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By Root 799 0

Michael Brown, aged thirty-nine, were due to stand trial at London’s Snaresbrook Crown Court on charges of assault causing grievous bodily harm relating to an incident in June of that year. However, days before that trial was due, Blake was also arrested and charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in relation to the assault case. He was remanded in custody to await trial and, as he was led away in handcuffs, Amy shouted to him, ‘Baby, I love you, I’ll be all right.’ Blake had time to shout back, ‘I love you too’ before he was pushed into a police car. Both Blake and Michael Brown denied the charges. He was refused bail. ‘Amy’s totally distraught. She kept saying to me, “I love him. He’s done nothing wrong,”’ said her mother-in-law Georgette Civil.’ She was really upset because she couldn’t go and visit him. Amy has told me she’ll stand by Blake whatever happens.’ Soon, there were six men facing conspiracy charges.

Against this backdrop of pain, uncertainty and controversy, Amy hoped that the UK leg of her European tour would see at least a sense of calm return to her world. Back on home turf, she hoped, she could draw increased wellbeing from her domestic fanbase. It is worth recalling – before we turn to this ill-fated tour – how brilliant Amy can be onstage when she is on form.

Somerset House has been described as ‘Britain’s first office block, built when Britain suddenly realised it had an Empire, but a capital city that looked like Scunthorpe’, by The Times, which added that as a concert venue it was ‘much too posh for a mosh pit’. Amy performed there in the summer of 2007 and charmed all present. Described as being ‘as meek as a kitten’ by Gigwise, she was certainly in a mellow mood. She confessed to the audience that she ‘was not the most organised of people – but I’ve been looking forward to this gig for I can’t tell you how long’.

Introducing a blistering cover of ‘Hey Little Rich Girl’ by the Specials, Amy gave a cheeky nod to her recent no-shows at concerts, saying, ‘This is a song I’ve been doing when I’m away. That’s obviously when I show up for a gig.’ She hopped off stage a few times to kiss Blake, who was waiting in the wings. As she announced the final song, ‘Valerie’, some of the crowd booed her impending exit from the stage. ‘Boo you,’ she joked. ‘I’ve been here at least an hour and I haven’t even collapsed once.’

Caspar Llewellyn-Smith, writing in the Observer, acknowledged Amy’s relatively punctual arrival on stage and added,

The gig that followed showed her abilities to their very best. She was dressed to the nines and impossibly thin in her checked dress with micro-skirt, and with her massive back-combed beehive which, one often fears, will topple her over. And yes, she was slightly crazed and tired, at times, and emotional, possibly. But the real question was: who would want it any other way?

The Sun said ‘she deserves a champagne reception’. During ‘Rehab’, Amy had been joined onstage by friend Kelly Osbourne. Amy had indeed been looking forward to these open-air concerts. ‘I’m really looking forward to it, because I never went to any festivals when I was younger,’ she says of her hefty summer touring schedule. I used to go camping but by the time I was old enough to go to them I wasn’t interested any more.’

So, all was well at Somerset House. However, the opening night of the winter 2007 tour at the Birmingham NIA was far from a calm affair, and the press coverage in the ensuing days only added to the sense of controversy and danger that surrounded her. ‘It was one of the saddest nights of my life,’ wrote the Birmingham Mail’s music critic Andy Coleman in his review of the concert. ‘I saw a supremely talented artist reduced to tears, stumbling around the stage and, unforgivably, swearing at the audience,’ he wrote. He even refused to give the concert the paper’s customary star rating, since ‘this was a show by a troubled individual that should never have gone ahead’. Harsh words, and yet these were among the kinder conclusions drawn from perhaps Amy’s most controversial