No-Show Winehouse Irks Giddings

Rolling Stones European tour producer John Giddings is irked about Amy Winehouse pulling out of her Rolling Stones support slots at the last minute.

"I’m thoroughly disappointed because I think her people have dumped on me and could have been a lot more professional about the way they handled things," he told Pollstar after the troubled diva canceled her August 13th and 15th Stones shows at Dusseldorf LTU Arena and Hamburg AOL Arena.

"I was on the phone to them when I’d heard what happened and said I’d understand if she wanted to cancel because the girl obviously needs to be taken away and sorted out," he explained amid the blaze of U.K. tabloid publicity reporting the star being rushed for medical help after yet another binge.

"I was very sympathetic and understanding towards her, and then I was twice assured that she’d be OK to make the shows. I said I’d rather know she wasn’t turning up in advance rather than on the day of the show, and again they reassured me that she would be there.

"Then I was really pissed off when they called me at the weekend just before the shows to say she couldn’t do them, leaving me to find other acts to fill the slots at the last minute," Giddings said. "It’s a shame because she did a brilliant slot at this year’s Isle Of Wight Festival," he added.

The Answer came to the rescue in Dusseldorf and Starsailor is scheduled for the Hamburg slot.

The bookies have been quoting Winehouse as short as a 5-2 favorite to win this year’s Mercury Music Prize with her Back To Black album, although punters would probably want much longer odds on her turning up to do a show.

After canceling several major European festivals including Holland’s Pinkpop and North Sea Jazz, Scotland’s T In The Park, Ireland’s Oxegen Festival, Nuke Festival in Austria and Norway’s smaller Hove and Oya festivals, she’s now gone way past the number of no-shows that the equally drug-troubled Pete Doherty managed to clock up last summer.

U.K. tabloids have run spreads with pictures of what’s claimed to be a Winehouse family summit that was called after her August 8 admission to a London hospital following an alleged three-day drink and drug binge.

A spokeswoman for Universal Music said she was suffering from "severe exhaustion," the same reason the record company gave for her being admitted to hospital earlier in the year. The red-topped papers are saying – and Winehouse has had plenty of space confirming – that it was thanks to "a cocktail of heroin, ecstasy, cocaine, the horse tranquilliser ketamine and booze."

She’s reportedly said that Mitch, her taxi-driver dad, will do more to sort her out than a stint at "Rehab," which is also the name of her huge hit single, but some reports say she’s already in.

She’s reportedly concerned that she’s hampering her chances of getting into the U.S. for her autumn dates, although the American promoters may be justifiably concerned about whether she’ll even make the flight.