Touring and appearances

Touring and appearances

Amy Winehouse performing at the Bowery Ballroom, 2007Winehouse toured in conjunction with the Back to Black album's release. She performed headlining gigs in September and November 2006, including one of the Little Noise Sessions charity concerts at the Union Chapel, Islington. On 31 December 2006, Winehouse appeared on Jools Holland's Annual Hootenanny and performed a cover of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" along with Paul Weller and Holland's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra. She also performed Toots and the Maytals' "Monkey Man". She began a run of another fourteen gigs beginning in February 2007. During the summer of 2007, Winehouse performed at various festivals, including UK's Glastonbury Festival,[72] Chicago's Lollapalooza festival, Rock Werchter and Baltimore's Virgin Music Festival. However, Winehouse cancelled her appearance at Provinssirock in Seinäjoki, Finland on 17 June 2007, citing a sore throat.[73] Amid controversy surrounding her health, drug use, and her husband, in October 2007, she cancelled her tour dates for the remainder of the year.

Although her father, manager and various members of her touring team reportedly tried to dissuade her, Winehouse performed at the Rock in Rio Lisboa festival in Lisbon, Portugal in May 2008.[12] Although the set was plagued by a late arrival and problems with her voice, the crowd warmed to her. In addition to her own material she performed two Specials covers.[74]

Winehouse performed at Nelson Mandela's 90th Birthday Party concert at London's Hyde Park on the 27 June.[75] and the next day at the Glastonbury Festival..[76] On the 12 July at the Oxegen Festival she performed a well received 50 minute set[77] which was followed the next day by a 14 song set a T in the Park.[78] On 16 August she played at the Staffordshire leg of the V Festival the following day played the Chelmsford leg of the festival. Organizers said that Winehouse attracted the biggest crowds of the festival. Audience reaction was reported as mixed.[79] On 6 September she was the headliner at the Bestival festival. She performed what was described as a polished set which ended with her storming off the stage. Her hour late arrival caused her set to be cut off at the halfway point due to a curfew.[80] According to a July statement by Winehouse's father, Bestival was her last live performance "for the foreseeable future" because of her health problems.[81]


Club nights
On 10 July 2008, Winehouse launched her own club night, Snakehips at the Monarch, in the Camden Monarch venue in London. Although billed as a DJ battle between her and another DJ, she stayed behind the decks swaying as another person actually spun 1960’s music.[82] She appeared at another Snakeships event at the Monarch on the night of 11 September. After reportedly arriving two hours late she spun music and played a short acoustic set.[83]