34 replies to this topic

[livethroughthis]

Do we really know? I'm sure the gossip must be out by now...

[BeehiveQueen]

She had relapsed.

[livethroughthis]

Yes but what was she on? This wasn't the regular shambles, and who MADE her perform, because she was in no condition at all, totally disoriented, this was a special case and quite disturbing really, it wasn't at all like the regular shambolic shows.

[Jayne]

I personally think she agreed to the shows and underestimated the effects of alcohol and medication. She was different in Belgrade and I don't think it was drugs or that she was drunk. I think she had a few drinks to calm the nerves but the effect of that and the Lithium is what we witnessed that night.

I think nobody could have predicted that and I don't blame anyone for thinking the concert should go ahead what I have a problem with is that let her stay onstage for so long when quite obviously there was a problem.

[Cecilia]

There are a couple of threads about belgrade, i'm sure you can easily find them when you do a search, i'm on my phone right now so i'm not going to look forr them right now, but try searching to see if there is already a thread on the topic you want to discuss instead of starting a new one in future please. Anyways, she was on librium for alcohol withdrawal, not lithium, different thing altogether, not that it's a great idea to be drinking on any prescription medication of course. Remember That video of Amy drinking the vodka in that shop on her way to rehab not long vefore the Belgrade trip? She was in rehab for how a long , a week maybe? At that point i knew the tour was either not going to happen or go disastrously wrong, she clearly was not ready for that kind of pressure. I was in hospital myself at the time and the only newspapers i had access to were some tabloids, can't remember which, but they absolutely thrashed her, it was disgraceful, how could they be so cruel, broke my heart. That gig should never have happened and the people criticising it should have shown some compassion.

[livethroughthis]

I personally think she agreed to the shows and underestimated the effects of alcohol and medication. She was different in Belgrade and I don't think it was drugs or that she was drunk. I think she had a few drinks to calm the nerves but the effect of that and the Lithium is what we witnessed that night.

I think nobody could have predicted that and I don't blame anyone for thinking the concert should go ahead what I have a problem with is that let her stay onstage for so long when quite obviously there was a problem.

Was the tour that was planned cancelled because of the Belgrade show? I don't recall

[TBR]

Was the tour that was planned cancelled because of the Belgrade show? I don't recall

I'd imagine so, considering they were going ahead with the Belgrade show despite the rehab trip. She couldn't have continued even if she wanted to because like [MENTION=1624]Cecilia[/MENTION] said, she was getting universally trashed by tabloids and journalists around the world and her label/management needed to be seen to be taking action. I'm not condoning it but it's not surprising that her drinking may have gotten far worse by that point because of the amount of pressure she was under. I wish Body and Soul was released while she was still alive because some good press may have relieved some of the pressure/guilt surrounding Belgrade and helped her ease off the drinking a little, but that's only a hypothetical.

[livethroughthis]

Come to think of it, maybe the tour would have saved her life.

[Birdieava]

will never know what really happened, what exactly she took,, but its a consensus i think that this time it WAS different from all the other times that she seemed out of it. if it was perhaps a reaction to medication, i dont know,, but its over. its so tragic i cant even begin to make a conjecture. i have watched the clips many times, looking for an answer, but you all know how that goes. cant find it.

Per Moby, who performed at the same venue that night:

"After our show in Serbia I wish I'd been able to help Amy. I'm sorry."
Moby posted this tweet on the evening of July 23, hours after news broke that Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London apartment. The popular DJ and dance-pop hitmaker was ostensibly the last musician she'd share a bill with: following the June 18 show at Belgrade's Tuborg Festival -- during which Winehouse slurred through her set to the echoes of boos from the 20,000-strong crowd -- she would cancel the rest of her European tour.
Moby, whose new album "Destroyed" was released in May, still had to headline that night.

Amy Winehouse Found Dead in London | Celebs Mourn on Twitter

"The moment I got out of the car, I knew something was wrong," Moby tells The Hollywood Reporter from a stop in Rome on Sunday (July 24) night. "From backstage, I could hear the audience booing louder than the music."
Making his way to the side of the stage while Winehouse was already on, Moby took in the troubling sight. "Amy was just standing there, swaying back and forth and mumbling occasionally," he recalls. "The band were playing quietly and looking uncomfortable and the audience was looking on in disbelief." He, too, could not believe his eyes.
"She was on stage for about 30 minutes, then she left and was lying down on a flight case backstage surrounded by some people," Moby continues. "I was horrified."
As video of the performance painfully shows, Winehouse returned to the stage but struggled to get through songs like "Back to Black" and "Valerie," which she had performed hundreds of times. After an hour, Winehouse was put in a car and rushed back to the hotel while the band played on without her in order to fulfill the contractual time obligation.
Moby, who has been sober for several years, wanted to check in on Winehouse ahead of the disastrous performance. "Since Amy had just gotten out of rehab, I had naively and presumptuously hoped to talk to her before or after her show to find out how she was feeling and to see if she needed any help," he says. "There's a fairly extensive network of musicians on tour who are all trying to stay sober, and we generally reach out to each other and offer support when and where we can."
That talk would never materialize, though Moby does note that before the show he "had seen her briefly at the hotel and she seemed relatively OK."

Russell Brand Pens Amy Winehouse Tribute Blog Post

In fact, he says he was reassured by festival producers that Winehouse would be able to perform. "Everyone involved said that she had been in rehab and was doing really well, so I was concerned, personally and professionally, but hopeful," he says of the weeks leading up to the performance.
Of course, such a tragic and public display of crippling addiction makes one wonder: Why didn't anyone do something about it? "The problem for a lot of addicts is that alcohol and drugs are so unbelievably powerful and effective -- it's very hard to replace two things that work so well, if destructively, with sobriety, which at first can be kind of dull and foreign by comparison," Moby attempts to explain. "It's especially hard when people are younger, as the consequences of their using are generally less severe. When I was in my twenties, I thought I was bulletproof. The hangovers only lasted a few hours, so there was no deeply compelling reason to get or stay sober. It was only in my forties that the consequences of drinking and using became so bad that I realized I absolutely had to stop. Addicts love to drink and get high, and we'll employ any type of mental stratagem to enable ourselves."
Asked if he saw any of his former self in Winehouse, Moby replies: "What I saw of myself in Amy was, simply, the love of drinking and using drugs and existing in a chemically altered state of consciousness."
http://www.billboard...nal-performance

[pearljo]

I knew when she took the stage that she was fktup and it wasn't just alcohol.

Continuing the tour would have been a disaster, Amy was very sick. She needed medical attention.

[WhoDat]

To me, she just looked very, very drunk. I've seen drunk people in states like that - stumbling about aimlessly, incoherent, very sleepy in the face, a little weepy. It looked like typical inebriation to me. That said, the effects of the alcohol may have been exaggerated and compounded by medication that she may have been on. However, from some experience, anti-depressant medication tends to counter the typical effects of alcohol - often you end up being able to drink an awful lot more than usual before you start feeling drunk. I don't know if she was on anti-depressants at the time, but I doubt it.

I think her management have a lot to answer for about the whole fiasco though. It was a total disgrace that she was even allowed onstage in that state. She was clearly not fit to perform and all it served to do was humiliate her in front of an audience, and by extension of the internet, the whole world. I can't imagine what it must have done to her self-confidence. I mean, seeing the Amy of Belgrade and comparing it to even the Amy of the Grammys is truly sad. To be honest, I think her confidence was in tatters by the time she died.

[livethroughthis]

To me, she just looked very, very drunk. I've seen drunk people in states like that - stumbling about aimlessly, incoherent, very sleepy in the face, a little weepy. It looked like typical inebriation to me. That said, the effects of the alcohol may have been exaggerated and compounded by medication that she may have been on. However, from some experience, anti-depressant medication tends to counter the typical effects of alcohol - often you end up being able to drink an awful lot more than usual before you start feeling drunk. I don't know if she was on anti-depressants at the time, but I doubt it.

I think her management have a lot to answer for about the whole fiasco though. It was a total disgrace that she was even allowed onstage in that state. She was clearly not fit to perform and all it served to do was humiliate her in front of an audience, and by extension of the internet, the whole world. I can't imagine what it must have done to her self-confidence. I mean, seeing the Amy of Belgrade and comparing it to even the Amy of the Grammys is truly sad. To be honest, I think her confidence was in tatters by the time she died.

I think you are right, she just seemed REALLY DRUNK, it doesn't seem like she was on any other drug, drunk people behave like that, in other shows I guess she was just tipsy but never like this, this was shocking.

Also, can we post pictures between the Serbia show and her death? I can't remember what she did in that month

[Birdieava]

Here are some of the last known public photos of Amy taken on July 12th while walking around London.

[Soul Power]

I can't remember if it was in Mitch's or Howard Sounes' book, but apparently Amy had no memory of this gig, and one can imagine that she enventually saw clips on YouTube. I can barely imagine what that experience must have done to her spirit.

I know many have said that Belgrade was "different". I can vividly recall sitting at my cube at work watching through streams of tears and not caring at all if anyone noticed. The saddest part of watching that for me was that after everything I'd seen her overcome and always, always with an unwavering faith in her...I lost it all in the space of 5 minutes. I lost all hope for her, and a big part of me knew it was over. In a way it lessened the shock of July 23rd, because I had already begun grieving. I haven't been able to so much as look at a pictuce of that gig for a second since then.

Maybe that should have gone in a different thread...sorry. Sometimes I start writing a post and my guts start spilling out.

[livethroughthis]

I can't remember if it was in Mitch's or Howard Sounes' book, but apparently Amy had no memory of this gig, and one can imagine that she enventually saw clips on YouTube. I can barely imagine what that experience must have done to her spirit.

I know many have said that Belgrade was "different". I can vividly recall sitting at my cube at work watching through streams of tears and not caring at all if anyone noticed. The saddest part of watching that for me was that after everything I'd seen her overcome and always, always with an unwavering faith in her...I lost it all in the space of 5 minutes. I lost all hope for her, and a big part of me knew it was over. In a way it lessened the shock of July 23rd, because I had already begun grieving. I haven't been able to so much as look at a pictuce of that gig for a second since then.

Maybe that should have gone in a different thread...sorry. Sometimes I start writing a post and my guts start spilling out.

I know what you mean, I saw all of her downfall, became a fan in late 2007, and at times it was comical, then it became somewhat sad and then I just watched in sheer horror every single outing, pap picture, everything, I remember everything, then she turned 27 and I stupidly thought well this is the year, if she survives 27 she won't be in the club, maybe there is a chance, then the belgrade show happened and I knew it was over, I mean I wasn't even shocked, I just shrugged my shoulders, I wasn't shocked AT ALL by her death. At all.