By Mitch Winehouse
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None of Amy’s friends can remember exactly what led to her meeting Blake Fielder-Civil. It was clear that they loved each other â€" but it was also clear that Blake had his problems.
In 2006, Blake and his friend Michael Brown had been drinking in the Macbeth pub in Hoxton, East London.
Run by James King, it was a well-known music venue frequented by celebrities. During the evening King had thrown Brown out of the pub and Brown had taken his revenge. When King left at about midnight, Brown pounced on him and knocked him to the ground.
Daddy's girl: in the final serialisation of his book, Mitch Winehouse talks about life after daughter Amy
Blake joined in, stamping on King and kicking him in the head and body. King was so badly hurt that he needed 12 hours of surgery, with metal plates and bolts to reconstruct his face.
Blake and Brown were charged with grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent. They pleaded not guilty and the case was transferred to the Crown Court.
Now, more than a year later, in November 2007, Blake was due to face the charges. Amy was terrified he would go to prison. She refused to accept he was guilty. I kept my opinion to myself.
Amy’s mind was also on her attempt to return to America to appear on television talk shows. It had been arranged that she would be allowed entry to the States on condition that she had a drug test. As soon as I heard that, my heart sank.
United front: Blake Fielder-Civil out with his mother in 2007
The following Tuesday, Amy did indeed fail the drug test.
Amy was upset, and the next day we went to The Hawley Arms in Camden Town, where I insisted we stuck to soft drinks.
Even the arrival of a royalty cheque for £750,000 from Universal Records didn’t cheer her up.
I was just so frustrated. ‘It’s your own fault you can’t go to America,’ I told her. ‘What are you going to do about it?’
She fiddled with a button on her shirt. ‘I know, Dad,’ she mumbled.
Then she looked up and I saw something in her eyes that I hadn’t seen for a while. ‘I’m going to try, Dad. I’m really going to try.’
After a while, she stood up. ‘Anyway, Dad, let’s not be miserable any more.’
When she went to the bar, I noticed just how fabulous she looked that day. About half an hour later she got into a row with an extremely drunk girl and ended up slapping her.
Later we went to Soho to get something to eat, but were interrupted constantly by Blake phoning, wanting to know what we were talking about.
Each time, Amy would tell him virtually word for word our conversation. It was annoying.
The following day, I had not long arrived at Amy’s flat in Bow, East London, to see her and Blake, when I glanced through the window and noticed about five police cars drawing up outside. A few seconds later, the police were hammering on the door.
Blake was cautioned and arrested, though not for anything related to drugs. Blake’s charge was on suspicion of perverting the course of justice, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
‘Baby, I love you. I’ll be fine,’ Amy called, as they led him away in handcuffs.
From the window, I saw Blake being put into one of the police cars. Amy rushed over to it and hammered on the window, shouting: ‘I’ll be fine, I love you.’
AMY'S SONG ABOUT ME WAS 'BANG ON'
Amy had a load of recordings on CDs and I was flicking through them when she snatched one away from me.
‘You don’t want to listen to that one, Dad,’ she said. ‘It’s about you.’
I insisted she played What Is It About Men and, when I heard her sing, I immediately understood why: ‘Understand, once he was a family man/ So surely I would never, ever go through it first hand/ Emulate all the sh** my mother hates/ I can’t help but demonstrate my Freudian fate.’
It made me think that perhaps my leaving her mother Janis had had a more profound effect on Amy than I’d previously thought. The lyrics were so well observed, pertinent and, frankly, bang on.Â
At this point the details were sketchy because Blake had kept from Amy what he had been doing, but apparently he’d been worried that he would be found guilty of GBH so he had tried to bribe King into not testifying and withdrawing his complaint.
Unfortunately, the confusion didn’t end there. At about 9.30pm that evening Blake’s mother, Georgette, who had been told about Blake’s arrest, arrived with his step-father, Giles, and one of Blake’s brothers.
As I opened the front door, she barged past me screaming: ‘You grassed Blake!’
I didn’t know what to say. Giles joined in, and they accused me of setting up Blake by concocting the bribery story.
Within seconds everyone was shouting at once and I felt the room close in.
‘Oi, leave my dad alone,’ Amy said, defending me.
‘Shut up, b****,’ Giles yelled.
That was it. I lost it and hit him. Suddenly we were all fighting, and Georgette and Giles were both landing punches.
Then Blake’s brother hit me and I fell to the floor. I was being attacked by all three of them.
In the middle of everything, Amy was screaming: ‘No, no, no. Don’t hurt my dad!’
Somehow or other I ended up pinning the Civils to the floor. I was shaking as I said to them: ‘If you don’t stop this, somebody is going to get hurt here tonight and it isn’t going to be me.’
Global superstar: Amy, with her trademark beehive hairstyle, at the height of her success
Rising star: Amy dressed as Minnie Mouse (left) aged six and in her teens (right) while at drama school
While I was trying to keep them on the floor I ended up with my trousers round my ankles.
After things had calmed down, Georgette continued to accuse me of setting Blake up. It wasn’t until the next day that we learned what had really happened. Information had been passed to the police by a newspaper. Georgette never apologised.
In June 2008, Blake Fielder-Civil admitted assaulting James King and perverting the course of justice. He was sentenced to 27 months in prison and was released in February this year.
He is now back in jail, this time serving a 32-month sentence in Leeds Prison for burglary and possession of a fake gun.
MINGLING WITH HOLLYWOOD'S A-LISTERS
Amy went to America to promote her album Back To Black in spring 2007.
Her trip began in Austin, Texas, then went on to West Hollywood, California, where she played the Roxy Theatre.
There were a lot of big names at that gig, including Bruce Willis (pictured right), and they wanted to go to Amy’s dressing room to say hello.
Bruce said to Amy: ‘Hi, I’m Bruce Willis. Would you like to come to Las Vegas with me to celebrate my birthday?’
Quick as anything, Amy said: ‘Only if I can bring my dad!’
Bruce was astounded and Amy carried on the joke: ‘Shall I call him and see if he wants to come?’ Apparently Bruce beat a hasty retreat.
Danny DeVito was at one of the other gigs and Amy kept sidling up to the bar next to him, mouthing: ‘Look, I’m taller than him.’
And she was, if not by much.
My mum Cynthia had always adored jazz, and before she met my father she had dated the great jazz musician Ronnie Scott.
At a gig in 1943, Ronnie introduced her to band leader Glenn Miller, who tried to nick her away from him.
And while my mum fell in love with Glenn Miller’s music, Ronnie fell in love with her.
He was devastated when she ended the relationship, but they remained close friends until he died in 1996. He wrote about my mum in his autobiography.
When she was a little girl, Amy loved hearing my mother recount her stories about Ronnie, the jazz scene and all the things they had got up to.
Young love: Mitch's mother Cynthia, who dated jazz legend Ronnie Scott
As she grew up she started to get into jazz in a big way; Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan were her early favourites. Amy loved one particular story I told her about Sarah Vaughan and Ronnie Scott.
Whenever Ronnie had a big name on at his Soho club, he would always invite my mum, my auntie Lorna, my sister, me and whoever else we wanted to bring.
We saw some fantastic acts there â€" Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett and a whole host of others â€" but for me, the most memorable was Sarah Vaughan.
We went backstage afterwards and there was a line of people waiting to be introduced to her. When it was Mum’s turn, Ronnie said: ‘Sarah, this is Cynthia. She was my childhood sweetheart and we’re still very close.’
Then Ronnie said: ‘Sarah, this is Matt Monro.’
And Sarah said: ‘What do you do, Matt?’
She really had no idea who he was. A lot of American singers don’t know what’s happening outside New York or Los Angeles, let alone what’s going on in Britain.
I felt a bit sorry for Matt because he was, in my opinion, the greatest British male singer of all time â€" and he wasn’t best pleased either.
He walked out of the club and never spoke to Ronnie Scott again.
© Mitch Winehouse 2012. Abridged extract. Amy, My Daughter, by Mitch Winehouse, is published by HarperCollins, priced £20. To order your copy at the special price of £15.99 with free pp, call the Review Bookstore on 0843 382 1111 or visit mailshop.co.uk/books. All of Mitch Winehouse’s proceeds from the book will be donated to the Amy Winehouse Foundation. Visit amywinehousefoundation.org
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