Jailed love inspires Amy album
DRUG-BATTLING Amy Winehouse is working on songs for a new album to be released next year and has vowed to get back in the recording studio with top producer Mark Ronson.
She is drawing on the emotionally draining experiences of her past year for a new set of raw songs, which close friends predict will enhance her international reputation.[>
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Prison visits to her husband Blake Fielder-Civil, 26, who awaits sentence for grievous bodily harm against a pub landlord, are a source of inspiration. It is understood that she visited him on Thursday and was buoyed by his attempts to clean up from drugs. [>
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A source said: “There is a positive attempt by both of them to sort themselves out. Blake is encouraging her to get back on stage and be a star and let the world know what she has got. Amy is a lot happier with the relationship now and really wants the marriage to work when he gets out.”[>
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Amy, 24, told a friend recently: “We are so in love, we are a team. I get my nuts off sometimes but it’s never been like, ‘Amy get your life back together’.” For the past six months, she has looked painfully thin, with some fearing she would not have long to live if she continued with the same rock n’ roll lifestyle.[>
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Her bust-up with Ronson earlier this year, which led to her pulling out of singing the theme for the next Bond film, was a graphic indication of a life spiralling out of control. At the time, it was suggested she was divorcing her drug-troubled husband. [>
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But Amy looked as though she had turned a corner when she sang at the Nelson Mandela 90th birthday tribute concert on Friday night. She joined in the closing number, “Free Nelson Mandela”, and, sporting a hair clip with the word “Blake” on it, she added the plea: “Free Blakey, my fella.” [>
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Her powerful voice on Friday night showed no signs of the lung disease emphysema, for which she is being treated at a London hospital. [>
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A source said: “She has been writing new material and now she has sorted things out with Mark she really wants to get back in the studio with him. It is fair to say that Blake being in prison has been an inspiration in some way.”[>
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Last night she was set for another triumph at the Glastonbury festival.[>
