Saving Amy Read Online Free Page A

year she [Amy] said, “Dad I am in this concert, will you come and see us?” So I said to my wife, “Well, we have got to go.” So, we went to see her and in a space of a year she could already sing. I remember the song she sang … the Alanis Morissette “Isn’t It Ironic” and it was great, so now in the space of a year she could sing. Whether it was in the right key I don’t know. She could sing and she was very good. …’
    I ask Mitch at what point he believed Amy might be able to have a professional career as a performer.
    ‘She won a scholarship to go to Sylvia Young Drama School 4 , which is one of the top drama schools in London, but she went as an actress and dancer. The singing was – I don’t even know if they heard her sing and I think there was 800 applicants and there were two places and she won one of the places. …
    ‘My friend phoned me up, who is in show business, and said “Go out and buy The Stage [theatre paper].” … So, I went to about 10 newsagents before I found The Stage and there it was – Amy ha[d] won a scholarship and there was a picture of her …. We thought “Wow, now things are starting to move forward a little bit”, but even then we didn’t think about her singing … prior to that she had done a couple of pretty big acting jobs. She was at a theatre in a principal role, in a production as an actress, so that was more what we were really thinking, acting, maybe a little bit of dancing, tap dancing like Ginger Rogers, fabulous. … She loved to dance, but at that stage again there really wasn’t any sort of indication that she was a singer.’
    Janis agrees with this when I interview her and Mitch together. ‘[Amy] was like the jolly kid, always a lovely, lovely child. She was like jolly and jumpy and happy and she was just enjoying it. And that was the most important thing. She enjoyed performing.’
    ‘So, you never pushed her?’ I ask Janis.
    ‘No. And I always said, “What do you call a mother that’s not a pushy Jewish mother” and she said, “Mummy, that’s you !”’
    Mitch says that if anyone was pushy it was his mother, Cynthia, who Amy loved, so much so that she has her Nan’sname tattooed on her body. ‘Amy was always, “Mum, I don’t want to upset Nan,”’ Janis adds.
    ‘What about when she took her to the audition for Annie?’ Mitch recalls. ‘And there was a newspaper article the next day … They sent her along, it wasn’t Sylvia Young, it was Susi Earnshaw 5 , the one before, and they told us and they told Amy we are only sending you [along] for experience because the key’s not your key …. Somehow or other we forgot to tell my Mum about this. So, my Mum before Amy goes on the stage says “Now Amy, this is what you’ve got to do …” … but [Amy] said, “Nan, I’m only going for experience …”.
    ‘Of course, the song’s in the wrong key and she [Amy] comes off stage and my Mum wasn’t nasty to her, but it was, “Amy, why couldn’t you sing the song properly?”, “Nan, I’m trying to explain to you, it’s not my key. I’m only here for the experience.”
    ‘In the papers the next day, there was a review of the auditions and there was a whole section about pushy grandmothers and mothers. She [Cynthia] was [like], “You’ve got to do better.” To my Mum if you put your mind to it you could do anything you want [sic]. Which obviously you can do – but you can’t if it’s in the wrong key.’
    Cynthia’s legacy is long-lasting and Amy frequently refers to her in interviews. We speak about Cynthia a few times in St Lucia and Amy tells me that she misses her still.

    When Amy applied to Sylvia Young, all the applicants were asked to write a short essay about themselves andtheir dreams. The 13-year-old Amy wrote, ‘All my life I have been loud, to the point of being told to shut up. The only reason I have to be this loud is because you have to scream to be heard in my family. … I’ve been told … I have a