Amy Winehouse, Carling Academy Birmingham

17-11-2006

Hmmm, Amy's voice has matured over the two years since she last toured, we muse. She's sounding even more like Tom Waits. But then the newly-beehived singer announces that she has a bad cold, striking up an unusually intimate banter with the crammed-in Academy 2.

The gig's sold out, but she could probably have filled the main part of the venue, judging by the upswinging success of the new Back To Black album.

Amy's in a scatty mind-frame, calling out for the red lipstick that she's forgotten to apply. For her blowjob lips, she promises. Winehouse has changed her image somewhat since the last time around, now looking like a cross between Billie Holiday and Divine, flower in hair, beehive stacked in a crow's nest tangle, earrings as big as steering wheels. She has a waterfall of a tattoo going right down her arm. If it's permanent, that makes her one hell of a wild chick...

This image trumpets a subtle shift in musical accent, now less jazz and more girl group soul. The only problem is that Amy would have been thrown out of The Shirelles for being too sleazy. The crowd, meanwhile, are offering her throat lozenges, or even to rub Vic into her chest.

Winehouse is full of profuse apologies for the state of her voice, but me, I think it sounds great in this cracked, weathered vein. Barely into her twenties, Winehouse is blessed with the voice of experience.

How things have developed since her debut Frank album three years ago. Amy had a strong performing personality then, but now she's even more of a sandpapery individual. In 2004, she and her band were occasionally bland, but now the music's tighter, harder, and her phrasing's extremely confident, playing with abstract time-patterns, not tied into a conventional rhythmic straitjacket.

She has two male backing singers and a horn section that includes plenty of bullfrogging baritone saxophone. The core sound might be soulful, but it's trimmed with jazz, blues and reggae motifs.

Winehouse may well be abstractly under the influence of some substance or other, but this is an image that she certainly doesn't shy away from promoting. Even though appearing quite loose, the control never slips where it counts, and the songs sound sharp in their ragged sprawl, creating a feeling of positive tension.

Winehouse never takes any advice. Her management's suggestion that she curb her alcohol intake led to the penning of the mighty fine Rehab single. Now she's being advised to limit her encore to a single song. Thankfully, she ignores the suggestion and plays a double dose, as planned. Lordy knows what shape her cords will be in the following night, though...