By all accounts, going to one of Amy Winehouse's recent concerts has been a bit like funding a pikey's drug addiction by paying to watch her stare off into the middle distance and make a noise like a chicken choking on a shoelace.

However, it's not something you'll be able to again this year – Amy Winehouse has cancelled everything for the rest of the year; something she apparently decided two hours before she was set to play a show in Bournemouth last night. Hopefully Amy Winehouse cancelled the tour to focus on getting healthier and improving her state of mind rather than, say, sitting around in her house taking every drug ever invented. But let's not hope that Amy Winehouse disappears completely for the rest of the year, otherwise hecklerspray might spend December as a sort of barren wasteland, kept alive only by the possibility that Heather Mills might say "paedophile" in a funny high-pitched voice on GMTV again. 

Since her husband Blake Fielder-Civil got banged up in custody for allegedly smashing up a man's face and then offering him money to lie about it, Amy Winehouse's concerts have basically been performances of Birds Of A Feather: The Nightmarish Musical, except with the bleak whimsy of the original sitcom replaced with what appears to be a yowling transvestite docker who can't quite work out he's supposed to be doing.

And the emotional stress of seeing her husband locked up – coupled with her ongoing struggle with substances – has led to some fairly interesting Amy Winehouse performances lately, whether they involve slicing a big rug into several smaller rugs or prompting boo-filled walkouts with her general ineptitude. But not any more.

Why? Has Amy Winehouse decided to seek treatment for her drug addictions, therapy for her emotional problems and a stricter tour manager who won't let her keep walking offstage or threatening her audience with violence? No, she's just sacked everything off instead.

Amy Winehouse has cancelled all existing arrangements for 2007 – namely concerts in Bournemouth, Cardiff, Manchester, London, Belfast and Dublin – and said in a statement that:

“I can’t give it my all on stage without my Blake. I’m so sorry but I don’t want to do the shows half-heartedly. I love singing. My husband is everything to me and without him it’s just not the same.”

If any of this sounds familiar, it's probably because it is – in August Amy Winehouse cancelled her American tour because she was so off her face on drugs, and now she's cancelled another one. The financial implications of this will be huge – it's estimated that Amy Winehouse has lost around half a million pounds in ticket sales, plus promoters might pass over her in the future thanks to her relentless unreliability, instead choosing to pick someone more likely to turn up to shows – Sly Stone, perhaps, or John Lennon. 

But let's be serious – compared to Amy Winehouse's mental and physical recovery, a few cancelled concerts won't hurt anyone in the long run. And we're sure that Amy Winehouse will make up for her wayward behaviour more than ever in 2008 – where she'll have recovered enough to take her glassy-eyed, out-of-tune, awkwardly-stumbling roadshow out to more slightly disappointed paying customers than ever before.

Read more:

Amy Winehouse cancels latest tour with just two hours' notice – Times