Entertainment For Lively Minds
Here’s the cover of the next edition
Posted by Mark Ellen on 5 August 2011 - 9:15am.
I’d show you the original – featuring Van Morrison, the Old Grey Whistle Test and the collapse of EMI Records – but it’s somewhere in the bowels of art director Jon Sellers’ computer and he’s naffed off to Italy with a bucket and spade.
Last minute changes, especially in these sad circumstances, have a highly charged energy about them, none more so than with this candid and emotional tribute by Paul Du Noyer and Andrew Harrison. A Spotify loop of everything Amy Winehouse ever recorded played in the Word office while we hurriedly pulled it together. UK subscribers should get this issue on Monday. It’s on the newsstands Thursday August 11st.
Good work.
Dear Amy
What a lovely girl she was. Flawed of course like all the best people.
Ms Winehouse
I can't help feeling there has been more than enough copy doing the rounds about Amy Winehouse, of varying quality, since her death. I wait to see if The Word's contribution is better than the rest. Meanwhile, personally, I am more interested in the OGWT feature and the inside track on the demise of EMI Records...
To be fair
although the newspapers and the Sunday supplements have had their say, Word will be the first of the Music Monthlies to hit the newstands after her death I think. Not the first time she's been on the cover either...so she was hardly just going to get a mention in the obits.
I hope those other features you mention haven't been bumped though...
It feel like it has to be done
but I agree, is there much more to say ? Two albums, and not a huge number of gigs, isn't a lot of music. And even now the first album isn't selling well, so it's really only one album.
And the life part - is well documented already.
As the header says - I suppose it has to be done, there'd be endless indignant "why didn't you cover Amy ?" letters & emails otherwise.
Selling well...
...well perhaps not as well as Back To Black, but Frank is no 3 in the LP charts (or looking that way come Sunday) so selling some, at least.
The cover looks fabulous, I think. I can see that being framed in my house.
I think Amy had to be on the cover: she's been a 'Word' artist since Frank, hasn't she? Currently listening to Gilles Peterson's show from last week which has some of her earlier sessions. They are bloody great.
Uncut
has run with The Doors as it's cover star.
Risk takers!
Why on earth would...
...you expect 'Uncut' to put AW on their cover? She was never on the cover while she was alive, so for her to be now would be cynical in the extreme.
By the way, do the Word team think this will be their biggest-selling issue of the year so far?
Uncut
Came out much closer to Amy Winehouse's death so probably didn't have time to switch the cover & contents
My point is that they wouldn't, anyway.
AW wasn't the type of act 'Uncut' would feature on their cover, so any editorial decision to do so after her death would be motivated only by cynical, circulation-boosting greed.
Yes you're right to be fair to Uncut
and in fact, there is an eerie reference to her in the Doors article where they compare Jimbo's final gig with the Doors to her recent on stage meltdowns (Jimbo had a cob on, spent most of the gig on the drum riser, missed loads of cues, threw his mic stand around and eventually flounced off).
They were unlucky there
as the author chose to make some comment along the lines of "but at least wasted as he was he could still do it in the studio".
Doesn't stop being true in the light of recent events, but could have seemed a little insensitive.
just my opinion but
I always thought Frank was the better album.
Good Work
It's a striking cover, look forward to reading.
Nice cover
I'm not a fan of the late Ms Winehouse's music, but she certainly looked like a star.
Ditto
word logo in black
Amy wearing white. A beautiful photo. That's an excellent cover. I look forward to reading the feature.
Ditto. Beautiful cover, look
Ditto. Beautiful cover, look forward to reading the issue.
Brilliant
That's a great cover, looking forward to it landing on my doormat next week.
Fabulous. That's a classy cover.
That's what the Subscriber's Edition is for. Nice work.
One of the best covers so far...
I've never been a fan of Amy Winehouse but can understand she had to feature and it is visually quite stunning. I still believe a really good portrait on the cover of the mag is more effective than the caricatures.
Shame it had to take a tragedy to save us from the Van Morrison cover though!
I'm looking forward to reading Paul Du Noyer's article.
That unused cover sees the light of day...
Not sure which prospect appalls me most...
that a Google Images search for "harmonica arse cleft" would return any images or the idea that the picture was set up and taken 'to commission' by yourself.
I'm sorry to disappoint you Stimpy...
but this is an appallingly-realized creation of my own using Photoshop. Sadly I do not possess a gob iron and if I did, it wouldn't go anywhere near the vicinity of my cleft.
Amy
Amy cover looks great and it will be good to finally hear some quality writing about the lady....good work Word chaps and chapesses!
I am sure Word will have
I am sure Word will have their own considered and well written views on Amy, who is definitely worth the eloquent and insightful tribute I expect. But if you want to read some other quality writing on AW I can recommend Laura Barton and Russell Brand, both in The Guardian and worth a google.
Great Winehouse cover.
Elegant and understated.
My compliments to Mr Sellers.
It's a great image
One minor observation is that her head appears to be in between "The Word" and "Entertainment for lively minds", as if she is walking down a corridor. Her image could have obscured "The Word" (just a bit), so that she is entirely on top, especially if the image was placed a little lower to show the full head of hair.
Picky? Me?
Predictable !
After the world and his wife have had their mawkish memories resurrected (and after a week she's still front page news in the red tops who've cried a lake of crocodile tears over her death).
Not a fan - I remember seeing her at the Strat Pack gig in London some years ago when she (or her agent) had bought her on to the bill and she was, frankly, awful and in my opinion,she got no better.
Nice cover though.
Good work
Perceived sycophancy allergy sufferers, look away now:
I think this is a perfect complement to the sensitive and articulate way her death was handled in the podcast. I really look forward to reading it.
What a great cover!!!
I wasn't a fan but I can't wait to read some quality writing about her.
(Not really, I just can't contain myself any longer - no wonder this blog is "oft-derided").
27 club
On the BBC radio programme "more or less" yesterday they did some quick number crunching on the deaths of rockstars. They assumed there would be a confirmation bias about the age of 27, and there possibly is. However, they found that most rock stars become famous or successful about the age of 25, and that in the following 5 years they had a 2.3% chance of dying. That is ten times the chances of a normal person, and higher than a soldier serving 5 years in Iraq (1.9%).
So the 27 club will probably have more members in future.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012x12m
Allegedly, allegedly, allegedly............
....I'll say this with full use of the word 'allegedly'.
About this '27 Club' and, with respect to Jimi, far and away the most successful member of it, Brian Jones.
Brian was ever so allegedly, possibly, no.....allegedly, murdered.
fabby cover......
..... i reckon you'll pick up lots of new sales because of it.
Does this bring an end to the
illustrated covers? I like them but a really good photo with the right background takes some beating doesn't it?
There have been
photo covers in between illustrated ones.
Not sure a caricature of Winehouse in the normal cover style would have been appropriate under the circumstances.
I'm aware of that
and obviously a caricature would have been wrong. I repeat, i enjoy the illustrated covers but this particular shot makes me realise how great a striking yet simple photo can be.
Striking, yes
But it's an article I won't be reading. I wasn't a fan so I've no desire to read about her now. Still think she ruined herself with the tattoos, silly eye make-up, beehive, not to mention the drink & drugs etc.
Oh, and if I may say I'd much rather have covers like this than the illustrated ones too. Shame this one will be partially obscured by having a CD covering a significant chunk of it as well, but we won't get onto that one again.
If anyone's got time tonight, 9pm...
...this month's classic album on Greg Wilson's Living To Music thingummy is Back To Black
http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/
One quick thing....
....I like the lack of writing on it.
Check out Vogue or The Radio Times' covers of today with issues of 40/50 years ago and marvel at the absolute clarity of design of the older issues.
Why is this?
Lack of writing
This is the subscriber edition. The one in the shops will have more text on it, and a CD stuck to the front too.
Everyones trying to cash in on the old girl
.. now aren't they. So sad really. The photo agencies too. Sorry, but it has to be said.
The thing that strikes you most of all - If she'd had even the first idea of the affection and fuss that would be made on her departure, maybe she wouldn't have been so careless. Who knows.
Dilemma
As far as I can see, the music press are damned if they do and damned if they don't. You can mark the death of a popular artist by giving them the cover and get accused of cashing in, or give them nothing but a small obit and get accused of being disrespectful.
Only a fool
would think that a monthly music magazine is 'cashing in' by majoring on what is the biggest music story of the month. It beggars belief that the subject has even been raised.
Cashing In
It's a huge story involving someone the magazine has always covered favourably, someone a significant percentage of the readership obviously liked. Not making a big deal of the story would be extraordinarily odd. "Cashing in" are the idiots on eBay selling plastic RIP trinkets hours of her death.
I'm less impressed
Two albums. One promising one, one very good.
That's pretty much it for a career. There is a danger of wallowing in the grief industry in the way that seems to have become all too common post Diana and mythologising someone who, dare I say it, might not deserve the full weight of the posthumous encomia heaped upon her.
And yes, 27 is too young; yes, it is a waste of talent. But whose fault was that? She has died in the same way too many young people do. The only difference is that she could write and sing. I know that I will not win any popularity contests for saying this, but enough already. It's sad when anyone dies but it would be nice to have some perspective. If I'd seen sitting in your office with the Winehouse loop on ad infinitum, I'd have put the headphones on and listened to something else for a while
Let the work speak for itself and let people make up their own minds about it in the fullness of time. I can see that I'll be skipping a fair bit of this issue when it hits the doormat.
It's 5 pages out of 114...
I'm sure there's plenty of other good stuff in there to interest you :-)
Five pages?
I'll survive :)
Two of those are full-page photos as well
Two cultures clash
On the one hand, respect for the recently dead, with the risk of "not speaking ill of" morphing into unwarranted hagiography. On the other, the desire to maintain "historical perspective" at all costs, with the risk of appearing heartless.
I can see both sides. I'm not completely comfortable with what I suspect now lies in wait for us: years and years of what-iffery and drip-feed releases of the "Legendary St. Lucia Tapes", and I find the instant airbrushing out of the last five years of her time with us - that's half her adult life we're talking about - when she had far more in common with Kerry Katona than with, say, Nick Drake, all a bit much, but I can't say I'm surprised by it either.
About the most astute comment I've seen was by some A&R person (whose primary job skill is, after all, to gauge an artist's true place in the Grand Scheme of Pop Things), who said that her influence is undeniable, in that Adele would almost certainly not have been having number ones in America without her, while Duffy and others would most likely have stayed at the bottom of the demo pile. But it was really a negative influence rather than a positive one. The glut of Amylikes happened because "the original" needed replacing quickly, having to all practical intents and purposes retired. If she had stayed clean and been more productive since Back to Black, she would have hogged that niche all by herself.
Replacement Amys
I can't think of an instance where a successful artist hasn't been aped by watered-down, more mainstream versions of the original, however frequent or infrequent their releases were. Amy begat Adele, just as Radiohead begat Coldplay, Oasis begat The Charlatans, and Eddie Van Halen begat a fearsome number of inferior string-twiddlers. But it's the success that creates the copyists, not the sudden appearance of a gap that needs filling.
Except of course
the Charlatans were there first, at the first flush of baggy. And while Eddie did beget a bunch of inferior twiddlers, he did also pave the way for those who pushed things on, like Vai or Paul Gilbert. It kind of works both ways, I suppose.
But I do agree with the general point.
Yep
They're both bad examples. The important bit is that no-one successful gets to stand alone in the spotlight.
No
But that's not what I'm saying. With a "normal" career path, BtB would have been just the second of four or five albums by now. Do you really think Duffy (who's hopeless) or Paloma Faith (who isn't) would have got a look-in if A.W. hadn't paved the way and then stepped off it?
Half and half
I absolutely agree that Paloma and Adele wouldn't exist without Amy, but the success of Frank and Back To Black meant that the record industry was falling over itself to find Amy-alikes well before she started going missing. Amy also created the demand for more of the same, and the industry obliged, as it always, always does. Lily Allen didn't need to go missing for Eliza Doolittle to get a deal and become popular.
Yup
When Britney Spears hit big we got Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore (now Mrs Ryan Adams, bizarrely), and Arctic Monkey's success saw every guitar toting 'social commentator' in Sheffield getting signed up. Milburn, Reverend & the Makers...etc. That's how it is.
See also
the aftermath of Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill.
Isn't it
ironic?
There are no pleasing some people really...
She was great (as an artist).
She burned brightly (albeit briefly).
She was hounded by tabloids (sound familiar).
She more than deserves the cover of your esteemed magazine (oh yes).
Two albums (one very good, one absolutely great).
I've little sympathy for drug adducts but if ever there was a case of being driven to it (she's it).
We are all entitled to our opinion and it says a lot for The Word that I never read a bad word about her in the seven or eight years I've been tuning in. Appreciators 1 Naysayers 0 (AET).