London remembers ‘mother hen’ Amy Winehouse on her 40th birthday-Kitty Chrisp-Entertainment – Metro

Amy Winehouse is still part of Camden’s DNA and alive in the locals’ memories, perhaps now more than ever (Picture: Rob Verhorst/Redferns)

She’s world famous for her limitless, gravelly voice, and heart-bursting songs. She’s recognisable by her beehive hair, lip-piercing and statement eyeliner. But everyone remembers Amy Winehouse in their own particular way. 

Today would have been the Back to Black superstar’s 40th birthday – she died on July 23, 2011 from alcohol poisoning aged just 27 and was found dead where she loved to live; in Camden Town, North London.

Just like Sam Fender is to Newcastle, Adele is to Tottenham and Celine Dion is to Canada, Winehouse was a local Camden treasure – and still is, perhaps more than ever.

Winehouse’s ghostly cat-eyes stare out from all corners of the mix-matched London borough in murals, keeping her soul alive in the whirring tourist hotspot famed for its punk scene and lively nightlife.

The party capital of North London is still buzzing with the memories of its wild, drug-fueled, graffiti-smothered past. Chaos hangs in the air like cigarette smoke.

The Dublin Castle was – and still is – at the heart of Camden’s boozing scene. It’s a venue famed for its impressive rock and roll alumni, including notably The Madness – who established themselves as a regular live band there – The Libertines, Blur, The Killers. And, unmistakably, Amy Winehouse.

But they’re not making a big, er, song and dance about it. Quite the contrary. The jazz and blues legend’s footprint here is small, but mighty, a little like Winehouse herself. Above the bar, hiding in a cluster of seemingly inconsequential photographs, is a framed picture of Winehouse propping herself up on the wall backstage.

Across the photo is a handwritten note in a bubbly, attractive scrawl which reads: ‘Peggy – Thanks for letting me behind the bar – I need the tips! Lots’o Love, Amy. I got engaged the night this was taken.’ Peggy Conlon, that is. The landlady.

The singing sensation made Camden her home (Picture: Chris Christoforou/Redferns)

The Back to Black singer would have turned 40 today (Picture: Paul Bergen/Redferns)

The Dublin Castle is said to be Winehouse’s favourite venue in the world

Stronger Than Me interjects an indie playlist with full force, followed by back-to-back Winehouse as I chat someone – who I’m told by the bar lady is a man in the know – going by the name of The Scotsman.

He drinks a pint after finishing his cleaning shift at the venue, where he has been a local for 28 years.

The Scotsman is the person all fresh-faced Londoners one day dream of becoming in their borough; one that can prop themselves up at local bar and successfully ask for, ‘the usual.’

Now 58, The Scotsman remembers Winehouse well, before the days of Frank, her debut album released in 2003 when she was just 19.

‘She was a darling. Once or twice, maybe just a pain in the backside,’ he said with a knowing smile it soon became clear was characteristic.

‘She would come in here, her favourite venue on the planet. And she’s played in as many stadiums and everything else.

‘Her favourite was Jools Holland, because Jools Holland was so quiet and placid, lovely, beautiful, and a fantastic player.’

Winehouse didn’t just spectate in the small venue, which appears out of nowhere at the back of the bar. She performed on many occasions.

‘Amy never, ever advertised that she was playing here. She’d just come in, and sometimes there might be a five-piece band with five people watching. They don’t make money.

‘So Amy would just step through the door and jump on the stage, grab the microphone from the lead singer and just start belting it out.

Camden Square flooded with tribute when she died on July 23, 2011 (Picture: Jim Dyson/Getty Images)

The Amy Winehouse statue stands tall outside The Stables market, where she used to work selling candles (Picture: Stefano Guidi/Getty Images)

Murals of Winehouse are never far away in Camden (Picture: David Corio/Redferns)

‘Everybody in there – they didn’t care about the bands – they would all pay, and they would be on the phone everybody. Half of Camden would empty, and would come charging in here, because Amy’s on the stage.’

Winehouse was performing in the Dublin Castle two weeks before she died. The occasion was her goddaughter’s gig, a then-14-year-old Dionne Bromfield.

‘She just jumped on stage and started giving a little rendition,’ The Scotsman remembered. ‘Amy can’t help being Amy,’ he chuckled fondly.

All in all, The Scotsman remembers Amy as a ‘wee darlin”. ‘I loved her to bits,’ he said. ‘But she was a pain in the arse now and again. But it wasn’t so much her, it’s the paparazzi we had to deal with.’

The Scotsman’s old job was at The Good Mixer; an iconic pub just down the road – with a very good pool set up.

‘Being member of staff at the bar, we’d come up to her and say, “Hello, how are you doing darling?” and give her a cuddle, the bouncers – 6ft something – would grab you and throw you out of the way,’ he recalled.

‘She’d say, “f*** off, they work here.”‘ The Scotsman explained how Amy would go behind the bar and pull pints, so the revellers would respect her more.

Back in the day, Winehouse’s happy place was that pool table. ‘She would do this, “knock, knock, knock,” at the bar over at The Good Mixer, and went, “Guys, hurry up. Open the f***ing doors.’”

She performing here in the Dublin Castle back in 2007 (Picture: Samir Hussein/Getty Images)

Her friend describes Winehouse as a ‘mother hen’ figure (Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

‘We open the doors and straight away she’d put a pound in the pool table,’ he remembered. ‘And then she’d cry and scream at us: “Where’s the chalk, where’s the cue, where’s the triangle? Come on guys.”‘

‘The Dublin Castle was her favourite venue – whereas The Good Mixer was her favourite pub,’ he beamed. Despite these stories, The Scotsman insists she was very shy. ‘Until she opened her mouth at the pub,’ that is.

‘We were downstairs, 4pm, Saturday afternoon, 23rd July, 2011, my manager got a text. He went, “S**t, Amy’s dead,”’ remembered The Scotsman.  

Sarah Hurley, the former owner of The Good Mixer, remembers that moment well too.

‘It’s funny, because I was going through IVF at the time, and luckily it worked,’ she said in a chat to Metro.co.uk.

‘The day I was calling Amy to tell her – because she was interested, she wanted to know all about it – was the day she died.’

Sarah met Amy through The Good Mixer when she was working on her first album. ‘She wasn’t as big then. She was a lot more low-key,’ she recalled of her friend.

‘We got on and she’d come in and chat, play pool, drinking. As time went on she obviously got bigger, and then she went off for a bit,’ remembered Sarah. But Amy returned to the Camden scene after not too long.

Amy would be in when the pub opened at 11 o’clock, and she’d still be there at 4pm or 5pm playing pool. ‘I mean she was a brilliant pool player, she could kick most the men’s arses,’ Sarah added.

She also loved the jukebox, and Sarah would get the machine’s company to come and put her old soul and jazz albums on it. She was ‘happy as Larry’ with pool, the jukebox and her Jack Daniels and coke.

‘She became a good friend,’ reflected the Londoner. ‘She was very busy, I mean her life was stratospheric at that point. She had a lot of hangers-on and things.’

Winehouse had the same sense of humour as Sarah’s late husband and got on with the bar staff like a house on fire. In the Back to Black album, Amy mentioned them all in the credits, thanking the ‘Good Mixer boys’ for their reading club. Yes, you heard that right.

Winehouse rocketed to fame when she released Back to Black in 2006 (Picture: Ross Gilmore/Redferns)

Outside the mad world of fame, Winehouse was always a ‘good friend’ (Picture: Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

Music was the love of her life (Picture: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)

‘Believe it or not they used to talk about the books they were reading at the time,’ said Sarah, with flicker of amusement.

It’s hard to imagine Amy Winehouse ‘the friend’. And not the global superstar she was, and remains to this day.

‘She just had a really loving, kind nature. Very, very warm. And a real mothering, nurturing soul,’ remembered Sarah.

‘She’d take people under her wing, very much so. I don’t think that was always portrayed about her, but she was hugely warm-hearted. A big, big heart. 

‘I think sometimes that led her astray because people take advantage of that. There’s always someone who wants to take what they can get, and Amy was just really sweet.’

It appears Winehouse was that friend; the one to cook everyone cheese toasties after a night out, and make sure you’re all happy, fed, and hangover-free the next day.

‘She was the type to take you back and feed you all night. She wanted to make sure everyone was happy around her, and that everyone was looked after. I mean, she had her moments like we all do when you have something to drink and get a bit silly,’ revealed Sarah.  

‘In essence, Amy was just like a mother hen. Very caring, she listened. You could talk to her. She wasn’t all about herself and her life. She kind of kept the fame part away from the friend part, if that makes sense.’

Winehouse had her famous friends – the likes of Kelly Osbourne, and, unlikely as it is, Barbara Windsor – and then her Camden life. ‘They were two different worlds,’ reflected Sarah. ‘Which was probably just as well for her sake.’ 

Amy was married to Blake Fielder-Civil from 2007 to 2009 (Picture: Getty/Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage)

Winehouse’s soulful music will undoubtedly live on through generations, and as will her memory (Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

But one force that wouldn’t let Winehouse’s simple Camden life exist without fame seeping through its cracks was the paparazzi.

Sarah explains how they would close the blinds so people wouldn’t ‘mob’ her, and the cameras couldn’t follow her from ‘pub to pub,’ as they often did.

‘I mean look, she was like Diana,’ Sarah explained. ‘She enjoyed the glamour, she enjoyed the recognition for her music because my god she worked so hard on her music, I mean it was truly the love of her life, her music.’

But the paparazzi? Not so much.

‘They were like a pack of wolves surrounding her. She was tiny. She was so frail. And they were relentless.’

Admittedly, Amy might have been a ‘bit pissed’ and occasionally bought them a drink, but Sarah said they ‘never forgot what they were there for.’

‘They were there for that picture, or that one thing. Unfortunately, sometimes they got it, so that fed them.’

She had her troubles, Sarah admits. ‘Unfortunately, life corrupts you, doesn’t it?’ No matter how much Amy’s ‘little family’ in Camden tried to protect her, there was only so much they could do.

‘It doesn’t matter if she could stand up or not, everybody loved her to bits,’ said The Scotsman. ‘The dictionary doesn’t have these words to express what I really want to say about how she was treated.’

Loaded chilli nachos from the Good Mixer kitchen were Amy’s favourite. But as time went by, she would ask Sarah to take away its layers. First, the nachos went. Then the cheese. Then all Winehouse would eat was a bowl of mince.

‘There was sadness there,’ reflected Sarah. ‘But there was happiness too. She was good fun, and she was a good friend.’

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