Portishead's Geoff Barrow has slammed the late Amy Winehouse calling her 'Whiney Shitehouse' and that she didn't have a particular great talent brandishing her voice as 'fake'.
The producer was speaking out against female singers today saying "most female singers on a commercial level all have the same voice". In particular he spoke of Winehouse: "I think Whiney Shitehouse - Amy Winehouse, by the end of it, had just become a comic character of herself and how she sang. I saw her with an electric guitar in a little pub in Bristol and people were going 'That's amazing,' but it wasn't at all. Then she had the big drug problem and all the tabloids got involved and said she would start being Minnie Riperton or whatever it was."
He went on to say she was overrated and because of her drug addictions people could never criticise her "It seemed fake, but because there was a massive drug problem you couldn't say it was fake, but her actual voice was fake. She had a real life with a fake voice". Speaking about his own band and singer Beth Gibbons "When Portishead started, Beth (Gibbons) was very influenced by Janis Joplin. She sang in her voice but it was based on singers that she liked."
Barrow received a massive backlash for his controversial remarks as they come just days after the singers ashes were scattered near her Camden home. He later apologised "I'm sure she was a lovely caring talented person - I didn't know her. Very sad that she passed away - but I never dug her vibe."
