I only just discovered this thread, and I thought it might be a good opportunity to place the three main sources i.e. the books by Mitch, Janis, and Tyler, side by side. More generally, it’s worth noting that although each of them writes about Amy, they barely mention one another in their accounts. It’s clear that each author brings their own perspective;
in this particular phase, Janis clearly has more distance. With Tyler, it often feels as if you're looking over Amy’s shoulder, and one starts to wonder whether, if we are to believe his account entirely, she was ever anywhere without him.
Below is a brief overview, with a lot of quotations to highlight the differences in perspective.
Tyler deals with Belgrade and the stay in Istanbul in chapter 37 of My Amy. Just as background, according to him it went really bad with her after the Tony Bennett duet.
OK, back to what happened according to Tyler after the Belgrade
“They rushed us out of there like we had a president in the car. She couldn’t remember doing the gig”.
“We flew to Istanbul (…) We were ushered into the hotel via private back door elevator by two security”.
Amy: “I thought the gig was in Poland. Have I gotta do a sound check?”
“We walked down the corridor to our room, both exhausted. Raye and some others came in and two bottles of champagne appeared, even though the gig had been a disaster. (…) Everyone started drinking and then left again, leaving me to deal with everything, as usual”.
He describes her now as “She was like a child who’d been abandoned in a world she didn’t recognize”
Next day, Tyler tells her to cancel the tour. Amy calls Raye. Tyler meets Raye downstaris. Raye is not amused.
“Raye knew what cancelling the tour would mean for Amy’s finances and reputation as an artist, but I told him what he needed to hear. It was the forst time I ever put my foot down with him. I was so sick of it all”.
The tour is cancelled. Everyone goes home. Amy and Tyler stay in the hotel for “four or five days”.
“On our first night in Istanbul on our ow, we were sitting on the balcny, it was almost sunset, she’d eaten, she’d a good sleep, she was happy. She was talking about having a few days in the sun, going home, staying sober, getting herself together, and not doing therse big tours anymore”.
Amy calls Reg. He’s coming to Istanbul.
“we’d all have a holiday in the sun. After days of stress and fear, the worry about what was coming next was finally gone. It was June 20, 2011”
Mitch, in Amy, My daughter (chapter 19 and 20).
“They left the gig and went straight to the airport. All the way, Amy was demanding a drink in the car, but Raye wouldn’t let her have one”
In Istanbul, Amy makes apologies to everyone.
Raye (as cited by Mitch): “This stops here. You can’t go out and work like this. It’s rediculous. If you don’t want to do there gigs, than we don’t do them. But these are a nice run of shows. We’re going to places that we haven’t been to before, in front of people that haven’t seen you before, people that really want to see you. You went onstage and done that. Why? What was the problem?”
“Amy gave him the Amy shrug. She said she didn’t know the answer. Reye cancelled all the remaining gigs”.
According to Mitch the Belgrade disaster was a case of stage fright.
On June 20th Reg comes to Istanbul.
“Once he was there, she seemed a lot better; she was calmer and able to think rationally about the future again. She didn’t want to do any more live work until she got her stage fright under control, and she decided she’d rather spent her time working in her house studio, with her next album still some way off”.
Janis, in Loving Amy:
(very short)
“Amy’s next stop was Turkey, but Raye made the decision to cancel the remaining eleven dates. Reg had already arranged to fly out and meet Amy in Istanbul, and they stayed there for a few days before flying home. I spoke to her a couple of times on the phone, but she mentioned nothing of the aborted tour”.
