely firm tone and melodic grasp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlKqeMphUD4&feature=youtu.be
Read our feature on Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
Boy & Bear are currently on tour in support of their new album, Limit of Love. You can grab tickets and more details here.
Tour dates
With support from Art of Sleeping and Montaigne.
FRI 22 JAN | ODEON THEATRE, HOBART TAS
Tickets available from www.oztix.com.au
SAT 23 JAN | FESTIVAL HALL, MELBOURNE VIC
Tickets available from www.ticketmaster.com.au
FRI 29 JAN | THEBARTON THEATRE, ADELAIDE SA
Tickets available from www.ticketmaster.com.au
SAT 30 JAN | RED HILL AUDITORIUM, PERTH WA
Tickets available from www.oztix.com.au
FRI 12 FEB | HORDERN PAVILION, SYDNEY NSW
Tickets available from www.ticketek.com.au
SAT 13 FEB | RIVERSTAGE, BRISBANE QLD
Tickets available from www.ticketmaster.com.au
The team behind one of the highest-grossing documentaries ever, Amy, have recently confirmed that they have begun work on a film centred around one of the “classic British rock bands” – Oasis.
According to Screen, the film will follow Oasis from the “moment in 1991 when Noel joined his brother Liam’s Manchester-based band,” to their official break up in 2009. According to the managing director of the film’s distribution company, Independent Film Sales, at the heart of the film is the relationship between the Gallagher brothers. “Two of the finest rock ‘n’ roll stars this country has ever produced. Mat’s (director Mat Whitecross) sensibility and style are going to provide the perfect complement to this tale of the rise of one of the great rock ’n’ roll bands.” It’s been reported that the filmmakers have gained unprecedented to both the band and unseen video footage. Considering Noel described Liam as “rude, arrogant, intimidating and lazy” before the band’s breakup in 2009, it’s sure to make for enthralling viewing and a hefty task for the filmmakers.
Whitecross has previously directed Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, The Road To Guantanamo and Spike Island, the latter a film following a group of Stone Roses fans grappling to get ticket’s to the band’s Spike Island concert in 1990. He joins the Amy team of Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees who will act as the film’s producers. Despite the rave reviews and high box office sales of Amy, the film did garner criticism from the late singer’s father, Mitch Winehouse, who has said he will be making his own film about his daughter’s life.
All Amys friends who were excluded from film will have their say. They won’t be edited. Kapadia, you are a disgrace.
— mitch winehouse (@mitchwinehouse) July 5, 2015
There are very few other details surrounding the Oasis film with neither a title nor a release date hinted at as of yet. That is set to change next week when Independent make a full announcement on the film. Until then, one can only imagine that if the documentary isn’t to the Gallaghers’ liking as Amy was not to Mitch Winehouse, we’ll be hearing about it.
I’d like to first give credit where it is due, and say sorry to my Dad. I was 13 at the time Amy Winehouse dropped her soon-to-be-classic Back To Black, and didn’t give his rave reviews enough credence. Fast forward eight years, a tragedy and a great loss to the music industry and the world, and I’m sad I didn’t listen to this album then. Thank you, Dad, for trying to show my stubborn brain what the rest of the world was about to realise.
It seems fitting this week, to “flashback” to 2007, with the release of the long-awaited documentary, Amy. Amy Winehouse was on the verge of having it all. Back To Black was one of the most highly anticipated albums of quite some time, and saw the singer experience a meteoric rise to stardom – which was, in turn, the cause of her demise. This is one of those albums that changed everything. Back To Black will be remembered not just in a few fans’ minds for sentimental reasons, but will be remembered due to the sheer, raw talent displayed by Winehouse, and what it did for a young girl from Northern London. She will forever be cemented as one of music’s greats, alongside Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, and rightly so.
In 2007, Amy was already notorious and creating serious buzz in the UK. She already had a name for herself for being unpredictable, brash and “wild”. She would do interviews, sure. But they were never sure what she’d say. She didn’t even have to try to distance herself from the rest of the pop world, she just did by being herself. Her smash single Rehab openly discussed of her refusal to go to rehab, even though she probably should have. No one else was even remotely near the rehab stage of fame, and here was Amy singing about not wanting to go. The other songs released that year were Avril Lavigne‘s Girlfriend, Rihanna‘s Umbrella and Big Girls Don’t Cry by fucking Fergie. Amy continually demonstrated she was in a league of her own, through her looks, her voice, her music and herself.
However, again credit is where credit is due to an at-the-time up and coming producer named Mark Ronson. He produced this album along with Salaam Remi, and gave it a certain life I am not sure it would have had, had it been produced by someone else. The chemistry between Ronson and Winehouse was a rare and fierce kind, and even though he had been producing the likes of Lily Allen, Macy Gray and even Sean Paul, it had never quite been like this. Harnessing her 60’s era, almost girl group vibes and transforming it with post-modern production, it’s the intricacies that only come with such a working relationship that take this album from great to excellent.
Moving seamlessly from Motown to jazz, heart-wrenching blues and even hip hop, Winehouse’s voice knew no bounds, and Ronson and Remi knew how to just tweak it enough to get it to where it could go. Her lyrics in this album are like constant stabs to your heart, especially with the added effect of hindsight. The heart breaking Tears Dry On Their Own, the self-depreciating You Know I’m No Good, the third person melancholy tale of He Can Only Hold Her, or the tale of devastating loneliness that is Wake Up Alone, this album has so much going on in it’s 11 tracks to tug at even the most emotionally stable’s heartstrings.
Showcasing the kind of divine miracle that was her voice, Remi, Ronson and Winehouse worked together to pull out all the stops, letting Amy breathe and be herself. From her voice cracking in Love Is A Losing Game, an all-too true insight in Addicted, her wicked sense of humour in Rehab and Me & Mr Jones or the stunning sorrow in Back To Black, this was as real as the woman herself – embracing her broken self and letting her wounds air out. She is so heart broken, exposing all of her emotional scars for the world to see. It’s like she stood on a pedestal and said, “This is me. Take it or leave it,” hiding behind her humour and voice to protect her.
This is the album that brought her to – and made her – in America, and consequently the world. My dad again said it best when he said to me, “The thing I love most about Amy Winehouse was the purity of her voice. People of my age would not like her because of the way she looked. But as soon as they heard that album, everything changed.” That’s exactly what happened. Not only did Back To Black change Amy’s world, but it changed everyone else’s too. Back To Black continues to be just as game-changing as it was the day it was released, eight years ago.
With the world now reliving it’s grief in conjunction with the release of the latest documentary of her life, it seems only fitting we remember her first and foremost for her music, her voice and her beautiful spirit. Maybe we will learn to stop this fascination that turns into obsession with fallen women, before we lose another young life too soon. Wherever you are Amy, I hope you’re at peace.
With the release this week of the long awaited documentary, Amy, we are also sadly given another reminder of the career of Amy Winehouse, and another insight into what could’ve been next for the British superstar. It has come to light that after the heartbreaking passing of Winehouse in July 2011 at the age of just 27, Universal Music U.K CEO David Joseph made the difficult decision to destroy the demo recordings that his superstar had created in preparation for a third album.
Speaking to Billboard, Joseph revealed the reasoning for such a decision, “Taking a stem or a vocal is not something that would ever happen on my watch. It now can’t happen on anyone else’s”. The decision itself was clearly a gut wrenching one, but it speaks volumes of Joseph and the label itself to attempt to protect the integrity and musical talent of Amy Winehouse, particularly after the success of what proved to be her final album, Back to Black.
Further details have also emerged of what the future may have entailed for Amy. Along with planning a new album, the idea of forming a jazz infused supergroup with The Roots drummer and producer Questlove, Mos Def and Raphael Saadiq was one that was a strong possibility.
This news is tragic to say the least. Not only has the world lost one of the most talented musical minds in recent memory, we are left simply to ponder “what ifs” regarding what was such a promising and talent laden career.
Amy is released in cinemas throughout Australia and the world this week, distributed via Altitude Film Distribution.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJAfLE39ZZ8]
One of the more recent additions to the 27 Club, Amy Winehouse passed away in 2011. Leading a life that was tragically cut short, but having one of the most revered voices of this generation, there is no surprise at all that she would eventually become the subject of a documentary detailing her life and ultimate demise.
Whilst a short teaser trailer was released last month, a new, extended trailer has just been released. Cooking up a storm at the Cannes Film Festival and receiving nothing but raving 5 star reviews, Amy will undoubtedly leave it’s mark upon audiences. Including footage from her childhood and teenage years, the documentary shows Amy’s rise to fame, as well as putting a spotlight on her problems with addiction, and life as a celebrity. Constantly under public scrutiny, it will be an emotional but personal insight into the late singer’s life, and one I cannot wait to see.
For more info on Amy Winehouse and the biopic, head to the official website here.
Amy Winehouse became one of the more recent members of the 27 Club when she passed away in 2011. Despite only living a short life, she still made her mark in the music industry and became one of the most iconic artists in history.
The trailer for her upcoming documentary was released yesterday, featuring early footage of Winehouse and an interview where she talks about her music and the future of her career. The film is said to contain previously-unseen footage and unreleased recordings.
The trailer suggests that Winehouse was slightly indecisive about whether she wanted to be famous, insisting that she wouldn’t be able to take the pressure of it all. “I don’t think I could handle [being famous], I’d probably go mad.”
But Winehouse was one of a kind, and she knew that. It was only a matter of time before the public couldn’t get enough of her. All she needed to do was be herself. “I felt like I had nothing new that was coming out at the time that really represented me or the way I felt, so, you know, I just started writing.”
If the film is as powerful as this trailer, it will definitely be worth the watch. However, whether it will be released in Australia is another story.
AMY will be released on July 3rd in the UK and Ireland.