Amy Winehouse & Miriam Makeba

[Adam Blake]

You don't get on the cover of NME or have thousands of loose women flinging themselves at you or dodgy geezers desperate to share their drugs with you if you just write scripts and novels. (or at least, I don't think you do...?)

[AndyM]

Will Self didn't do so bad. The hateful slimebag.

[Adam Blake]

True, true, but he never had Pete Doherty's big little boy lost thing happening.

[garth cartwright]

Hugh, having seen lots of addiction close up - stepdad was a junkie (he's now an NA zealot) - I have sympathy but very little tolerance. And Amy was not just an addict but someone who showed contempt for her audience and then contempt for her talent. She was very much a "product" - Universal spent millions moulding and breaking her - and then once famous she wanted to, as David noted, constantly be the centre of attention: she loved the tabloid storm and cultivated it. Too much, too soon - we've seen it happen so often. The likes of Johnny Thunders and Sly Stone disintegrated in public over decades, she took only a few years. Her death was not a tragedy but a waste. And one of her own making.

The latest Record Collector has my intv with Irma Thomas - she has some tough words about Amy. Irma never got a sniff of the money/opportunities Amy had but what a great, great singer. 52 years in the biz and still delivering amazing music!

[Rob Hall]

I've been biting my tongue on this one but it couldn't last. As ever when you're shooting from the hip Garth, you're wide of the mark; and if you need to resort to using Julie Burchill as ammunition, then you're desperate too. You have shown over and again that nothing anyone says here will ever give you pause for thought, so I won't do a forensic number on what you've said in these posts. I'll just call it what it is, which is bullshit.

[garth cartwright]

Do a forensic, Rob. I dislike your sulking as much as you dislike my forthrightness. And Burchill was once - briefly - a very good writer. Just like John Lydon was once a very fine singer. To completely write someone of note off is - if I may employ yr term - "bullshit".

[kas]

I was happy to translate the Amy In Dingle programme for the Finnish TV. It was a nice job, and she was a pleasure to watch, fresh and not a bit of a diva (a surprise too: I didn't know about her strong interest in contemporary jazz for instance).

And being a Finn, I can't be anything but proud about a compatriot directing the Miriam Makeba documentary. Especially a good one. It has been selling quite well here as a DVD: The Kaurismäki Brothers are a strong brand.