Amy Winehouse No No No-Show

So I sat backstage under the Heineken tent at Paris’s annual Rock en Seine outdoor concert festival tonight, waiting on Amy Winehouse’s 10:15 set. Her headlining appearance was supposed to make up for last year’s fake-out, when she didn’t show up after Rock en Seine’s usual months-long summertime promotion. Well, she did it again folks. After the Raconteurs finished up their encore, the screen in the tent area flashed thfollowing message for all the disappointed VIPs: AMY WINEHOUSE: ANNULATION DE DERNIERE MINUTE (Translation: cancellation at the last minute).

Love Herbie Hancock, but the Grammys had it wrong; Back to Black was obviously everybody’s real-life album of the year. I read of a decent show Winehouse did recently at Glastonbury, where she at least showed, but ended up elbowing some fan in the forehead. I can’t say I was surprised she wasn’t there tonight. I just hope Spin‘s crowned “queen of soul” gets it together before things fall any further apart for her. Evidently, Winehouse’s band arrived was there at the Domaine National de Saint-Cloud, but got word two hours before performance time that she wouldn’t be turning up. This time around, Rock en Seine organizers intend to sue.

Tricky played yesterday; sorry I missed him. But before the Raconteurs, the legendary Roots crew delivered an energized set that couldn’t leave anybody that mad, but it’s obvious that they’ve got a special “European outdoor festival” set list. True, I’ve seen Black Thought & co. have the guts to pull off Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” smack dab in the middle of 125th Street at the Apollo Theater, but Parisians hopped up and down for choice bits of Guns n’ Roses’ “Sweet Child o’ Mine” and Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” stuck in the middle of their Grammy-winning “You Got Me.”

I was late to their set – which also included a little “Bad to the Bone” rock snippet, “The Seed (2.0),” and a superscintillating version of the Kool G Rap classic, “Men at Work” – but I was especially glad to hear “Get Busy,” from their latest disc. I don’t know how the numbers are doing for Def Jam, but Rising Down is seriously the Roots’ best work since Phrenology, two quiet classics for the guys. Drummer ?uestlove deejays tonight at Bellevilloise in the 20th arrondissement. Am I on my way?