WOW... What a weekend! Now that I've had my first real sleep in 72hrs.. I feel just about normal and can now try and say something that makes some kind of sense
Sooo many people to thank it's crazy... please forgive me if I've missed anyone out - it's not intentional.

First I'd like to thank the two people who were my inspiration to do these events in the 1st place - Eileen Murton & Chris Dawson of Controversy (old school peeps will remember these guys)... Chris in particular who organised some of the best Prince parties I've ever seen and attended in London in the 80's/90's that made me dream that someday I'd like to do something similar (if not better) - unfortunately Chris came across a bit of bad luck towards the end which I wont go into...

Throught the rest of the 90's there was a serious lack of quality places in London where you can go and enjoy the music of Prince in a club type atmosphere with a group of like-minded people.

So in the year 2000 I decided to go for it and made plans to launch my 1st Prince party event the following year... The call went out and I gathered a bunch of friends to help and offer advice.

Special thanks to Ian Fraser (DJ Unique), Diane Dunkley, Angela Nansera & Enrico Tizzano for their help in getting the 1st party off the ground in 2001.

Truth be told that party was not a great success financially - but that did not put me off from trying again the following year. This time adding a Swedish Prince tribute band called Glam Slam and a 2nd DJ all the way from Belgium - Jan Van Hecke (DJ Le Freak). The party was great and everyone I spoke to enjoyed it.

It was yet another loss making excercise but it has never been my intention from the very begining to make any profit from these events... The important thing was to try and organise the best Prince party event that I possibly can (with the help of some friends) to bring people together and make them happy... just to acheive that goal and break even would make me happy.

I believe in my opinion, that anyone would does these type of events purely with just the intention of making a profit are not really into the love of the music and are not true Prince fans.

Two years later I met a friend called Mike Connor - he came up with the idea of instead of doing one-off's, why not do two nights back to back. Baring in mind that people will come not only from all over the UK, but all over the world to attend - so why not make it more worthwhile a weekend in funky London. A package which will prove to be more financially less of a risk. The idea of the weekender was born and it kind of helped things turn around. Special thanks to Mike for his valuable help, advice and contribution from that point onwards.

One of my proudest achievements throughout this incredible journey is the story of Paul & Kat Savage...I'm sure there are others, but they are the ones who are most vocal. They first met at one of my parties, got married (thanks for the wedding invite), had a beautiful baby girl.... and called her Mayte!... Thank you Paul & Kat for your support throughout the years and for being good friends.

Thanks also to good friends Gavin & Samantha McLaughlin who where also around from the begining to offer help and advice.

Special thanks to DJ Nick Gray, my standby DJ from the start whom I kept "secret" from the main DJ's just incase either one could not make it for any reason. Fortunately for us (unfortunately for him) he was never called into service. But he finally got his chance to shine at the very last party

Special thanks to the one and only Dre Day for your valuable help and support over the years. So glad to call you a friend and I wish you all the success in the world with your music career.

Thanks to Adrian of Madhouse Music for his merchandice stall... a regular feature of these events from day one.

Also thanks to Nathan (The International Lover) Persad along with Chopin & Katrina for their excellent musical acoustic performance contributions.

Thanks also to Richard (Joyinrepatition) for all his help and the talented Troy Gua and LPP for the funky artwork and support..

Special thanks to Paddy, Dale and the ULTIMATE Prince tribute band ENDORPHINMACHINE - they got me out of a tricky situation and I am forever eternally greatful. Thanks guys for all your support and all the best for the future.

Shout out to the LONDON PRINCE MEET-UP GROUP.... too many names to mention but they all know who they are... many thanks for your help.

Very special thanks to my very special team of friends who helped and assisted me over the last marathon 3 days... Lynn (Moonwrap), Chopin Gard, Jeff Witter & Sarah Hornsey. Thanks guys... I could not have done this without your help.... much appreciated!!!

Thank to my friends who helped with the catering on the boat, Scott and Anthony.

Thanks to Ricardo & Hayley, managers of the beautiful Grand Union venue ands the bar staff for all their hard work.

Thanks to Warren and Joe for their help in building a great stage and supplying an excellent PA system.

Thanks to the boat crew on The Golden Jubilee.

Thanks to Jo (Barbarella), Lynda Cann & Darren for your support and all the best with your future Prince events.

Thanks to my sister Jackie O'Shea.

Thanks to all the friends I've met and made throughout the years. I'm happy, relieved and sad to see it all go. But I think I've made my mark and the time is right for it to end.

A BIG THANK YOU to EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU for coming and supporting these events since 2001. Without you there would be no party - it's that simple.

Last (but not least) thank God for PRINCE for his talent and music.

"All good things they say ...never last...."

THANK YOU & GOODBYE.

[Edited 6/10/13 7:04am]

[Edited 6/10/13 11:35am]

[Edited 6/14/13 7:43am]

Thank you!! I lived to see the dawn. Much love to everyone involved and thanks for your hospitality. Proud to bring this home:

If any of you ever find yourself in Dallas, orgnote me!

[Edited 6/10/13 4:32am]

That was.......

My best weekend this year

Mucho Gracias

x

i'm only just getting over the weekend, i need this coming weekend to catch up on sleep and life! i got back home on monday and went to bed at 5.30pm and slept for over 12 straight hours before having to go back to work, and i've still not caught up

i want to say a huge thanks to ray for everything over the years, he's an incredibly nice guy and has done the most amazing job putting on these events which take considerable amount of time to plan and organise, this one taking nearly 2 years, for it all to last just 3 days. i don't think many people realise the huge amount of time and effort that goes into the dawn experience events, i know myself that i put in months of work preparing things from videos to rebuilding computers to make everything work, and my end part is to show videos and play music. ray had to find and organise venues, bands, PA's, decorations, all sorts of things which take a lot of time and cost. i can completely understand ray's reasons to call it a day, which is a shame for everyone involved, but he wanted to end things on a high, and i can say for certain after all these years, and being at prince parties and events all over the world, that this was the best prince party there ever was, so the goal was acheieved with full honours, and i've been doing prince parties for 20 years and this includes parties in MPLS, so that's high praise indeed

next is a big thanks to everyone who has been involved in putting the parties together over the last few years. i'm really terrible with names, so add online names as well as real names to further complicate things and it really messes with my brain. i can tell you all sorts of completely useless facts about prince that may fascinate some but have no real use, but names i'm lost with. so for that reason i don't really want to begin to remember names as i'll end up missing some important ones out, however alone with ray there have been a few notable people such as mike and chopin and katrina and jeff who played big roles in preparing and organising parts of this and previous parties, and of course the other dj's - le freak, nick, and certainly not least is drezone who adds his own special thing as well as djing and mcing, a real larger than life character

also, there have been a lot of people in the past who helped organise, and attended parties regularly, a few of which were absent at this weekend, you weren't forgotten about, and there were many conversations as to wondering where you were and how you were missed. again i don't like to mention names and then upset someone as i forgot to mention them, but it was a shame nicci star who helped organise the london meetups with chopin wasn't there, and it would have been nice to see some of the other organisers and helpers other the years, and some of the other dawn experience mods

it was good however to see some faces again that i don't see often, and not outside of prince events, such as gav and sam and daf and helen, and savage and katt. it's a shame we all live so far apart as the conversation is first class, or perhaps due to subject matter it should be the opposite... - and of course my mate lodger who has been to many a prince party and gig with me over the years, another incredibly nice guy

another big thank you goes out to all the fans who came from all over the world over the years to the parties, it's incredibly exciting to know people flew from places like MPLS, dallas, washington DC and all over europe such as belgium, spain, switzerland, amsterdamn, germany, sweden, etc etc etc, and to hear feedback that they enjoyed it so much and it was completely worth the trip is so great to hear. i met so many people over the years and each party including this one i meet more people, some of whom i'd been chatting to online in chatrooms and forums over the years, sometimes as far back as the 90s and i meet them over a decade later

i've probably forgotten lots more, but this is a start which i can add to later, but once again, thanks to everyone for coming over the years, thanks to every for helping out over the years, and the biggest thanks in the world to ray for absolutely everything

Great post fella - eloquent!

Paddy (Geetar)