Amy, Amy, Amy.

I don't want to be another one of those people who drags on about what a tragic loss the death of Amy Winehouse is but a week on I'd like to share my personal view.

I've been fascinated with the '27 Club' since my early teens, I always thought there was something romantic about it, worded best by Neil Young - 'it's better to burn out than fade away'. This was a motto that Kurt Cobain in particular bonded to. I always thought there was something beautiful in dying before you become a bloated diluted version of your former self, that leaving a finite set of albums for people to adore was the way to do things.

The thing about Amy's death is that it is the first of these 'live fast/die youngs' to occur within my adult life; I was slightly too young to be aware of Kurt Cobain's passing. I can remember the first time I heard Frank, played to me by my grandparents. I was instantly hooked. It had all the aspects of jazz and soul that they had taught me to love as a child but seemed so current and fresh at the same time. The honesty on that record is what gripped me fully, you know she had lived each word she sang and I was shocked to learn that she was only in her early twenties, her voice has the ache of someone who has seen and felt so much more than you would think possible in such a short amount of life.

Back To Black secured Amy as a household name, and her extra-curricular activities secured her as tabloid fodder. I'm angry now that all of the redtop papers that displayed her looking at her worst, falling out of taxis in the early hours or secretly filmed by people she thought she could trust have now completely changed their focus to look at what a tragic loss this really is, and the impact her music had. Where was that six months ago? She became such an easy target and it is only now that you can appreciate how sick her addiction had made her.

So what am I saying... To me Amy was an incredible singer, songwriter and musician and that is something I repeated time and time again when people passed her off as a 'junkie'. To me it's not romantic or poetic, it's a loss to her poor family, it's a loss to the struggling music scene and it's a loss to fans who saw beyond the caricature she was pasted as and onto the beautiful music she was making.

RIP Amy.

I haven't forgotten you yet.

Hi, how are ya?
Within a week of creating this account I discovered the wonder of Tumblr and am going to try and keep both going. I've been working hard on a new story currently titled Situation One - it's my attempt to relive the three incredible years I spent at University, to sum up the stories I shared at that time and to help me move on into the next chapter.
I'm currently heading towards four thousand words and listening to a documentary on Jeff Buckley. That's right, I can multitask.
Peace&Love.
Paul.

You & Me & Him & Dad.

It's pretty much accepted that everyone is envious of my home life.
With that in mind I have decided to start making sketches based on the strange things that happen in our boy house. I've just uploaded the first one which makes me laugh each time I watch it. If other people 'get it' then there will be more, we're trying to plan what the other episodes could be about and are kicking about a couple of ideas.
I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise to Jamie Oliver who is actually quite good at cooking and his mincing lisp isn't as bad as we make it out to be.

Regardez:
You & Me & Him & Dad Proudly Present... Doing A Jamie.

Peace&Love.
Paul