Despite hopes that her prolonged stay on the Caribbean island of St Lucia would have rid Amy Winehouse of her demons, it was clear from the moment she took to the stage at the island's annual jazz festival at the weekend that they were alive and kicking.

She looked nervous and unsure and unsteady on her feet. She hestitated for an uncomfortably long time before taking the microphone; then when she did (for "Know You Now") the voice lacked power and conviction. At times she seemed unsure of the words.

"Come on babe you know you can do it," cried a desperate-sounding Amy devotee in the crowd.

It was not a view the singer herself seemed to share. Half-way through Some Unholy War she called proceedings to a halt declaring, "sorry, I'm bored".

She paced the stage uncomfortably, waving her arms about wildly. She sucked her thumb.

Things didn't improve even when she moved onto the safer territory of the Back to Black classics (including the title song, Cupid and Tears Dry on Their Own).

Although there were occasional reminders of the extraordinary power of that Grammy-award winning voice, for the most part it was shaky and strangely strained.

The vocal inadequacy was accompanied by increasingly strange antics.

Winehouse kept taking off and putting on her high heeled cream-coloured shoes. She greedily swigged down a steady supply of drinks. She threw a piece of chewed gum into the crowd. She repeatedly raised her short blue dress to expose her knickers.

Further dramas came in the form of a heavy downpour and a lighting failure –two songs were sung in the dark. Twice she collapsed into the arms of one of her male backing singers.

Even her magnificently supportive band seemed unsure of what to do when, half-way through what turned out to be the final song, Valerie, she walked off stage and failed to return - an act for which she was roundly booed.

In a speedy damage limitation exercise, the Winehouse team put out a statement saying that the concert had been shortened (to less than an hour) because the heavy rain had been the cause of the lighting failure and had disrupted sound equipment.

"Amy and the band tried to soldier on but the set had to be cut short," it said.

Fans thought otherwise. "Disgusting" was how one termed the shambolic performance. "There's no way back for her now," said another.

St Lucians themselves - for whom the $50 ticket fee represened a substantial amount - felt betrayed by the star who seemed to have taken a special shine to their island and has said she wants to record there.

"We had hoped her stay here really would have helped her to recover," said a fan called Thomas. "A lot of locals were looking forward to hearing the winner of five Grammy awards. What a disappointment. And what a waste of a great talent." [source]

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