Camden has always belonged to Amy Winehouse. “This is her house,” Mark Ronson declared from the Roundhouse stage on Wednesday night (Oct. 21), and in the borough that raised her, where she is immortalized in photographs and has her very own statue, nobody was inclined to argue. The one-night-only celebration of Back to Black’s 20th anniversary paid homage to a north Londoner turned global phenomenon, drawing a packed-out room just a short walk from the pubs where she first made her name.
The venue carried a weight of its own. Her 2003 debut Frank won over London’s jazz and R&B crowds, but it was also here that Winehouse made her final public appearance in July 2011, joining her goddaughter Dionne Bromfield on stage at the iTunes Festival; she died three days later, aged 27, from accidental alcohol toxicity.
While the essence of the songwriting was rooted in Camden, the sound of Back to Black was found in Brooklyn. It was at the Dap-Kings’ all-analogue Daptone Studios that Winehouse and producers Ronson and Salaam Remi landed on a brassy, jazz club grandeur that defined the record.
Released on Oct. 27, 2006, the album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and won five Grammys. In the U.K., it ranks among the best-selling albums of all time, with more than 4.6 million chart units to date. America took to her, too, from SXSW to a 2007 Coachella set where, as Dap-Kings saxophonist Neal Sugarman recalled to Billboard U.K., she was “the toast of the festival.”
On Wednesday, Ronson and Remi reunited with the Amy Winehouse Band, led by longtime musical director Dale Davis, to play the album in full, with BBC Radio 2 DJ Jo Whiley hosting. Guest vocalists were hand-picked by the producers, with Paul O’Duffy, p*nut and former Island Records president Darcus Beese OBE also involved in the booking. The concert will be aired on U.K. television this Saturday (Oct. 24).
The line-up ranged from established names (Corinne Bailey Rae, Jorja Smith, Lianne La Havas, Yebba, Jessie Reyez, Terri Walker) to newer voices (Nia Smith, Skye Newman, Sasha Keable), with Baby Rose and FLO also on the bill. Beforehand, Remi had said he was curious to see “what these ladies bring to their versions” of the songs. They delivered: there wasn’t a dodgy Stars in Their Eyes impression in sight, just a feel-good procession of women reimagining Winehouse as she would have wanted. These were the best moments from the show.
