Chas Newkey-Burden

I'm back on Winehouse beat but this time it'll be slower

Thursday 6th 2011f January 2011

This weekend, the Amy Winehouse comeback begins. She will take to the stage for the first of a handful of concerts in Brazil, her first proper gigs for two years. As a fan of Amy and her music, I'm excited. As her biographer, I'm preparing to return to the other "Winehouse beat".

In early 2008, my biography of Amy was published and overnight I became one of the media's first ports of call for commentary on her hectic existence. It's nice work if you can get it: a television or radio station sends a car to collect me, pops me on the airwaves with a nice plug for my book and then drives me home again.
Then, a few weeks later, they send me a cheque.

As my biography became a bestseller and was sold on to publishers around the world, so came media requests from overseas too.
One of the television interviews I did was in Hollywood; I could hardly keep a straight face when they thanked me for coming.

Back at home, the only downside was that many of the news stories that erupted around Amy came in the early hours of the morning. So I became accustomed to 2am calls from the likes of Sky News, asking if I'd come in to their breakfast show the next day to discuss Amy's latest hospitalisation. To this day, every time I watch Sky News, I feel a bit tired and nervous, with a sudden taste of instant coffee in my mouth.

Both 2009 and 2010 were relatively quiet times for Amy as she stepped out of the musical limelight and attempted to introduce some calm to her day-to-day existence.

As a result I spent less time in green rooms, sipping coffee and preparing my lines. Having had a couple of years off the Winehouse beat, I'm ready to return as soon as she is. But I won't be surprised if this time Amy leads a less controversial existence.

As I researched my biography, one of the things that kept coming across during my interviews was that Amy had a very strong maternal streak.
She cares for and clucks over her friends so much that they call her "Mum". Indeed, one of her friends has Amy's phone number stored as "Mum" on her mobile. A classic Yiddishe Mamma figure? That might be overstating it somewhat but she makes plenty of metaphorical chicken soup.

This is a side of Amy that cuts against the tabloid caricature of her. Of course, Amy has a wild side, she has had one since before she was famous. But she also has a heart of gold. For instance, in 2009 she saved the life of a woman who was flung overboard during a boat crash off a Caribbean island.
Such a story is of minimal ongoing interest to the British media which prefer to cast her as someone in need of salvation, rather than someone offering it. Amy is choosing to make her musical comeback in Brazil, where she is known more for her music than her personal life. It is just the place for her to step back on-stage.

All being well, her much-discussed third album will emerge sometime in 2011, hopefully followed by some live dates here in Britain.
It will be good to have her back, but don't expect her to be rushed into anything. Financially speaking, Amy is doing just fine as it is. Her royalties for her first two album continue to flood in and she was recently reportedly paid 1 million pounds to perform a private two-hour concert for a wealthy Russian businessman.

She's made us wait a long time for her comeback but when all is said and done, true talent is always worth waiting for. Bring it on, Amy.

Amy Winehouse: The Biography and Amy & Blake: Love Is The Drug are out now (John Blake Publishing, £7.99). You can visit Chas's blog at www.oyvagoy.com and follow him on Twitter at @AllThatChas