HE OPENED THE SHOW WITH "1999"!!!!!!!!
Like the first time he's played it in YEARS.
Here's the full set-list:
1999
Musicology
Cream
U Got The Look
Shhh
Take Me With U
Guitar
Somewhere Here On Earth
7 - CANNOT BELIEVE HE DID THIS. I WAS SINGING SO HARD.
Forever In My life - OMG!!!!!!!!!!!
If I Was Your Girlfriend
Black Sweat
Kiss
Purple Rain
Short break, Mr Hayes and Renato on synths
Alphabet Street
I Feel For U
Controversy
Let's Go Crazy
Long break, house lights on at least 5 minutes
Crazy
Nothing Compares 2 U
The setlist was just tight. If it was just the main show to go on, I'd probably say Saturday 11th was slightly better.....because on the 11th, he did this amazing thing.....walked over to the side of the stage where a synth appeared from nowhere.
Sat down at the synth and start triggering sounds from it.....and out of nowhere, he starts busting out the grooves to.....When Doves Cry! Erotic City! Nasty Girl! Alphabet St! Sign o The Times! Pop Life! Dance Music Sex Romance!!!!
Then, he played solo piano versions of "Do Me Baby", "The Beautiful Ones", and "I Wanna B Ur Lover"!!!!
Ah, it was incredible.
but back to the 14th.
We headed on over to the aftershow. There was a massive mixing desk set up that hadnt been there before, so we expected something cool...but weren't prepared for this!!
Beverly Knight takes to the stage with her band, wearing a raspberry beret Funky as hell, she killed it. Plays for about an hour, then...
out comes Prince and the NPG!!!! I'm standing literally less than a metre away from him, I can see every facial expression, every note he plays on the guitar..just whoa. And he busts out the most incredible 2 hour set!!! Jamming on tunes, instrumentals, covers, KILLING the guitar (done things I've never even seen Hendrix do), smashing up that bass (the two girls who are Prince's backing vocalists had the WHOLE crowd chanting "Come on Prince, play the bass! come on Prince play the bass!") and he played some funnnkkkkkkkkkky shit.
Switches to keyboards and fucks everyone up!!!
Then his drummer, Cora takes a solo and she smashes it up with the dopest drum solo I've heard in YEARS. I swear she's the reincarnation of John Bonham. Even her husband, Josh who is the bassist in the band, looked impressed.
Oh hell read what this guy said:
/\/\/\ and that guy forgot to say that Prince and the NPG jammed on "HEAD"!!!!!!!! I freaked so bad when they did that. Obviously he didn't sing it but just to hear that groove blew my mind. Then he played the first few bars to "When U Were Mine" and stopped and said "Yall aint ready for that!" hahahaha! that was just incredible. Girls & Boys , and Partyman......OMG.
......and you guys haven't even heard what was the best bit of my night.
Prince and the band leave the stage after the encore. The whole crowd is basically still in front of the stage.
My friend had gone to one of the bars, before the encore. There's like 2 bars, a main one and a smaller one that is kind of out of the way and most people don't realise it's there. So, I went over towards the smaller one to find my friend. I stopped by a door in order to tighten my hoodie which I had tied around my waist. There was like no one in this general vicinity.
Then bang! Door opens, out walks Prince. Right up to me. I couldn't believe it. So I said "Hey Prince thanks for the show", and he looks at me with the full Christopher Tracy grin (GhettoStarr you know what im talkin bout!!!), and says "It's cool man". and his security ushered him off.
I couldn't believe it. Shit was just tight, right place right time.
My friend said I looked like I'd seen a ghost, lol. I was amazed.
Best night ever. As we left the venue to get on the boat down the River Thames, my wife called me and she had just found out her UK visa had gotten approved and she's gonna be back here in a month!!
Perfect end to a perfect night!!
Like the first time he's played it in YEARS.
Here's the full set-list:
1999
Musicology
Cream
U Got The Look
Shhh
Take Me With U
Guitar
Somewhere Here On Earth
7 - CANNOT BELIEVE HE DID THIS. I WAS SINGING SO HARD.
Forever In My life - OMG!!!!!!!!!!!
If I Was Your Girlfriend
Black Sweat
Kiss
Purple Rain
Short break, Mr Hayes and Renato on synths
Alphabet Street
I Feel For U
Controversy
Let's Go Crazy
Long break, house lights on at least 5 minutes
Crazy
Nothing Compares 2 U
The setlist was just tight. If it was just the main show to go on, I'd probably say Saturday 11th was slightly better.....because on the 11th, he did this amazing thing.....walked over to the side of the stage where a synth appeared from nowhere.
Sat down at the synth and start triggering sounds from it.....and out of nowhere, he starts busting out the grooves to.....When Doves Cry! Erotic City! Nasty Girl! Alphabet St! Sign o The Times! Pop Life! Dance Music Sex Romance!!!!
Then, he played solo piano versions of "Do Me Baby", "The Beautiful Ones", and "I Wanna B Ur Lover"!!!!
Ah, it was incredible.
but back to the 14th.
We headed on over to the aftershow. There was a massive mixing desk set up that hadnt been there before, so we expected something cool...but weren't prepared for this!!
Beverly Knight takes to the stage with her band, wearing a raspberry beret Funky as hell, she killed it. Plays for about an hour, then...
out comes Prince and the NPG!!!! I'm standing literally less than a metre away from him, I can see every facial expression, every note he plays on the guitar..just whoa. And he busts out the most incredible 2 hour set!!! Jamming on tunes, instrumentals, covers, KILLING the guitar (done things I've never even seen Hendrix do), smashing up that bass (the two girls who are Prince's backing vocalists had the WHOLE crowd chanting "Come on Prince, play the bass! come on Prince play the bass!") and he played some funnnkkkkkkkkkky shit.
Switches to keyboards and fucks everyone up!!!
Then his drummer, Cora takes a solo and she smashes it up with the dopest drum solo I've heard in YEARS. I swear she's the reincarnation of John Bonham. Even her husband, Josh who is the bassist in the band, looked impressed.
Oh hell read what this guy said:
But the main show pales into insignificance compared to the aftershow. Quite possibly the best Prince show I have ever seen. The night started well, with the DJ playing pure P-Funk for an hour (when was the last time you danced to Rumpofsteelskin y'all ??), and then Beverley got everyone so hot within 5 minutes of being on stage. Sporting a Raspberry Beret she played an hour long set, including some stunning covers - I'm Every Woman and a really slow and funky version of Raspberry Beret! Then came Lyn Collins' 'Think' - ugh oh, Maceo couldn't resist that one and the NPG Horns joined the stage for an extended funk medley. Mike killing it on the vocoder - I remember More Bounce 2 The Ounce, One Nation Under A Groove and No Diggity. Phew....
Follow that Mr P! No problem.... On comes the full band at about 1:30. A huge box of laminated lyric sheets is also brought on stage. There's a feeling that something special is going to happen. Renato starts tinkling the intro to what we all thought was going to be Planet Earth, but no - Prince launches into a long version 'Empty Room' with at least three sick guitar solos. Wow! He follows up with a long blues rock number based on 'Peach', and then Marva takes the lead for 'I'll Take You There'. 5 minutes into the number, P picks up on a guitar hook and suddenly we have a long James Brown medley - 'I Can't Stand It' and 'Cold Sweat'.... Maceo (who else) getting solo after solo!
Just when you think it can't get any funkier, the NPG lock into a deep funk groove and a long (20 minutes+) instrumental follows with P controlling everything - I've never seen anything like it. He was just directing the whole thing, telling all the band what he wanted them to play, and every now and again showing them how it should be done. He played organ, he played keys, he tossed off awesome guitar solo after solo, and then he took the bass from Josh and picked out a jaw dropping slap bass figure and solo. This section of the show was incredible - did someone say electric era Miles Davis..???
At this point I'm in heaven - all get a bit blurred in terms of set list - I remember bits of Stratus, I remember Shelby taking 'Love Is A Losing Game' and making it her own with a little help from P (no props to Amy tonight though!), I remember Beverley joining the band for collective version of 'Be Happy' (??), and I remember the funkiest version of 'Sing A Simple Song' I've ever heard him play. He closes the main set with Girls And Boys (and yes, the whole damn building was waving their hands in the air), followed by a slick horn switch into an uptempo 3121. During this section of the show Prince was dancing with Marva, Beverley and Shelby like it was 1986 all over agin - laughing, smiling, pulling funny faces, inventing funny dances.... Oh lawd!
Well, encores aren't that common at aftershows but we all knew he was going to come back. And he didn't let us down. Ripping into Partyman, with morphed into Thankyou for lettinbemicelfagain, which in turn morphed into Maceo taking the lead for Shake Everything You Got. The closing number was a slow, bluesy 'I'll Never Love A Man The Way That I Love You' with Shelby nailing it like it ain't ever been nailed before. Literally she was rolling on the floor at the end pouring every last drop of her soul into it....
Unbelievable. Prince was just totally wired last night - as you can tell I'm gobsmacked. How much better can it possibly get.....? This is a musician and a showman at the absolute top of his game
Follow that Mr P! No problem.... On comes the full band at about 1:30. A huge box of laminated lyric sheets is also brought on stage. There's a feeling that something special is going to happen. Renato starts tinkling the intro to what we all thought was going to be Planet Earth, but no - Prince launches into a long version 'Empty Room' with at least three sick guitar solos. Wow! He follows up with a long blues rock number based on 'Peach', and then Marva takes the lead for 'I'll Take You There'. 5 minutes into the number, P picks up on a guitar hook and suddenly we have a long James Brown medley - 'I Can't Stand It' and 'Cold Sweat'.... Maceo (who else) getting solo after solo!
Just when you think it can't get any funkier, the NPG lock into a deep funk groove and a long (20 minutes+) instrumental follows with P controlling everything - I've never seen anything like it. He was just directing the whole thing, telling all the band what he wanted them to play, and every now and again showing them how it should be done. He played organ, he played keys, he tossed off awesome guitar solo after solo, and then he took the bass from Josh and picked out a jaw dropping slap bass figure and solo. This section of the show was incredible - did someone say electric era Miles Davis..???
At this point I'm in heaven - all get a bit blurred in terms of set list - I remember bits of Stratus, I remember Shelby taking 'Love Is A Losing Game' and making it her own with a little help from P (no props to Amy tonight though!), I remember Beverley joining the band for collective version of 'Be Happy' (??), and I remember the funkiest version of 'Sing A Simple Song' I've ever heard him play. He closes the main set with Girls And Boys (and yes, the whole damn building was waving their hands in the air), followed by a slick horn switch into an uptempo 3121. During this section of the show Prince was dancing with Marva, Beverley and Shelby like it was 1986 all over agin - laughing, smiling, pulling funny faces, inventing funny dances.... Oh lawd!
Well, encores aren't that common at aftershows but we all knew he was going to come back. And he didn't let us down. Ripping into Partyman, with morphed into Thankyou for lettinbemicelfagain, which in turn morphed into Maceo taking the lead for Shake Everything You Got. The closing number was a slow, bluesy 'I'll Never Love A Man The Way That I Love You' with Shelby nailing it like it ain't ever been nailed before. Literally she was rolling on the floor at the end pouring every last drop of her soul into it....
Unbelievable. Prince was just totally wired last night - as you can tell I'm gobsmacked. How much better can it possibly get.....? This is a musician and a showman at the absolute top of his game
/\/\/\ and that guy forgot to say that Prince and the NPG jammed on "HEAD"!!!!!!!! I freaked so bad when they did that. Obviously he didn't sing it but just to hear that groove blew my mind. Then he played the first few bars to "When U Were Mine" and stopped and said "Yall aint ready for that!" hahahaha! that was just incredible. Girls & Boys , and Partyman......OMG.
......and you guys haven't even heard what was the best bit of my night.
Prince and the band leave the stage after the encore. The whole crowd is basically still in front of the stage.
My friend had gone to one of the bars, before the encore. There's like 2 bars, a main one and a smaller one that is kind of out of the way and most people don't realise it's there. So, I went over towards the smaller one to find my friend. I stopped by a door in order to tighten my hoodie which I had tied around my waist. There was like no one in this general vicinity.
Then bang! Door opens, out walks Prince. Right up to me. I couldn't believe it. So I said "Hey Prince thanks for the show", and he looks at me with the full Christopher Tracy grin (GhettoStarr you know what im talkin bout!!!), and says "It's cool man". and his security ushered him off.
I couldn't believe it. Shit was just tight, right place right time.
My friend said I looked like I'd seen a ghost, lol. I was amazed.
Best night ever. As we left the venue to get on the boat down the River Thames, my wife called me and she had just found out her UK visa had gotten approved and she's gonna be back here in a month!!
Perfect end to a perfect night!!