Many of us SMILER’s attended the fabulous 2004 concert at the Royal Albert Hall. We all remember Ronnie Wood on stage and his fantastic guitar play during Stay With Me and Maggie May. But who remembers that skinny girl from Glasgow who sang the wonderful duet version of I Don’t Want To Talk About It? ..Amy Belle.
The video of that song is on youtube and with nearly 300 million clicks it is a real topper among all Rod Stewart videos on this platform.
But what is Amy Belle doing? was she ever heard of her again?
Well, here’s her little story so far….
Amy Belle was born and raised in Glasgow. She was the youngest of three children and in her teenager days she started out busking covers of R.E.M and Alanis Morissette.
At the age of 17 she left her hometown to find her music starting point in London. Three years later she joined a pop-folk group called The Alice Band. Another three years later, in 2004, she was spotted by a friend of Rod Stewart while busking outside an underground station in London.
This coincidence brought her from the tube station right on stage of The Royal Albert Hall. We all remember her standing up there very nervous and shy and Rod had nothing else to do than to remember of the football rivalry in Glasgow. “Don’t worry about the football”, he said …. ” But this girl can sing…..”
Oh yes, she could sing. Rod started the song as usual but when Amy started her first verse with a strong and clear voice the audience gave a round of applause for such a fantastic performance.
After the duet with Rod Amy moved to Los Angeles, through contacts she made via Rod’s management. Arrived in the USA she recorded a track with Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek from The Doors and wrote two songs for Miley Cyrus.
In 2009 she recorded a cover version of I Don’t Want To Talk About It which was released on her album Lost In The Shortcut. Besides that album she produced two EP’s in 2008 – Acoustic & Slipping Under.
https://open.spotify.com/album/6JDhV7fBYoPzz2W7ZbyFCT?highlight=spotify:track:6SnVuI351lweIvBsV8wOXv
Spotify link I Don’t Want To Talk About It:
In 2014 she performed several shows in Germany and The Netherlands.
MARTIN HEIDT