"Written with a searing honesty and published for the tenth anniversary of Amy Winehouse's death, My Amy is an evocative portrait of unbreakable lifelong friendship - and a devastating study into fame, addiction and self-sabotage. Only one person knows what really happened to Amy, other than Amy herself. He is Tyler James, Amy's best friend from the age of thirteen. They met at stage school as two insecure outsiders, formed an instant connection and lived together from their late teenage years right up until the day she died, aged just twenty-seven. Tyler was there by her side through it all. From their carefree early years touring together to the creation of the multiple Grammy-winning Back To Black, which she wrote on their kitchen floor. From her volatile marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil through her escalating addictions, self-harm and eating disorders as the toxic nature of fame warped Amy's reality. For the last three years of her life, Tyler was with her every day when she'd beaten drugs and was close to beating alcoholism too. He also knew better than anyone the real Amy Winehouse who the tabloid-reading public rarely saw - the hilarious, uncompromising force-of-nature busy taking care of everyone else. We all think we know what happened to Amy Winehouse, but we don't. This definitive insider's story tells us all, finally, the truth"--Publisher's description.
Sylvia Patterson Livres




A second memoir from the Costa-shortlisted writer Sylvia Patterson, her story of illness, aging and getting through it all číst celé
I'm Not with the Band
- 437pages
- 16 heures de lecture
The frank, funny and fearless memoir of Sylvia Patterson - one of Britain's best-loved and most influential music writers. Shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award 2016.
This is a three-decade survivor's tale ... a scenic search for elusive human happiness through music, magazines, silly jokes, stupid shoes, useless blokes, hopeless homes, booze, drugs, love, loss, A & E, death, disillusion and hope - while trying to make Prince laugh, startle Beyonce, cheer Eminem up, annoy Madonna, drink with Shaun Ryder and finish off Westlife forever (with varying degrees of success). In 1986, Sylvia Patterson boarded a train to London armed with a tea-chest full of vinyl records, a peroxide quiff and a dream: to write about music, for ever. She got her wish. Escaping a troubled home, Sylvia embarks on a lifelong quest to discover The Meaning of It All. The problem is she's mostly hanging out with flaky pop stars, rock 'n' roll heroes and unreliable hip-hop legends. As she encounters music's biggest names, she is confronted by glamour and tragedy; wisdom and lunacy; drink, drugs and disaster. And Bros. Here is Madonna in her Earth Mother phase, flinging her hands up in horror at one of Sylv's Very Stupid Questions. Prince compliments her shoes while Eminem threatens to kill her. She shares fruit with Johnny Cash, make-up with Amy Winehouse and several pints with the Manics' lost soul-man Richey Edwards. She finds the Beckhams fragrant in LA, a Gallagher madferrit in her living room and Shaun Ryder and Bez as you'd expect, in Jamaica. From the 80s to the present day, I'm Not with the Band is a funny, barmy, utterly gripping chronicle of the last thirty years in music and beyond. It is also the story of one woman's wayward search for love, peace and a wonderful life. And whether, or not, she found them