Amy Winehouse’s friends and fans toast late singer’s 40th at The Hawley Arms
On what would have been her 40th Birthday, Rolling Stone UK heads to The Hawley Arms in Winehouse's native Camden to toast her memory
The Hawley Arms, located in London’s Camden Town, has a long stand-reputation as a haven where pint-sipping locals can brush shoulders with global music stars. Frequented by creatives and free spirits, it’s no wonder that the late Amy Winehouse found a sense of belonging at the boozer.
You can’t visit The Hawley without feeling the soul of Amy everywhere, which means it’s the perfect place to toast the late star on what would have been her 40th birthday. From the whispers about how she wrote debut album Frank at the end of the bar to the litany of love letters scrawled by fans from over the world on the toilet doors, it’s a place where her memory continues to live on.
At last night’s event, pink and black flowers blossomed across the pub’s downstairs room to the sound of Amy’s own (and favourite) tunes courtesy of Vinyl DJ, Bioux Hayes. A giant ’40’ Balloon and pink drapes also covered the towering ceiling that Amy herself, once used to dance under. It’s the work of friends, family and adoring fans who came together to ensure that the celebration looked like everything a girl deserves on her birthday.
Upstairs, ‘The Trouble’ band oozed glamour and ferocity, the very spirit that the late singer embodied. The band, a six piece, fronted by three pin-up beehive rocking beauties, sung everything from their own material to rock & roll covers.
Speaking to Rolling Stone UK, Camden regular Match Sinkiewicz said: “Tonight’s celebration truly reflected how special Amy was, it showed how sacred her music is to us. the people that all come together under one roof. a community which Amy was once at the very heart of, a real celebration of a true legend.”
If the star-studded walls of ‘The Hawley Arms’ could speak, they would undoubtedly tell tales of late night parties and Amy’s integral role in the pub’s history. But in the absence of that, last night was a pretty good alternative – an outpouring of immeasurable love for an artist who left us all too soon, but whose musical legacy will prove eternal.
“I fall in love every day. Not with people but with situations,” Amy herself once said. You sense she would have loved the one displayed in Camden last night.