Non-Urban Music Prince - The Earth Tour - 21 Nights In London - Official Thread

[Cooper]

1 week tonight! I'm excited!

 

[Casey]

Wait... you're going on the 4th as well???????

we totally have to meet up and go for a few beers before and after the gig.

Did you manage to get a good ticket? What block/row are you in?

 

[Cooper]

yea

:thumb:

Shit seats...right up top somewhere lol...didnt get up early enough.

 

[Casey]

lol. oh well. that the only one you going to? im going on the 11th as well, and got aftershow ticket too!

wanna go for a beer on the 4th? what time you getting to london?

I'm gonna be on the Sonia Deol show on the BBC Asian Network tomorrow morning at 8.50 AM talking about Prince.

wooo!

 

[Casey]

I am going to two gigs, and two aftershows. The 4th and the 11th. Man I can't wait. I've heard some great things about last night (which was the first night).

2 days!!!! I am hyped.

 

[Casey]

Some pics from last night:

the first one is before the gig....

 

[Casey]

 

[Bornstruggler]

nice pics! damn I wanna go to a concert, too! I hope Prince comes to germany soon!

 

[Casey]

I'm going tomorrow night....OMG OMG OMG I'm so excited this is gonna be INSANE! I'm right near the front, and im going to the aftershow, too!!!!

 

[GhettoStar]

Prince look like he got a tan! hahaha that stage is amazing

 

[Casey]

Last night was the greatest night of my life. I'll write more later but it was absolutely fucking amazing, it was like a religious experience. Prince TORE it up, the band was tight as hell and the setlist rocked.

Not to mention, I went to the aftershow, and after an hour or so of classic funk jam after classic funk jam (think Prince, Cameo, Zapp, James Brown mixed up with some 80's electro and hip-hop like JJ Fad, Run DMC, Eric B & Rakim, EPMD (You Gots Ta Chill which was mixed seamlessly into More Bounce To The Ounce)......the curtains opened.

It was Nikka Costa and her band (who had played for 15 minutes or so before Prince in the main arena previously).

Nikka is by far the baddest female performer on the planet. Absolutely incredible, her band is sick as hell, she has great songs, AMAZING singer (5 octave range!!), and rocks the stage like Freddie Mercury reincarnated in female form mixed with all legendary soul diva's from Betty Davis to Aretha to Chaka!)

Anyway, Nikka and her band are jamming for about 15 minutes...I'm right near the front of the stage, less than 3 metres, and I'm on the left side, so by this point I have of course noticed that Prince's Hohner guitar is chillin on the left of the stage.....sho nuff out he comes, doesnt say a word and the audience is louder than an atom bomb, rips up on the guitar for about 10 minutes with Nikka singing (and bizarrely, UK beatboxer Killa Kela shows up on stage and beatboxes with Prince playing and Nikka singing, but he's wack and Prince just looks at him, and then gives us this look that says it all lol).....and then P bounced.

Nikka still rocking the fuck outta that place, when....out comes Maceo Parker and the NPG hornz!! Daaaaaaamnn!! They start jammin on some serious funk (Nikka's band already had a three piece horn section so there was some serious stank funk going on!!).....and then Shelby J and Marva King (Prince's backup singers) show up! And it this point it is a serious funk EXTRAVAGANZA!!! They start jamming on ONE NATION UNDER A GROOVE!!! Holy crap!!!!

They rocked that place to the core. Then the curtains go back up and DJ Rashida starts spinning. About 20 minutes later a big crowd has formed around a door with security standing by it....lol...security pushes everyone back and out comes Prince!!

lol the whole crowd starts screaming and follows him as he walks through another door and security close it. Then the same thing happens again....he's in there for like 20 minutes...then he goes back through to the original door lol!

Anyway, as for Prince's main performance....a friend of mine on a Prince site wrote a big review that I 100% agree with so I'm just going to quote some of his review as mine would read very similar anyway.

01. Let's Go Crazy (Just the opening lines worked so amazingly well in getting the crowd worked up into a frenzy and then to perform the whole beast with that guitar screaming throughout. Wow. Energy levels high right from the start!)

02. Take Me With You (Damn, when that drum roll came in! I'm sure there were a few of us wondering whether he was going to perform the whole Purple Rain album in sequence, or maybe that was just me! wink But what a great opening. Again, the crowd were singing this to their heart's content on this one. A great way to keep the momentum going.)

03. Guitar (My word. Despite the fact that this is a new song, the crowd was already on side and it seemingly rocked their socks off)

04. Shhh! (Damn. For me, this is always for the hardcore. And it melted tonight. Heartwrenching, as always, when he's performing it well. And an excellent point at which to 'break it down' from the energy of the first three numbers)


05. Musicology (Again, I assume the general crowd didn't know this number but quite frankly, as the pounding of that beat comes in, it sends the usually unfunky crowd into dancing on the 2 and 4. Awesome sequencing to have this come in after Shhh!)

06. Prince and the Band (Whilst this is not a particular favourite of mine, it made my night knowing that he was performing a really obscure funk ditty that I assume only a few in the audience would have been aware of. Once again, like Musicology, the groove kept the crowd dancing. He rapped each verse of the jam over an insanely funky beat and then for each turnaround yelled to the crowd "What's my name?", to which the crowd screamed "Prince!". Naturally, what they didn't know, bless them, is that the rest of the short chorus goes "...and the band", which I'm sure the hardcore all chimed in with. I certainly did. Excellent surprise for those looking for something unusal and novel. The performance of Prince and the Band lasted around 5 minutes. Excellent, excellent addition. Thank you, Prince.)

07. Pass The Peas (Prince went old school with Maceo. It's such a catchy turnaround that the crowd were lapping up the funk and dancing all across the arena. The general vibe of the night, whether it was because it was a Saturday night or not, was very good)

08. Play That Funky Music (If I remember correctly, Prince asked the crowd whether they wanted new music or old. I think the resounding response was "OLD"!!! Whether he liked it or not, he turned out the most FUNKTASTIC performance of Play That Funky Music. My God, this was an absolute God-send of a number for the crowd. I have absolutely no issues with covers, if they work. And this one was as funky as Prince's heels must have been the end of the night. Damn, that bass playing just drove into your soul. Awesome).

09. Sexy Dancer(music)/Le Freak(lyrics)

(Well, once could rightfully argue this was Le Freak as that was the lyrical performance of the song but make no mistakes about it, Prince was performing Sexy Dancer on the Hohner. I thought this was a clever way of selling the song to the crowd but also keeping those old school heads grooving. Brilliant. And it lasted forever, which sent me into old school heaven. I must say, I remember this performance of Sexy Dancer/Le Freak, much more so than Wednesday's night, where I think I just was too amazed to believe what I was hearing)!

10. I Feel 4 U (The main show started off with a pop/rock section until Shhh! and this portion of the night was certainly all old school. It worked a treat and the crowd got really into this. Memories of Chaka, I suspect. Again, excellent placement of a crowd pleaser in case the show became too obscure from the relatively unknown numbers earlier)

11. Controversy (I must add, with an extremely extended jamming section. Damn, did this bring the house down or what?! I couldn't quite tell if it was the just the fans loving it but my God, the roar of the crowd sounded like even your average nobody was feeling this beat. Simply off the hook! And the section with the ominous 'People call me rude' bassline just thundered across the arena. Spine chilling! Did I also mention that he also checked into the crowd a number of times to enquire, "Who in the house know about the quake?!" Of course, quite a few of us responded "We do!" ... Loving it, just loving it)


12. What A Wonderful World (The pace was just funky as all get out until this point, so it was a cool little interlude for the crowd to settle down and enjoy the fact that they had just been dancing for the past half hour! (note from Militant: Prince wasn't on stage for this, it was an instrumental band jam)


...continued in next post...

 

[Casey]

13. Cream (Excellent placement, again. This brought the crowd back to their singing voices. My God, are those Twins fine or what?! Diggin' that dance routine and those booties. Oh lawd.)

14. U Got The Look (I don't know if it's just me but somehow the crowd seemed to remember, or know, this song. What a rocking version. So far, the sequencing of the setlist was working an absolute treat. And I was genuinely surprised at how much love the man was getting from what can be quite the conservative crowd during lesser known numbers. Not tonight. I think it just goes to show the true quality of certain pop numbers. Irrespective of whether they're known or not, they just work instantly. I have to say, his monumental guitar playing was very good at keeping the crowd in awe)!


15. If I Was Your Girlfriend (Well, this is quite possibly my all time favourite Prince song, so I don't need to say anything here except...WOOOOO HOOOOO!!!! Again, the crowd were digging it...or maybe it was just me?! More likely the latter but it was very atmospheric last night. And that bass plucking? What a treat to hear).

16. Pink Cashmere (Prince mentioned a number of times that he knew he had more popular songs but that he loved this song and he just wanted to do it for that reason alone. It was almost like he was asking the crowd to allow him this one indulgence. Well, for one, playing to a general crowd in excess of 20,000, I think he indulged quite a fair bit - take a look at the old school funk section, for example - but at the same time, it was clear he knew when he might lose the crowd. He almost verged into territory of being apologetic by explaining his desire to perform this one for himself, and that he'd be back to perform the better known songs in just a minute, but thankfully, he didn't quite go there. Excellent song. Excellent performance. A very nice string of mid-tempo numbers here) (note from Militant: I fucking love this song)




17. Lolita (Now, after promising the crowd more popular songs after Pink Cashmere, what does he do? Play Lolita?! Whilst I dug it, for me this was his first miscalculation of the night. The crowd clearly would have loved something akin to When Doves Cry or Alphabet Street or even The Most Beautiful Girl In The World. (note from Militant: I really wanted him to play Most Beautiful Girl...) But not Lolita. Definitely not Lolita).

18. Black Sweat (For me, I just love that incredible booming bass line that absolutely crunches into the stadium, but again, this was the second poorly judged performance of the night as far as keeping the crowd going. Yes, he played the bass but he didn't play the crowd and in an arena of 20,000, especially after you promised them that you'd play something they'd know, this should have been the time. He could have gone with I Would Die 4 U, When U Were Mine, or even, Delirious, but Black Sweat doesn't cut it for the masses. That said, those twins looked fine working it during this number. Damn)!
(Militant says: This is one part of his review I don't agree with. Black Sweat rocked the place IMO and lots of us were chanting along with the chorus...workin! Workin up a black sweat!! Plus Prince's bass solo was sick. I have to acknowledge that a lot of the crowd didn't know the song. Which is why, after he finished he said "Oh Prince. You're such a tease. Play something we know! Ooookay!



19. Kiss As by now, you can imagine, this almost burnt the house down. (Militant says: He replaced "You don't have to watch Dynasty, with You don't have to watch...BIG BROTHER! lol.)



20. Purple Rain (A fantastic closer to the night. Extended, as he seems to always do nowadays, thank God. The guitar was on fire. And the crowd were left in absolute awe.) (Militant says: I had a tear in my eye for this one. Singing along at the top of my lungs. Incredible.)

Encore 1 -

21. Little Red Corvette (Okay, now he was working it. Just by himself and his guitar. This worked an absolute treat. He must have played this song for what must have been around 8 or 9 minutes and the familiar refrain during the extended instrumental opening sent the crowd into orgasmic territory. I think he knew it, which is why he held back from singing for so long and just kept playing his guitar. He's such a little boy. The fact that he sang the song in its entirety was just iceing).

22. Raspberry Beret (Thank God. Another song for the crowd. And the fans. And it worked beautifully. Everyone singing in unison. Just Prince and his guitar. That's all he needed).

23. Sometimes It Snows In April (Okay, the crowd didn't know this song but we did and what's more, I think he won over almost every single audience member with his voice on this number. My God, he sang it so beautifully. I was incredibly impressed. "Love it isn't love until it's ... had". And the show ended....or so we thought!

Encore 2 -

24. Crazy (Gnarls Barkley cover, Shelby J on vocals) (I know people are saying he should leave the cover versions out of this but sorry, I completely disagree. The crowd all know this song, it was one of the biggest dance tunes in the UK, and beyond that, I felt it's a very, very soulful way to close the night. Prince has done well to pick up on the public consciousness regarding this song and add it to his repertoire. I don't know if this is usually played as more of a slowed down funk jam but that's what he did tonight and it built into a real show stopper/crowd pleaser. Excellent, excellent, excellent).


25. Nothing Compares 2 U (Beautiful way to end the night. Everyone knew the song. By the end of the song, eveyone will have known Prince had written it. And by now, the end of the concert, Prince owned Saturday night and London).

......

 

[GhettoStar]

Good 2 hear he is doin' a song such as "If I Was Your Girlfriend" and "Pink Cashmere"! U R a blessed man Militant!

 

[Cooper]

The solo guitar stuff was amazing! Sometimes it snows & little red corvette, being two of my favourite songs. Overall it was very fucking good...generally agree with the review mili posted.

I would proably kill for audio of that gig

 

[tHuG $TyLe]

My sister is going like on Tuesday or something, shes going to the aftershow also. Im not going however.

 

[GhettoStar]

It would be clutch and perfect 4 him 2 do "Money Dont Matter 2nite" mainly cuz the 3rd verse still is relevant 2day...and that in its self is saying something.

 

[Casey]

I'm going again on Saturday! And then again the following Tuesday. I am so excited

 

[Cooper]

You got MORE tickets? Im booking again for september!

 

[Casey]

I would proably kill for audio of that gig

U ready to kill, mayn?

That's right...the bootleg is already out there. I got half it already, the rest is downloadin right now. Fucking insane.

 

[Cooper]

U ready to kill, mayn?

That's right...the bootleg is already out there. I got half it already, the rest is downloadin right now. Fucking insane.

Who you want me to kill :fury: