7. Amy WinehouseFrank
I moved to London when I was 17 and I was a jazz singer and one of the first friends I made on the jazz circuit was Amy Winehouse. It was a long time ago. She was a sparring partner and a drinking partner and we had a really close relationship for a while. I thought it was about two years but when I looked back in my diary it turned out to be three months that we hung out – and then we didn’t. We were good friends and then I used her backing band for a show of my own and she never spoke to me afterwards. I think the last thing she said to me was, "Fuck you, you cow" [laughs].
Anyway, she was amazing. She was one of the funniest people I ever met. We would sit up and listen to jazz records, the two of us, and there was a concert I did for 6 Music recently and it was in Camden at the Roundhouse and they asked if I’d do a tribute to her. I didn’t do an Amy Winehouse song, I did a jazz cover called ‘There Is No Greater Love’, and it’s one that me and her used to sing together walking around or in the pub.
As a jazz singer I found doing the standards and the Cole Porter songbook pretty boring after a while, and then Frank came out and it was like, ‘Yeah, that’s how I make it youthful, that’s how I make it relevant’, and all of a sudden jazz was cool. It introduced a young audience to that genre and it was pushing boundaries and being innovative and doing what jazz should do.
They’re some of my favourite lyrics by any musician. I know people are often turned off by a woman being crude or whatever but I don’t mind if you say ‘cunt’. People say it’s not very ladylike – well she was more of a lady than anyone I’ve ever met. She was brilliant. Even with her drug and alcohol problems and everything else, as a strong, powerful woman, she’s a strong role model. I’m still listening to that album over and over again and it was really important in my development as an artist.
