An all-female line-up honoured Amy Winehouse's album days before its 20th anniversary, at the venue of her final public appearance.
On Wednesday night, October 21, Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, the album's producers, reunited with the Amy Winehouse Band to play Back to Black in full at the Roundhouse in Camden. The album came out on October 27, 2006, and the show was staged days before its 20th anniversary.
Jo Whiley hosted the night, and the concert was recorded for a BBC broadcast. Ronson declared from the Roundhouse stage, "This is her house," in a borough where Winehouse has her own statue. Billboard reports that the concert will air on UK television on Saturday, October 24.
The Roundhouse carries weight in her story. In July 2011 Winehouse made her final public appearance there, joining her goddaughter Dionne Bromfield on stage at the iTunes Festival. She died three days later, aged 27.
Variety counted 11 acts, one for each track on the album, backed by the Amy Winehouse Band, many of whom had played with the singer before. Corinne Bailey Rae opened with the title track, with Ronson on piano. "I wanted to do the song justice, and I was very grateful to be asked," she told Whiley onstage. She added: "Amy's music has so much longevity. I think people will be listening in 40, 60 years."
Sasha Keable sang "Just Friends", a song Salaam Remi produced, and she and Jessie Reyez drew the biggest crowd reactions of the night. Reyez finished the solo performances with "Rehab", whipping her hair back and forth in the song's final third.
Skye Newman, who was a toddler when the album came out, sang "Addicted" to a rapturous response. Her route to Winehouse ran through an aunt, a songwriter and singer with a fondness for jazz and blues. Newman told Whiley onstage what the singer had given her:
"She's someone that always just made me feel seen and heard when it comes to music."
Before "Love Is a Losing Game", Ronson told the crowd the writing had been a struggle. Winehouse first recorded it with just an acoustic guitar, and she did not want strings. Ronson went ahead anyway and assembled a 50-piece string section. When he played her the new version, Billboard reports, she rested her head on the mixing desk and said, "That's good." For the show, Yebba sang a stripped-back version with Ronson on guitar, and Variety described her voice as "gliding over Winehouse's complex runs". Ronson said of Winehouse: "Amy's musicality, she was like a monster, and I definitely want everybody to know that."
The Guardian's review was less warm about the tribute format. Most singers, it said, were eclipsed by the memory of Winehouse, and the show was staged for television with interruptions from Whiley.
FLO sang "He Can Only Hold Her" with writer-producer p*nut alongside them. He had previously told Billboard U.K. that he co-wrote the song over a week, adding guitars while Winehouse gathered melodies in her head.
The finale was "Valerie", the Zutons' song that Winehouse made her own with the Dap-Kings. Each singer took a line, and Billboard describes it as an X Factor-style sing-along. Remi said in a statement announcing the show: "Amy was one of one." Before the night, he had said: "Funny how time flies! I can't believe it's been 20 years already. I'm excited to see what these ladies bring to their versions of these songs we know and love."
A deluxe 20th anniversary edition is out on Friday, October 23, with four previously unreleased demos, rare B-sides and bonus tracks, and Winehouse's February 8, 2007 show at Amsterdam's Paradiso.
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