1st August – Prince at the O2
What an awesome opening night. Ive been a huge Prince fan since I was about 12 years old but Ive never had a chance to see him live before for one reason or another. Let just say that the concert videos and live CDs I have do not do him enough justice. Ive never seen a show like it, the new symbol shaped stage looks awesome and the band is the tightest Ive seen him with. I was sitting in row R seat 292 which seemed a little too far from the stage at first but, as the symbol stage and show is really meant to be viewed from above, it was a great seat. Prince kicked off the show with Purple Rain and next thing I know, I’m sat about 50ft from one of my biggest musical influences!
True I missed John Blackwell and Rhonda Smith but Cora Dunham and her husband are a worthy replacement. Maceo Parker was really on form with some spine tingling solos and one note that lasted well over a minute (must have been circular breathing or something). The concert really featured the band a lot and they played a few solo/instrumental numbers while Prince changed the wardrobe. Renato and Mr Hayes did a great job making the relatively small ensemble sound huge. The Twinz really reminded me of Diamonds and Pearls too.
Prince was exclusively Guitar and Vocals on this gig, no Piano, Bass or Drums etc. The sound in the venue was pretty bad, could not hear much bass or spoken words but that seems to be the case with a lot of venues this size. The set list was awesome, lots of my favourites in there. Here’s a set list in running order:
- Purple Rain
- Girls & Boys (with DMSR)
- Satisfied
- Cream
- U Got The Look
- Shhh
- Musicology
- Controversy
- I Feel For You
- What A Wonderful World
- Somewhere Here On Earth
- Lolita
- Black Sweat
- Kiss
- If I Was Your Girlfriend
- Pink Cashmere (with ‘The One U Wanna C’)
- 7
- Come Together (Beatles)
- Take Me With U
- Guitar
- Planet Earth
- Crazy (with ‘One Nation Under a Groove’ by Funkadelic on a vocoder)
- Nothing Compares 2 U
- Let’s Go Crazy
After this the house lights came on and people began to head towards the exits. It all seemed a little short but then we heard the crowd cheer, Prince was in the audience surrounded by 6 body guards. We rushed back into the venue and Prince walked on stage to play a few solo guitar/vocal songs before inviting the band back up for some encores. I had an even better view as, much to the security’s dismay, the seating arrangements went out of the window and people were standing around the stage. It was quite odd as the venue was almost half empty now and I think some people may have missed the encores thinking the show was over. Here’s the list of encores:
- Little Red Corvette
- Raspberry Beret
- Sometimes It Snows in April
- Get On The Boat
- A Love Bizarre
- Le Freak (Chic)
The house lights came on again and we were a little scared to leave at this point just in case he started up again lol. There was another cheer as we were walking out which sounded like another encore but Ive since found out it was a roadie tripping over whilst clearing the stage.
Definitely the best £31.21 Ive ever spent. I enjoyed it so much that Im going to try and get tickets to the last night of the concert and aftershow too. Prince has rehearsed 120 hits for the 21 nights at the O2 so its likely it will not be the same set list anyway. Shame we had to get the train back as there were still tickets available on the door for the aftershow!
My Prince Ticket
Photo by soulville21 on myspace (stardance on Prince.org)
