Amy Winehouse: an apology, of sorts October 9, 2007

The other week, Mrs H-to-be and I spent an evening with friends in Walthamstow, and were pleasantly woken on Sunday morning by the gentle sounds of Desert Island Discs wafting through our bedroom door.

George Michael was the guest, and I was immediately taken with his first musical choice. Possibly, it was a combination of the moment and the music that got me: lying in bed with a fuzzy head, after an evening of fine wine and good friends, snuggled up against the delectable Mrs H-to-be with warm sunlight falling on to my arm, and then this sleepy, sweet little tune coming through the door.

Anyway, I admit it.  I heard an Amy Winehouse song and I liked it.  So there.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t think that she is a media-attention-grabbing bore.

And, as a footnote, for anyone who thinks I’m going soft in my old age: listening to George Michael’s interview didn’t raise my opinion of him at all, and I will still leave the house if anyone ever plays any Wham.

Boycotting Amy Winehouse September 3, 2007

…says her father. And I couldn’t agree more.

Unlike Mr Fielder-Civil , I’m not advocating boycotting the ‘troubled’ Ms Winehouse for the good of her health. (I’m not advocating it at all – this is just my opinion, which you are free to read, agree with, disagree with or ignore) The reason that I’m boycotting her is because I am really not interested in her personal life and I have a deep distrust of people who want to be constantly in the media glare.

Mrs H-to-be does not agree with me, and feels sorry for Ms Winehouse, and thinks that I should be concerned about her.  I’m a cynical sod and think it’s all  a ruse, hatched by some dark master of PR to line the nests of a few oily types, and to continue doing so by prolonging a fairly mediocre career way past its sell-by date.  Of course, it’s not the first time that this plan has been put into action – you could probably trace all this back to P.T. Barnum and beyond.

So, being stubborn as well as cynical, I do my bit to fight all of this, in my own particular way. When I say boycott I mean that I don’t buy her records, I don’t buy or read papers that have articles about her, when she comes on TV I turn it off…. you get the picture.  This of course limits my choice of newspaper and the amount of TV I watch, but I’ve got better things to do with my time anyway, haven’t you?

And it’s not just her, there’s plenty of them at it: Britney (bless her cotton socks – oops, she isn’t wearing any!), Michael Jackson, Paris Hilton, Pete Doherty… just check out today’s Metro and you can probably find a good dozen or so other examples.

So, if like me, you are pretty fed up at seeing people making a living by ‘accidentally’ forgetting their underwear; hitting the skids very publicly (again); losing too much weight; putting on too much weight; having a few too many ales; getting arrested and sticking the Vs up to the cameras outside of court; leaving a club in the small hours looking a bit wide-eyed; then I have some words for you. Turn over, turn off, don’t read it, don’t buy it. That’ll show ‘em.