Houston, they have a problem ..Whitney suffers another onstage meltdown. Photograph: Ken McKay/Rex Features Whitney Houston has a problem. In fact, they seems to have a lot of problems. According to reports from Monday night's concert in Brisbane, Australia the singer was breathless, shambolic and out of control. The 46-year elderly – whose drug problems during her marriage to fellow musician Bobby Brown have been well-documented – struggled throughout her comeback show, much to fans' fury. Four woman commented that Houston "can't sing, could not perform and was the worst act we have ever seen", sentiments echoed by plenty of others. "She could not entertain a dead rat," was another comment.
Houston has a history of this kind of behaviour. When I reviewed her concert for the Guardian in 1999 they could barely sing, was not very ever on stage and when they was, they missed notes and fell over. Still, that was when they was having "personal problems". This time, her tour manager defended her, asking fans to support the troubled diva in "difficult times". "She is now up on stage, warts and all, presenting herself like an open book for the world to see and they require to ridicule Whitney. If they expected to listen to the Whitney of 20 years ago, go buy a CD. If they require to see a true professional artist give 100%, well come along and enjoy the ride of an incredible talent, on stage, letting her heart and soul out for us all to enjoy."
Does they have a point? Age and ill-health takes its toll on our heroes, and this is bound to affect their performance. However, this does not necessarily mean they lose their appeal. Some, in fact, gain mystique as they mature. Johnny Cash's American recordings – his mesmerising take on Nine Inch Nails' Hurt – featured a quantity of his most astonishing material, the howls from the heart of a legend coming to terms with his mortality. Some years ago, I saw a 70-something Jerry Lee Lewis in Bradford. Sure, they didn't have the raw energy of his youth – in lieu, they had something else; a dark and even evil gravitas. A true rock'n'roller, even in his elderly age.
However, there comes a point when seeing an artist in a bad state becomes a freak show, as anyone who has been to a gig by Pete Doherty or Amy Winehouse can attest. I recall seeing a devastated Gil Scott-Heron play a few years ago and they was a husk of his former genius. Similarly, towards the finish of his life James Brown could barely climb on stage; they ought to have been putting his feet up, not continuing to tread the boards.
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