[Shaun]

Portishead's Geoff Barrow has dubbed the late Amy Winehouse as a "fake" singer, calling her "Whiney ****ehouse".

The producer, who was interviewed for ElectronicBeats.net about his new project BEAK>, said he thinks "most female singers on a commercial level all have the same voice".

"I think Whiney ****ehouse - Amy Winehouse, by the end of it, had just become a comic character of herself and how she sang," he said said. "I saw her with an electric guitar in a little pub in Bristol and people were going 'That's amazing,' but it wasn't at all. Then she had the big drug problem and all the tabloids got involved and she would start being Minnie Riperton or whatever it was."

He added: "It seemed fake, but because there was a massive drug problem you couldn't say it was fake, but her actual voice was fake. She had a real life with a fake voice."

Speaking about his own band, he said: "When Portishead started, Beth (Gibbons) was very influenced by Janis Joplin. She sang in her voice but it was based on singers that she liked."

The ill-timed comments, which came just days after Winehouse's ashes were scattered near her north London home, prompted a Twitter backlash against Barrow - who was forced to write: "I'm sure she was a lovely caring talented person - I didn't know her. Very sad that she passed away - but I never dug her vibe."

what an absolute prick -deletes Third-