The Weekend in London City

Remembering the extraordinary talents of Amy Winehouse.

A month ago we brainstormed with  Mapoo Little about an idea for an Amy Winehouse concert on Saturday evening.   We thought it would be fun to have Mapoo using her powerful and tuneful voice to sing the songs of Amy and for us to come up with a satirical stage and set reflecting the chaotic lifestyle of this iconic singer.

Given the sad news yesterday of Amy dying in the afternoon, we felt inappropriate to continue with the concert as planned.   Many people were in our collecting IM's urging us to go ahead with the planned schedule, saying it would pay homage, whilst an equal amount advised against it, saying it would distasteful given that the news had just broken.

We decided to disappoint fans, rather than risk offending people and Mapoo put on a truly amazing  concert featuring the songs of Lady Gaga with only about fifteen minutes notice of a change of schedule.  If ever a decision went down to the wire, this was it.  Rightly or wrongly, we decided to reschedule Amy Winehouse for another day once everyone gets a chance to comes to terms with the fact that this immensely talented, yet tragic character is no longer with us.

During the concert, Mapoo paid tribute to Amy and sang two songs as tribute, including "Rehab", which was extremely poignant, if not a little unnerving.

People were saying that if only she hadn't done the drugs, pills and booze, that we would have this talent going on to greater things and producing more soulful songs for us for years to come.  Could this be true, or was the very lifestyle, the chaotic and unhappy existence fuelled by an aggressive relationship and the mood altering substances, that put her mind into the dark and remote recesses from where she could write her musical, bleak poetry?  We shall never know.

We have all seen Amy Winehouse recently, a shadow of her former self and whilst we are shocked at her passing, it was not entirely unexpected.   It is immensely sad that anyone so young should self destruct in such a public manner and that she felt she could only access her creativity by being in a mind-set that untimately lead to her death.  Amy Winehouse, singer, songwriter and talking-point was 27.

Mapoo Little LIVE in Concert in London City: Soho