Wow, what a night.The last thing we agreed upon early this morning was that anyone who wasn't there would not be able to understand how great it was. Its just useless to try to explain. I guess many of you guys who have seen the other European shows have felt the same way.

Anyhow, two of the largest Norwegian Newspapers were there last night. They are probably a bit more objective than I am right now.

"VG" throws the dice to four (out of six obviously) with the title: "The funk evangelist" with the undertitle Prince doesn't have a Royal Family anymore, but he definitely keps himself with a Court.

The article goes on about how to treat the event on sober reflection of what really happened, or just to be happy to see the little exentric with the perfect rythm on stage again. What pulls it down are the endless solos and what seems to be regular "jam sessions".
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgar...id=2784711


"Dagbladet" are more satisfied and throws six on the dice. I've given the translation job a try below. Please note that both papers are eager in using the symbolism to the Royal House. It is usefull then to know that the standing of the Monarchy has been heavilly debated in this country lately. Two spectacular Royal weddings recently have contributed to this. "Dagbladet" has allways been known to be republican.


Dagbladet, Oslo, October 22nd
By: Sven Ove Bakke
Prince and the new Power Generation
"One Nite Alone Tour"
Oslo Konserthus
Audience 1400 (sold out)

Charisma, sex, soul and love. Prince makes up for it.
Throw of the dice: six

http://www.dagbladet.no/k...51872.html

Headline: Worth the money

A great day for the Royalists in the Kingdom of Norway, and not least a fantastic evening at the Court of the autocratic Prince of Soulfunk.

Now, with the Christmas season coming up, Prince would easily have filled three or four full houses at Oslo Spektrum (note: Oslos major concert arena - seats about 8000) for eighties hungry "thirty-something" people who first saw him in Stockholm on the high school trip back in -87. Instead it became a very special night at the acknowledged funk joint Oslo Konserthus. Tickets at NOK 950! (note: about $125) Seated audience! Intimate!

So how was it really?
The scorn of the worlds most irritable orthography, the ridiculous name changes and Scrabble in the face - we are silent about those things now. Because most of it was just fantastic. The concert BEGAN with three minutes of standing ovation of the totalitarian type. There are limits on how many saxophone solos and preaches of God one can stand, but it does not overshadow a superb and perfectionist performance of soul and r&b, jazz, funk, pop, rock and other related music genres, complete with a "King" sound picture.

A handful of hits
It did not really matter, the fact that we only were served a handful of hits. The few he played were off course highlights with an audience where 5% at the most would have deepened in albums like "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic" and "The Rainbow Children"..
"Money Don't Matter 2 Night" was the first, later came "Sign O'The Times" as a massive and growling funk bomb, a charming "When You Where Mine", an intense "Nothing Compares 2 U" and in the end "Purple Rain"!
In addition he poured out guitar performances where he touched into Santana, Hendrix, Led zeppelin (a complete "Whola Lotta Love") and James Brown'ish funk.

Oslo!
Prince must have liked Oslo, because he sang "Oslo, Oslo, Oslo" as if it was the most funky word in the whole wide world. And he was met with a devotion and gratitude that is rare stock with blasé concert goers in the capital of Norway. It was LOVE all the time.
The most superb about this night?
The languishing, attacking and sexy falsetto. Perhaps he is an underrated guitarist, but he is also in the possession of one of soul history's most elastic voices. A voice that can make even the most "die hard" republicans to become a royalist.

And here's a link to "Aftenposten"s review: http://www.oslopuls.no/ci...id=422136#

Aftenposten is the largest morning paper in Oslo.

They also give six out of six points. The headline is: Completely Boss!

Here's the link to another review, this time from Nettavisen:

http://www.nettavisen.no/...tem=237862

Another 6-roll of the dice. To sum it up, so far: Three sixes on two fours.

Plus my personal seven.

... and yet another one, from the music-mag Puls:

http://www.puls.no/a.cgi?id=10019

"A fabulous performance, actually more than one can expect!" is the verdict, although the writer, for some reason or other, think that Ricky Peterson is Prince's keyboard-player and Rhonda is Kat Dyson.

Strange and untrue.

Thanks for the translation.