September 9th 2007, apart from being Richards birthday, quite possibly, without wishing to sound dramatic, the greatest night of my life. Before I gush on about this, I don’t want to play down any nights I’ve had with any family or friends, but to appreciate this you must first appreciate 2 things:-
1. You obviously need to appreciate Prince as an Artist,
2. Appreciate the regard with which I hold him.
The weeks of waiting for my eighth, and possible last, visit to a Prince concert. The VIP tickets bought guaranteed seats within the first ten rows., Al and & arrived at our Greenwich Hotel shortly after midday, I chilled watching the Grand Prix, while Al started to get ready.
At 2:30, we we’re ready, and it’s downstairs to order a taxi. We arrive at the O2 at 3. This time I’m nervous, my stomach is churning already. Time to kill, we grab something to eat, have a wander, buy some merchandise (Al perfume, me a new 21 nights shirt that wasn’t there last time), time for a drink, not too many, gotta stay sober (besides, it’s £3.50 a bottle of beer).
Doors due open at 6 we gather at the entrance, tickets and VIP admission in hand, doors open is late again as it’s 6:15 when we get in, we get our hospitality bands and drink tokens and are ushered up two sets of escalators, we can hear Prince sound checking Foo Fighters “Best of You”. We arrive in the backstage bar, greeted with a drink and find a table and seat. We are now seated on the Box seating level, behind enormous black curtains that prevent us actually seeing the stage. The bar is downlit with purple lighting, and Prince's symbol is projected on the wall. Time to sit and chill, as a fine finger buffet is constantly peddled around the tables.
It’s at this point I start to wonder why my ticket package is worth £210 more than the ticket face value, some free drinks and a buffet hardly justifies it, a small lounge band / musician would be nice, even Prince music piped in would be a start, but nothing. 8 O’clock comes and goes (as do the free drinks), time to take up our seats. We now have to walk all the way around the other side of the arena, back down two more escalators, up another, before entering the arena, at the back of the hall. We walk down the stairs to the floor level, and take up seats Block D3 seats B38 & 39, second row, 6 feet from the stage and alongside the fluted section of the symbol (smiley faces in pic),
I am beginning to realise the worth of my ticket price, this is an amazing seat, gonna have a great view. 8:40, the lights dim, smoke billows from the centre stage, and once again the words ring out “Dearly beloved……” Prince appears from the stage no more than 20 feet in front of me and burst into the opening lines of “Let’s go crazy” striding off toward the front of the stage
This standard is followed by other greats such as Let’s Go Crazy, Baby Eye’m A Star, Proud Mary, All Along the Watchtower (Hendrix), Best of U (Foo Fighters), Take Me With U, Come together (Beatles), Guitar, Shhh, Musicology, Play That Funky Music,7 , Sign ‘O’ the Times, Kiss, Raspberry Beret, Purple Rain, I Feel for You, Strange Relationship, Alphabet St and Guitar. Being so close to the stage and speakers tended to distort the sound somewhat, in fact sometimes it took a while to realise what he was actually playing, but that did nothing to detract from the enjoyment, in fact the vibe emanating from the speakers only served to empower the dancing.
The set, if anything was better than before, with highlights again being “shhh” and an indelible image of him less than six feet away, purple ‘symbol’ guitar in hand, belting out purple rain, UN-FOR-GET-ABLE!!!.
(if the picture below had been taken the night we were there, he would have been looking straight at us)
He again did two encores, the first being an acoustic piano set, which, after a fantastic, full rendition of Adore, he played one of his stomping, quick change melodies, slipping with ease between his standards, Old and New, sometimes only playing a few bars, but stringing them together with amazing ease and continuity, not once losing the beat, or the crowds total attention.
Early on in the evening his purpleness declares, ‘21 nights is not long enough, we’re just getting warmed up…’, how right he is, but then no number of nights would be enough to get your fill of this.
It was totally exhilarating to be so close to such a personal icon, and I found myself in equal measure dancing, and actually just standing, gapping open mouthed, awestruck at the mastery of this man and his craft, truly in the presence of greatness. All to soon, the encores finish, the lights go up, and the show is over. People stand, waiting, hoping this is one of those nights when he will throw an encore curve ball and return to a half empty, but expectant arena, but no, the show is over, as is my front row audience.
But the night is not ended, because the after show tickets I had possessed since our first visit are now ready. Time for a quick refreshment before going to O2’s smaller stage venue, the 2000 capacity Indigo.
Our tickets are for the balcony area, and entering the venue it isn’t really what I expected, it’s a bit like a university lecture theatre, with a Peter Stringfellow makeover. A steep seated balcony area, above the downstairs standing area, fronted by a small intimate stage, which is currently obscured by curtains.
But it’s already been a long evening and the seating is welcome, and, being relatively early, we get good seats, second row from the balcony. The bar is handy and refreshments welcome. My only surprise is that by 12:15 the balcony is only ‘half’ full, people obviously concerned of the uncertainty over whether prince will appear. Then, the curtains open, revealing a brightly lit stage, with an almost studio come front room feel to it, Renato Neto, Mr Hayes, Maceo Parker and Cora Coleman stride on stage and start putting out a jazzy groove, which rolls on effortlessly for 5 minutes, then unceremoniously, from stage left, slowly and as inconspicuously as you like, Prince wanders on, dressed in a powder Blue suit and wearing over sized shades, he joins in the line and just goes with it.
The music just rolls on, Shelby J comes out and starts putting out some astonishing vocals and it’s at least 10 minutes before Prince even approaches a Mic. Then he’s off, Oh No!, is he coming back?, is this it?, no of course not, he’s back and rips into 1999!!, the place explodes and the wave of love and energy keep this party going TILL 3 O’CLOCK!!!!!,
It is the most amazing feeling, you feel part of the bands world, you are being allowed a glimpse into what makes Prince tick, and he’s gleefully, and playfully, sharing it with you. All night it’s musical pass the parcel as prince continually hands off to different band members wanders off, returns and it’s back to him. He sings a duet with Marva, can’t even recall which of his own tracks he was singing, was it Joy in Repitition?, but Marva’s intermingled chorus is Kylie’s 'Na-na-na' from ‘Can’t get you outta my head’ awesome!!.
Prince caps it all with a solo piece, rattling out a thick guitar hook, and meanders through a slick vocal adlib tale, bout his children (songs) and the music industries misguided view of him as a music seller, rather than a musician/artist “I’ve never sold a record.. I make ‘em.” He tells the record bosses.
The power of the room is truly humbling, and I again find myself realizing I am in the presence of true greatness, and it’s sad in a way, coz I know I’ll never experience this again. Each time the band goes off, the crowd refuse to let it end and he returns again and again, “How can we not play, when there’s so much love”, indeed. When the lights finally do go up, having clocked up 2 hours 45 minutes on stage, every expectation I had of the evening is fulfilled and exceeded, every standard of Prince’s reputation lived up to, and a memory that will never EVER fade. The last 27 years of following an artist culminating in one pulsating evening.
Note: all pictures are found and respectfully borrowed from internet sources, not actually taken by me on the night (to busy dancing man!!)
