It took me a long time to even give Amy Winehouse a try. There’s her impossibly large beehive hair, her overwrought eyeliner, and she also sports the bad tattoos of a drunken sailor. Then there's the near weekly story of Amy's legal trouble and health problems, many of them self inflicted. But damn, this chick can sing and write songs!
In the concert DVD I Told You I Was Trouble (2007), Amy Winehouse moves quickly through her greatest hits: Back to Black, Rehab and Love is Losing Game. Her voice makes what she sings seem effortless and fluid, but these are songs that Mariah Carey would be challenged to rip through. Winehouse comes off as a tipsy diva. When Winehouse talks between songs you realize she has become a female Keith Richards, almost completely incomprehensible yet somehow charming. We are able to forgive her onstage drinking, but it seems incongruous with the professionalism of her backing band.
Winehouse is human onstage. She shields her eyes from the stage lights so she can eyeball her audience. Winehouse also gives numerous shout outs to her husband Blake Fielder-Civil and her father, Mitch Winehouse. Amy Winehouse is strangely attractive as she performs and shakes her bum in a tauntingly short skirt and sexy high-heels. Even though Amy Winehouse is only 5-foot 3-inches, the heels and hair easily add a foot of height.
This Amy Winehouse performance was filmed at Shepherds Bush, in London, England, an historic musical and performance venue that appears architecturally like some turn-of-the-century birthday cake, and only adds to the surrealism of this improbably talented, big-haired diva.
One of the best parts of this unforgettable concert is the amazing ensemble who comprises Winehouse’s backing band. All of the musicians on I Told You I Was Trouble deserve to be named here because they look and sound incredible. Dale Davis on bass, Robin Banejee on guitar, Nathan Alan on drums, Zantone Blacq on keyboards, Henry Collins on trumpet, James Hunt on alto sax, Frank Walden on baritone sax, and extraordinary backing vocals and dancing by Zalon Thompson and Ade Omatyo. Really. Even if Amy Winehouse was an off key troll, I Told You I Was Trouble is worth watching just for the smooth dance moves of Zalon Thompson and Ade Omatyo.
At 50 minutes this concert seems to fly by and leaves the listener craving more. Be sure to watch the special features of this movie for a fascinating look at an early Amy Winehouse and a charming drive about with her dad Mitch, who is a cab driver in London.
I Told You I Was Trouble was nominated for a New Musical Express award in 2008 for Best Music DVD, the same year Amy Winehouse won an NME for Worst Dressed musical artist.
