There wasn’t much interest in the official “I hate Amy Winehouse” tour t-shirts on sale in the entrance and the PA wasn’t sounding too good in the cavernous hall itself. The support band, Mr. Hudson & the Library got a warm reception was Mr. Hudson came on wearing the type of clothing that would suit the owners’ enclosure at Cheltenham Racecourse. A bit early in his career for the country gent look but clearly they are aiming for mass appeal with a odd mix of influences from Bowie, Police and Culture Club topped off with a steel pan. Time Out’s quote of “The next big thing” would seem optimistic until the keyboard player had a big jazzy ‘My Favorite Things’ type solo that got the crowd rather excited. The band finished with the single, ‘Too Late, Too Late’ (out today) that got a very promising crowd response.

The stage was decked out in black drapes with six living room lampshades to give the place an illegal drinking club den feel for Ms. Winehouse. Much was made in the popular press of her multiple dress changes at the Brits the previous week, but she looked good in a 60s style gown of some sort. More importantly, she was sounding good and ably supported by the big band backing. A nice touch to have two male backing singers as some eye candy for the mainly female audience.

The debut album Frank is ignored as the band fits the Back To Black album produced by Mark Ronson (who also part worked on Robbie Williams’ latest album) and Salaam Remi (Jurassic 5, Nas, Pras Michel). The highlights from the album get the best reactions, like the singles ‘Rehab’ and ‘You Know I’m No Good’. She was also on form for the soulful ballads like ‘Me & Mr. Jones’ and ‘Tears Dry On Their Own’.

She admitted to only getting the lyrics wrong twice in the show, as she sips a glass of diet coke. They climax with an encore of the Toots And The Maytal’s classic ‘Monkey Man’. Previously a favorite of The Specials live shows, as the 2-Tone reggae explosion is now over 25 years ago, a Winehouse version of a Pauline Black/Roda Dakar reggae-ska revival is something that we could only drool over.

All 14 dates are sold out and it’s now official, as someone in the crowd shouted out, “Amy we love you.”

Links
One Week To Live 19-25 February Cover feature Amy Winehouse “I’ve got loads of stuff left over from this one to be honest” www.oneweektolive.com
www.amywinehouse.com
mrhudsonandthelibrary.com
myspace.com/mrhudson
www.tootsandthemaytals.net
www.thespecials.com