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.
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Camden Comes Dressed for Amy
Camden turned out for Winehouse in force. With her towering beehive, thick black eyeliner and ’60s soul-girl style, she was instantly recognizable, and the look was everywhere at the Roundhouse venue, some of it immaculate, some smudged in by younger fans who had clearly studied it. The crowd skewed 30-to-40-something, a generation that grew up with the album, and split between those dressed for a gala and those closer to cosplay. The energy built from the moment the Amy Winehouse Band warmed up the room, with two-stepping rippling across the floor and a full-room singalong breaking out when “Monkey Man” came on. (Winehouse frequently covered the Toots & The Maytals’ 1969 song in her live shows and released her version as a B-Side.)
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Corinne Bailey Rae Opens With Reverence
Corinne Bailey Rae took the first slot with “Back to Black,” and nerves gave way to reverence. “I wanted to do the song justice, and I was very grateful to be asked,” she told Whiley onstage. She told the crowd her own debut LP arrived the same year as the album, but Winehouse stood out for the writing. “The songs were so strong and dealing with so much,” she said, praising her “confidence” and how “playful she was on stage.” On Winehouse’s lasting appeal, she predicted: “Amy’s music has so much longevity. I think people will be listening in 40, 60 years.”
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Sasha Keable Sounds Like Amy Herself
Sasha Keable took on “Just Friends,” a song Salaam Remi produced, and the result was uncanny: she and Jessie Reyez drew the biggest crowd reactions of the night. With her signature red locks pulled back into a ’60s-style high pony, Keable grooved onstage with the band and had the audience in the palm of her hand, much as Winehouse would have done as she pleaded, “When will we get the time to be just, just friends?” The resemblance felt deeper than just her voice. Keable’s songwriting shares Winehouse’s frankness and honesty, and her relatable stage presence and penchant for a signature look felt like part of the same lineage.
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Skye Newman Brings Down the House
A huge scream greeted Skye Newman, and her “Addicted” earned a rapturous response. The song meant something personal. “Anyone who knows me will understand why that means a lot,” she told Whiley onstage, explaining that Winehouse’s openness about life’s ups and downs mirrors her own. She found Winehouse through an aunt, a singer-songwriter who loved jazz and blues. “I think, especially coming from a bit more of a broken background, I definitely feel her a lot,” she said. “She’s someone that always just made me feel seen and heard when it comes to music.”
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FLO and p*nut Make ‘He Can Only Hold Her’ Glow
FLO’s interpretation of “He Can Only Hold Her” was impeccable, with writer-producer p*nut alongside them. It made a neat full-circle moment: he previously told Billboard U.K. he’d co-written the song over a week, adding guitars while Winehouse gathered melodies in her head. Ronson, for his part, named it as a favourite from the record, and the group gave it the respect it needed with buttery vocals, synchronized dance moves and Ronettes-style harmonies.
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Ronson and Yebba Are a Match Made in Heaven
Before “Love Is a Losing Game,” Ronson told the crowd the writing process had been a struggle. A stripped-back moment on the album, Winehouse had initially recorded it with just an acoustic guitar and a hushed vocal. She said she didn’t want strings, as it would sound like “a f–king Disney song,” yet behind her back Ronson took a gamble and assembled a 50-piece string section. When he played her the new version, he said, she rested her head on the mixing desk and declared, “That’s good.” It seemed only fitting that he then enlisted Yebba to perform the track in its sublime, stripped-back state, letting the pain and anguish of the songwriting shimmer.
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Reyez, La Havas and Smith Take On the Heavy Hitters
Ronson introduced Lianne La Havas as someone he’d admired since her first album, praising “her voice, her pen, all of it,” before she performed a sublime “You Know I’m No Good,” followed by Jorja Smith took on the dreamlike “Some Unholy War.” Jessie Reyez, though, matched Keable for the loudest reaction, finishing the night’s solo performances with album opener “Rehab” and bounding across the stage in the song’s final third, whipping her hair back and forth for a final injection of energy.
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An X Factor-Style “Valerie” Brings Everyone Together
For the finale, the guests returned for “Valerie,” the Zutons’ cover that Winehouse made her own with the Dap-Kings. They sang it like a Sunday night on The X Factor, with each performer taking a line, Ronson drifting in with a guitar solo and the band encouraging the whole venue to stand up and dance. Newman rushing forward to get her verse in made for a comical sign that they were having almost too much fun, while Keable took the final ad lib, showcasing her vocal range. “Amy was one of one,” Remi said in a statement announcing the show, and with so many women on stage at once in the show’s final moments, it was clear to see Winehouse’s influence on her peers and everlasting impact on a new generation of artists.
