14th August – Prince at the O2 AGAIN!
Another awesome night! Got a ticket for this gig at the last minute as one of my students was going and had an extra one.
Had much better seats this time, I was sitting in row C seat 74. I was so close he even made eye contact with me during the guitar solo in Purple Rain (geeky I know, but cool lol). The sound seems to have been fixed from last time too, not sure if it was just the better seats though. I could actually hear the bass and drums properly and I have to say that Cora and Josh are awesome. Cora especially has a very interesting and inventive touch on the drums, he even used the ‘not bad for a girl’ line lol. No instrumentals from the band tonight, just Renato and Mr hayes on Synths. Prince played a lot more guitar and the horns were a little more toned down.
The set was a little short and people were booing before and after the encore whenever Prince disappeared off stage which I thought was a little unecessary (it was’nt that short really). I feared there would be a riot before the encore as a lot of people were complaining and booing around me. Prince came onstage around 9:00 and it was all finished by about 10:45. Beverly Knight was an awesome addition, been a fan of hers for ages. She walked past me and I could’nt believe how tiny she was, one of the best voices in UK soul at the moment.
Was a little dissapointed that it was almost the same setlist but there was enough variety to keep me intrigued. Heres a list of the songs played tonight:
- 1999
- Musicology
- Cream
- U Got The Look
- Shhh
- Take Me With U
- Guitar
- Somewhere Here On Earth
- 7
- Forever In My life
- If I Was Your Girlfriend
- Black Sweat
- Kiss
- Purple Rain
- Mr Hayes and Renato on synths
- Alphabet Street
- I Feel For U
- Controversy
- Let’s Go Crazy
Then there was a long break and the house lights came on followed by booing at the short length of the set. Prnce and the band made their way through the crowd and played the following encores:
- Crazy
- Nothing Compares 2 U
Was not expecting 1999 as he said he had retired it on the 2000 concert video I have. Also Forever In My Life (and pretty much anything from Sign O The Times) is one of my favourites. He performed it minus the band at first with a backing track. No solo Guitar or Piano tonight but it made my night when he played a Bass solo on Black Sweat. I was really hoping he would get the Bass out as hes one of my biggest influences on Bass (and the rest). After the solo he went to hand the bass to a member of the crowd but cheekily pulled it back when the fan made a grab for it lol.
I stayed around for a while after the encore just incase he did another like on opening night. While we were waiting to see if he’d come back on, the crew carried a keyboard with a heart shaped stand onto the stage. The crowd cheered, clearly thinking there would be another encore (and a solo Piano one at that!). Then an anouncer said they would be closing shortly and we had to leave over the tannoy.
Like many, the aftershow would have meant missing the train home but I did get the impression he was saving his energy for something tonight hence the fairly short performance. Wish I could have gone though. I think I will still try to see the last night and Im gonna try my best to get to the aftershow. Many thanks to Alex for the ticket tonight!
Im definatly feeling the Prince geek in me making a comeback. Ive been a huge fan since I was 12. I would’nt say I had gone off him but I had a few disappointments with recent releases and I listen to mostly Gospel music these days. But now Prince has been back in my CD player for two weeks now. Hes the number one reason I learned to play so many instruments and started The Cloud9 Mission project in the first place. Ive always dreamed that one day I will play Drums in his band.
My Other Prince Ticket
