[Grimnir]

is it another druggie overdose?

its hard to be sympathetic when people don't learn especially rich famous artists who have no reason whatsoever to do drugs

they should do a hard hitting advert with pictures of heath ledger, river phoenix, amy winehouse and whoever else

DON'T DO DRUGS OR YOU WILL DIE

they choose to do the drugs knowing the risks thinking its cool and trendy

is it cool and trendy to die frothing at the mouth?

[InOne]

Wow epic read lol

I just think nobody deserves to die the way she did and it's very tragic. Maybe it's true some people can't be helped. I don't think I could be totally cold with drug addicts, I've watched loads of docs and I live around quite a few addicts, seeing people slumped out on the street isn't nice.

At least she will get a decent send off

[Vicky.]

can people please remember that while others are bound to have differing views...its not acceptable to insult them over them

Debate, fair enough, but out and out insults arent ok.


Sick of cleaning this thread

[Boothy]

Originally Posted by Grimnir

why is it daft to say you shouldn't do drugs?

maybe if you are a druggie you find it daft

Different strokes for different folks. Maybe they enjoy it.

Who are you to tell people what they should and shouldn't do?

[Grimnir]

Originally Posted by Boothy

Different strokes for different folks. Maybe they enjoy it.

Who are you to tell people what they should and shouldn't do?

people can do what they like

i am talking about warning people about the risks

they can choose to stay away from drugs

or they can choose to be a druggie

don't expect sympathy from me though when you overdose

i don't care

[Shaun]

She's currently on top of the US iTunes album chart, and both of her albums are in the top 10 here and in the US. I don't know about other countries.

[Stu]

Originally Posted by Grimnir

they can choose to stay away from drugs

or they can choose to be a druggie

Originally Posted by Grimnir

DON'T DO DRUGS OR YOU WILL DIE

It's that simple is it?

My turn for CAPS : ONLY A TINY MINORITY OF DRUG USERS DIE FROM THEIR DRUG USE.

[Lewis.]

Originally Posted by Shaun

She's currently on top of the US iTunes album chart, and both of her albums are in the top 10 here and in the US. I don't know about other countries.

Really Good for her I suppose. She may have lived a turbulent life and made the wrong decisions but there's no doubting the fact that she's an awesome musician.

[Marc]

Back to Black is No.1 in the UK iTunes chart

[Ninastar]

yay

[Marc]

This thread needs a serious clean up. Not of people's opinions but of strong and offensive things

[Marc]

and Back to Black the single is No.16

[Marc]

Rehab 36, Tears Dry on Their Own 42, You Know I'm No Good 56, Valerie 65

[Livia]

So sad to read about her this morning. And sad to read some of the posts on here last night. I hope those who showed no compassion but felt compelled to give us their two cents, never have someone they love become an addict. Then they can continue sharing their opinions with all the comfort of certainty that ignorance allows them.

[Marc]

I have never taken drugs or have I ever had anybody close to me become addicted to drugs. However my aunt did die of alcoholism I guess an addiction is an addiction and they are similar.

But I guess being so far into an addiction is must be so hard to get out of it, especially if you're that famous and have all that money to hand. I feel for her family, as it can't have been easy to see a loved one like that just disintegrate in front of them.

All that aside, her music was sensational and she will always be remembered (if not primarily) for her musical talents. R.I.P Amy

[Jack_]

Russell Brand has written a little blog about Amy:

For Amy

July 24th, 2011

When you love someone who suffers from the disease of addiction you await the phone call. There will be a phone call. The sincere hope is that the call will be from the addict themselves, telling you they’ve had enough, that they’re ready to stop, ready to try something new. Of course though, you fear the other call, the sad nocturnal chime from a friend or relative telling you it’s too late, she’s gone.

Frustratingly it’s not a call you can ever make it must be received. It is impossible to intervene.

I’ve known Amy Winehouse for years. When I first met her around Camden she was just some twit in a pink satin jacket shuffling round bars with mutual friends, most of whom were in cool Indie bands or peripheral Camden figures Withnail-ing their way through life on impotent charisma. Carl Barrat told me that “Winehouse” (which I usually called her and got a kick out of cos it’s kind of funny to call a girl by her surname) was a jazz singer, which struck me as a bizarrely anomalous in that crowd. To me with my limited musical knowledge this information placed Amy beyond an invisible boundary of relevance; “Jazz singer? She must be some kind of eccentric” I thought. I chatted to her anyway though, she was after all, a girl, and she was sweet and peculiar but most of all vulnerable.

I was myself at that time barely out of rehab and was thirstily seeking less complicated women so I barely reflected on the now glaringly obvious fact that Winehouse and I shared an affliction, the disease of addiction. All addicts, regardless of the substance or their social status share a consistent and obvious symptom; they’re not quite present when you talk to them. They communicate to you through a barely discernible but un-ignorable veil. Whether a homeless smack head troubling you for 50p for a cup of tea or a coked-up, pinstriped exec foaming off about his “speedboat” there is a toxic aura that prevents connection. They have about them the air of elsewhere, that they’re looking through you to somewhere else they’d rather be. And of course they are. The priority of any addict is to anaesthetise the pain of living to ease the passage of the day with some purchased relief.

From time to time I’d bump into Amy she had good banter so we could chat a bit and have a laugh, she was “a character” but that world was riddled with half cut, doped up chancers, I was one of them, even in early recovery I was kept afloat only by clinging to the bodies of strangers so Winehouse, but for her gentle quirks didn’t especially register.

Then she became massively famous and I was pleased to see her acknowledged but mostly baffled because I’d not experienced her work and this not being the 1950’s I wondered how a “jazz singer” had achieved such cultural prominence. I wasn’t curious enough to do anything so extreme as listen to her music or go to one of her gigs, I was becoming famous myself at the time and that was an all consuming experience. It was only by chance that I attended a Paul Weller gig at the Roundhouse that I ever saw her live.

I arrived late and as I made my way to the audience through the plastic smiles and plastic cups I heard the rolling, wondrous resonance of a female vocal. Entering the space I saw Amy on stage with Weller and his band; and then the awe. The awe that envelops when witnessing a genius. From her oddly dainty presence that voice, a voice that seemed not to come from her but from somewhere beyond even Billie and Ella, from the font of all greatness. A voice that was filled with such power and pain that it was at once entirely human yet laced with the divine. My ears, my mouth, my heart and mind all instantly opened. Winehouse. Winehouse? Winehouse! That twerp, all eyeliner and lager dithering up Chalk Farm Road under a back-combed barnet, the lips that I’d only seen clenching a fishwife fag and dribbling curses now a portal for this holy sound. So now I knew. She wasn’t just some hapless wannabe, yet another pissed up nit who was never gonna make it, nor was she even a ten-a-penny-chanteuse enjoying her fifteen minutes. She was a ****ing genius.

Shallow fool that I am I now regarded her in a different light, the light that blazed down from heaven when she sang. That lit her up now and a new phase in our friendship began. She came on a few of my TV and radio shows, I still saw her about but now attended to her with a little more interest. Publicly though, Amy increasingly became defined by her addiction. Our media though is more interested in tragedy than talent, so the ink began to defect from praising her gift to chronicling her downfall. The destructive personal relationships, the blood soaked ballet slippers, the aborted shows, that youtube madness with the baby mice. In the public perception this ephemeral tittle-tattle replaced her timeless talent. This and her manner in our occasional meetings brought home to me the severity of her condition. Addiction is a serious disease; it will end with jail, mental institutions or death. I was 27 years old when through the friendship and help of Chip Somers of the treatment centre, Focus12 I found recovery, through Focus I was introduced to support fellowships for alcoholics and drug addicts which are very easy to find and open to anybody with a desire to stop drinking and without which I would not be alive.

Now Amy Winehouse is dead, like many others whose unnecessary deaths have been retrospectively romanticised, at 27 years old. Whether this tragedy was preventable or not is now irrelevant. It is not preventable today. We have lost a beautiful and talented woman to this disease. Not all addicts have Amy’s incredible talent. Or Kurt’s or Jimi’s or Janis’s, some people just get the affliction. All we can do is adapt the way we view this condition, not as a crime or a romantic affectation but as a disease that will kill. We need to review the way society treats addicts, not as criminals but as sick people in need of care. We need to look at the way our government funds rehabilitation. It is cheaper to rehabilitate an addict than to send them to prison, so criminalisation doesn’t even make economic sense. Not all of us know someone with the incredible talent that Amy had but we all know drunks and junkies and they all need help and the help is out there. All they have to do is pick up the phone and make the call. Or not. Either way, there will be a phone call.

http://www.russellbrand.tv/2011/07/for-amy/

[Jords]

Back to Black #1 on iTunes albums

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by Omah

I do - I had to contest the description of Winehouse as a "legend" .....



Not from me .....

In the music industry she was seen as a legend though. She is the reason a lot of female artists are where they are today as her sense of music, vocals and fashion inspired and altered quite a bit in the music world and helped several other artists break into the business.

[Pyramid*]

Originally Posted by Jords

Back to Black #1 on iTunes albums

Is this 'new' or has it been at the position for many months?

[Callum]

Originally Posted by Pyramid*

Is this 'new' or has it been at the position for many months?

Only been #1 since this morning

[Zippy]

A lot of people will be hearing her music now on all the various media reports of her death. Plus music channels are playing endless tributes to her. As they should.

So obviously its gonna spark new interest in her music. Especially since people realise thats all the music we will ever get from her now. *sob*

[Pyramid*]

Originally Posted by Zippy

A lot of people will be hearing her music now on all the various media reports of her death. Plus music channels are playing endless tributes to her. As they should.

So obviously its gonna spark new interest in her music.......

A fair point and a good one.

[Zippy]

Originally Posted by Omah

Well, Freddie was uniquely talented and and left a massive body of exceptional work .....

Freddie was around for a damn sight longer than Amy and was also part of a group who helped him get where he was.

Yes he is a legend and an icon. But guess what?

So is Amy Winehouse!

Truth is, legendary status is something that grows over time after somebodies death. But Amy is well on her way. If you don't want to view her as one thats your problem.

[Zippy]

yeah whatever, go have a fag, Pyramid.

and have a look at this whilst puffing away...

[/QUOTE]

[Captain.Remy]

Guess it's too late for rebab now...