15 replies to this topic

[Jayne]

She’s Amy Winehouse’s best friend and has seen the dark side of extreme fame at first hand. This has made the singer-songwriter Remi Nicole cautious, particularly now, as she stands poised to relaunch herself into the limelight. Nicole’s first album bombed. If you do know her name, it is most likely because, as well as Winehouse, she counts Nick Grimshaw, Agyness Deyn and Alexa Chung, friends garnered from her first roll of the celebrity dice, among her closest cohorts. But it frustrates her that she is best known for her “celebrity friends” , and on the eve of the release of her second album, it’s not doing her any favours. “I feel I’ve made a really good album, and because of the people I hang out with, it’s being overshadowed,” she says, with a north London schoolgirl inflection. Signed to Island Records off the back of a song she wrote “because I was young and bored”, and offered a “huge” publishing deal (which she spent on a three-bedroom house in a converted church in Highbury), her first album, My Conscience and I, got lost, with Lily Allen, Winehouse, Adele and Duffy emerging around the same time. “I let a lot of people down. And I felt guilty for taking all that money and not delivering,” she says. Luckily for Nicole, Island has given her a second chance.

Petite and tomboyish in brogues, skinny jeans and an Aran-knit cardi, her eyes made up with just a slick of liquid liner behind a pair of geek specs, Nicole says that she was mainly in it the first time around “because I thought it would be cool, a laugh, a piss-up”. All of which it was — perhaps too much so.

“I went out for six months straight, drank a lot of alcohol. And then I was like, ‘What am I doing?’ I’ve seen what drink can do to people, I’ve got an alcoholic in my family. It became not fun.” It was during this phase that she started hanging out with Winehouse. She supported Winehouse on her UK tour in 2007/8 and the two became friends and drinking buddies. A Camden girl born and bred (she went to the “mainly white, Jewish” Jewish Free School), Nicole says she knew the singer “a little bit before”. She also says Winehouse is “one of the few limelight people that I love unconditionally”.

It must have been difficult to watch her friend hit such a hardcore downward spiral.

“I actually spoke to her for the first time in ages today. I had to take a step back in the end,” she says. “There were times when I felt drained being around her.” When I ask about her feelings towards Blake Fielder-Civil, she is diplomatic. “She loved him, so I accepted him. Amy taught me a lot about love. One thing I respect her most for is that she loves wholeheartedly.” She also says they have the kind of friendship that means “we argue loads. But there are so many qualities in her that I’d love, and there are so many qualities of me that I’d love her to have”. She says Winehouse has “a heart of gold”, and when I suggest that this is what makes her story all the more tragic, she snaps back, “Well, I’ve been around drugs and not taken them. That comes down to character”, sounding like she has reached the end of her tether with that argument.

Having visited Winehouse in St Lucia this summer, however, Nicole believes that she is “out of that [drugs] stage now. I’ve seen it with my own eyes and some of it has been terrible, but thank God she didn’t die. Hopefully this will make her stronger”.

She tells me another reason they haven’t spoken is because “Amy said she lost a bit of respect for me when she read some press I’d done that was all about my celebrity connections, which upset me. I think she wants me just to be about my music”. There is an air of mentor/student about the relationship, and I tell her that people will likely compare them. Nicole’s new album, Cupid Shoot Me, pays homage to the same 1960s girl-group sound as Winehouse. “That’s fine,” says Nicole. “I’d rather be compared to her than Lily Allen.” Which her new record has been, by Mojo magazine.

The pressure is certainly on for Nicole. “It wasn’t hard to fail the first time, but it would be now. But I don’t want to be a celebrity, I want to be an artist. I’ve met everyone, and some people are so self-obsessed... I don’t want to be that. I’ve seen people warp.”

She says her favourite track on the new album is Going It Alone, a song about “not needing anybody else to feel good about myself. I think I’m very clever for writing that. And what’s annoying is it’s the one song that everybody says sounds like Amy Winehouse. But that’s also a good thing”.

Cupid Shoot Me is out now

http://entertainment...icle6827340.ece

[Lainey]

Ruh-Roh. The Times just called Remi 'Amy Winehouse's Best Friend'!

[kevd7]

i don't know anything about her artistically. is she good? she's sure been there for la winehouse

[lyricgenius]

I've heard her in concert (Nov. 2007), I don't think she's a major talent, but I quite like her as a person and I'm thankful Amy has her for a friend.

[pearljo]

She seems like a really cool girl, lovely to look at, a great friend, and a cool singer's name.

[Mama_Haze]

“I’d rather be compared to her than Lily Allen.”

I love her even more now

Lots of luck to her, she's a great singer and a nice person

[sarahbol]

I agree with Dave and Phil. Her music isn't really my cup of tea but she seems like a lovely girl and I did enjoy her little gig.

[Domi]

I like Remi's music And she seems to be such a cool girl -

[Rockesquirrel]

I think Winehouse meant, was that why was Remi going about her 'celebrity connections'? Given that her buddy is, ahem....unpredictable......maybe, Winehouse thought that those 'celebrity connections', included her. IMHO, Winehouse has too many damned people whispering in her ear. I really do believe that she needs to work on herself before latching onto folk. Previous records have shown, the two Alexes (Haynes and Foden) and Blake blahblahblahing to the press. Remi has shown remarkable discretion and loyalty, it's quite a shame, really. Maybe those two will patch up.

[sans_amour]

She seems like a really good friend to Amy which is nice but in my opinion she's not a big talent at all and I think it's silly for someone to use their association with other celebrities as a reason for their album bombing... I'd think that if the album was any good at all, then having added publicity from being seen with a bigger talent would help you? Maybe I'm wrong... maybe her music is just mediocre in comparison to other artists (like Allen, Duffy, etc)?

[Tara]

“I’d rather be compared to her than Lily Allen.”

I love her even more now

Lots of luck to her, she's a great singer and a nice person

Yes, that line won me over as well! Good luck to Remi, she's a great girl with plenty of common sense, thank goodness.

[Lainey]

Amy's best friend talks about her best friend. Story and video

http://www.mirror.co...15875-21780523/

[Rockesquirrel]

This is one example of a true-blue friend. She's not starf**king Amy and name-dropping. Thank goodness.

[kevd7]

oh, she's so sweet. i can just imagine the pressure on her. capitalism has really done it's thing on the arts these days, which is such a shame. a real shame!

[PabloD]

Her last single was really cool (Standing tears apart). She seems nice, not taking advantage of being someone's friend.

Pitty that her first album didn't do well. It's really difficult to have a hit, isn't it?