Friday 20/07/07 Amy Winehouse @ Somerset House, London

Whoever rapped Amy Winehouse's knuckles after her Eden Project burn-out last week must have used an almighty hammer. From the moment she teetered onto the stage at Somerset House, a demure 30 minutes late, she was as meek as a kitten who's had its toys taken away. Winehouse has spent years proving she's anything but uniform, and the fact that both singing and music were unformly, album-quality stunning did little to make up for the fact that she would clearly rather be kissing up to her husband than performing, however much she protested otherwise.

From her sleepwalk through 'Addicted' to a bluesy finale of 'Valerie', her band and spirited dancers didn't so much frame her as nurse her through. When Winehouse did one of her periodic teeterings offstage to kiss her husband (and presumably reassure him that she loves him despite at least 10 odes to the cheating bastard contrary), she barely made it back to the mic in time, and missed her cue entirely on the cover of The Specials' 'Hey Little Rich Girl'. It's mildly cute in first flush of love, a bit disgusting when you see the singer's profile more than her actual face. Winehouse doesn't do the little lost girl routine very well, so her attempts at doing so came out more like the arhythmic sister in Dirty Dancing than blushing bride.

There was a flicker of the old diva on 'Cherry' And 'Me and Mr Jones', but otherwise Winehouse's charm was more restricted to between-song banter than the performance itself. The only person who seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves was nominal host Kelly Osbourne, who cheerily joined in with the backing dancers for 'Rehab'. At one point, Winehouse turned to the crowd with a sardonic wink and says "I've been here at least an hour and I haven't even collapsed." It's probably a bit wrong to wish she actually had, but it would have been considerably more interesting because if you have to close your eyes to 'see' a great gig, you're better off with your feet up and the album on.

Leave Blake at home next time Amy, or at the very least stick him in the front row so you can moon at us too.