On May 12, a scripted movie about Amy Winehouse’s life, “Back to Black” — starring Marisa Abela as the doomed singer — opens in the US, after earning eyebrow-raising reviews in the UK.
A critic for the Evening Standard called it “so bad it made me gasp in horror” and wrote that it “does not paint a nice or fair picture of [Winehouse] as a human.”
Her friends and colleagues in New York City, like saxophonist Ian Hendrickson-Smith, remember her as “wonderful.” They knew a fun-loving, mischievous and incredibly talented woman prior to the tragedy that later played out before paparazzi cameras: the smeared mascara and ratty beehive and body visibly ravaged by drugs and drink and bulimia.
Winehouse came to the city in March 2006 to record what would be her career-making second album, “Back to Black.” Produced by Mark Ronson, the record was made at the now defunct Chung King Studios near Soho as well as at the stripped-down Daptone Studios in Bushwick, Brooklyn, with musical accompaniment provided by a crack local jazz/soul outfit called the Dap-Kings.
“I was struck by how big her sound was, coming out of a small physique,” Ian Hendrickson-Smith, who played baritone sax with the group, recalled to The Post. “Her rhythm and pitch were impeccable. It’s not the norm for a singer to be as in tune as she was. We did the whole album in two days.”
Amazingly, the songs — now-classics like “Back to Black,” “You Know I’m No Good” and “Rehab” — were skeletal only days before the recording sessions, when she first met with Ronson.
“I picture her sitting in my old studio on Mercer Street,” Ronson reminisced in the 2018 documentary “Amy Winehouse – Back to Black.” He recalls her working out the material “on her nylon string guitar, playing these songs for me and barely opening her lips. But her voice was so full.”
Even before the album’s US release in March 2007, buzz was building. Industry insiders and fans of her jazzy 2003 album “Frank” flocked to her US concert debut at Joe’s Pub, on Lafayette Street, in January 2007.
As a YouTube video from the night shows, Winehouse’s two sets — with back-up provided by the Dap-Kings — were dazzling. But they also served as a predictor for problems to come.
“Clear from the beginning was the promise and fragility and power,” Bill Bragin, then the director for Joe’s, told The Post. “Amy kept asking for drinks during the show. She was asking for Amaretto sours. A music industry person suggested that we put a bunch of drinks at the foot of the stage. But I remember thinking that was the wrong thing to do.
“When the second show started, she was quite wasted. She was slurring. It felt like she could barely stand. But every time she sang, you really understood the relationship between alcohol and letting go of her shyness. She tapped into the divine power.”
Among those in attendance were New York rappers Jay-Z and Mos Def. The latter cruised around backstage on his skateboard, according to the Village Voice. Meanwhile, Jay-Z, during an encounter that night at the Spotted Pig, invited Winehouse to “stay with us,” as per Entertainment Tonight.
Winehouse tended to crash at the Soho Grand while in NYC. The trendy West Broadway hotel is where she and boyfriend Blake Fielder-Civil reunited with their old London pal Phil Meynell.
“She loved staying in the hotel; it seemed amazing for her to be in such a posh place,” Meynell, now owner of downtown hotspot the Mulberry, told The Post. “But there were nights when she and Blake would come to stay at my loft in Williamsburg. She said it was more fun than being in the hotel. She was just getting well known and she loved walking around Brooklyn. Kids on the street would see her and say, ‘You look just like Amy Winehouse.’ She’d reply, ‘Thanks, mates.’”
Meynell remembered that she “had her morning routine down.
“She was up at 9 a.m. and would walk on West Broadway to Jamba Juice. She shopped at American Apparel. She liked eating hamburgers at Lucky Strike near the hotel and pasta at Lil’ Frankies in the East Village. One night after dinner, we went to Fineline, the tattoo shop next door. Blake got an old school sailor on his abdomen. I think Amy got an anchor.”
Meynell recalls nights with the singer playing pool at Toad Hall, across the street from Soho Grand.
“She was a hustler; if there was a table, she had to play,” he said. “She loved playing against the old guys there. They weren’t sure who she was, and Amy talked to them about Sinatra and Tony Bennett. She romanticized old New York. Amy loved the Chrysler building. She called it ‘the most psychotic building in New York.’”
While Meynell harbors sweet memories about his old friend — “She hated sleeping alone; she would curl up at the end of my bed like a cat and sing lullabies” — he acknowledges that there was no shortage of outrageous moments.
Such was the case at downtown celebrity haunt the Dark Room: “We were in there one night with Kate Moss and Lindsay Lohan. A guy from [the alt-rock band] the Bravery came over to chat with Amy. He was rude and said something about Blake. So she slapped him in the face. He got upset and went outside to call the police and the paparazzi.
“But I ran the night there. We went out the back door and ran upstairs to Jason Baron’s apartment [he owned the Dark Room]. And we all watched the cops and paparazzi from the window upstairs. They were confused. Looking down, Amy said, ‘Look at that loser.’ We were like a bunch of giggly children.”
There was also an outrageous photo session for a Spin magazine cover story, shot in a Chelsea studio. “Amy and Blake were egging on Terry [Richardson, the notorious photographer],” Meynell remembered. “Amy accidentally broke a mirror and started cutting into her belly. A little bit of blood came out. Terry was, like, ‘Woah. What’s going on?’”
Afterward, Amy and Blake thought the whole thing was a big laugh.
“They were making fun of [Richardson],” said Meynell. “She called him a goon.”
By May 2007, Winehouse was becoming huge — for her music but also her look, as her high hair and winged eyeliner were being copied by NYC hipsters.
Following a gig at the Highline Ballroom, Winehouse and her crew went to a party thrown in her honor at Marquee.
“It was overwhelming,” Winehouse’s then-publicist Tracey Miller told The Post. “People were rushing at her. That was the first time I realized things were out of control. Everybody wanted a piece of Amy, a piece of her energy. We had to get out of there.”
Winehouse and pals, on their own, hightailed it to a party at the Gramercy Park Hotel.
“Someone had a room there,” a source who was hanging with Winehouse that night told The Post. “People were doing cocaine. When [a supermodel] there went to the bathroom, Amy dipped into her bag and nicked the coke. She thought it was hilarious. She took the piss out of the world.”
Unfortunately, though, she also may have been taking the piss out of herself. For all of Winehouse’s talent and her power, she was fighting demons that were getting the better of her.
The source remembers her ordering enormous meals and disappearing into the bathroom to vomit.
Aku Orraca-Tetteh, a former Soho Grand bartender and currently the keyboardist with Florence & the Machine, described Winehouse as a “cool-ass girl.” He recalled her penchant for Midori sours and reflected that “impending doom was evident.”
Referring to Winehouse and Fielder-Civil, who has often been blamed as a catalyst for her downfall, Orraca-Tetteh said, “There was a frazzled nature in their presence together. I did not think it would end well.”
Winehouse’s last New York performance took place in Central Park in September 2007, just eight months after her first. By the following February, she was refused a US visa due to “use and abuse of narcotics,” according to Hollywood Reporter. As a result, her appearance at the 2008 Grammys had to be done remotely (Winehouse eventually received a visa but it was too late for the awards show).
The next few years played out in a shocking manner, as she very publicly struggled with addiction to alcohol and crack and heroin, as well as bulimia and self-harm — and tabloid cameras followed her at every turn.
On July 23, 2011, Winehouse died from alcohol toxicity.
“Back to Black” has sold 16 million copies worldwide.
Remembering the last time he saw the singer in New York, Meynell said, “Amy left to travel to a gig. I hugged her goodbye and told her that I’d see her back here soon.”
