Comedian Russell Brand got serious at the MTV Video Music Awards as he kick-started a tribute to his "mate" Amy Winehouse.
Brand admitted he initially thought the tragic fellow Brit was nothing but "a crazy person" but he was stunned when he heard her singing at a Paul Weller show
in London.
"First time I met her, she was kind of a daft, dopey person, like, just wandering around, a little bit crazy... She just seemed like an ordinary girl with extraordinary hair." he said.
"The first time though I heard Amy Winehouse sing, I thought, 'This isn't just another London chancer, not just another person milling about, trying to be famous'... I didn't even know it was her... I thought, 'What is this incredible sound, like a timeless sound, like a roar from the guts of humanity; the kind of voice that Billie Holliday sung with, the kind of voice that Ella Fitzgerald sung with... I turned into the arena and I see Amy Winehouse singing.
"That incredible, extraordinary voice coming from that crazy person, a person that I just knew that would wander around, stinking of the booze, just a loopy, loose cannon person. I thought, 'How can that be coming out of her?' After that, I gave her a lot more attention because it became evident on hearing that divine voice that she was a genius.
