Fukuoka Report - 26th November 2002

by FunkyStrange on Thu 28 Nov 2002 E-mail FunkyStrange about this essay

Setlist Sun Palace Fukuoka, Japan November 26th, 2002

{{{A cool report, of an awesome-sounding show. Prince always rocks Japan hard!}}}
REHEARSAL
This really was a rehearsal not a soundcheck
The real soundcheck was pretty much done before we arrived.
They worked on a few songs.

1. Instrumental Jam - 20 mins
2. Hair - Many takes - 40 mins
3. Push & Pull - Played 2 or 3 Times
4. Strollin' - U Want Me - Played 4 or 5 times
5. Sunshine of Your Love (Instrumental) - Hear My Train A Comin` - The Truth

MAIN SHOW
0. Prince Solo Drum Intro
1. The Rainbow Children,
2. Mellow
3. Money Don`t Matter 2 Night
4. The Work Pt.1
5. Push & Pull
6. 1+1+1=3
7. Housequake
8. Strollin`
9. U Want Me
10. Pop Life
11. Purple Rain
12. Strange Relationship
13. Pass The Peas
14. Hair
15. Brick House
16. Sign O` The Times
17. Take Me With U
18. The Everlasting Now
19. Gotta Broken Heart Again
20. Empty Room
21. How Come You Don`t Call Me Anymore
22. Anna Stesia
23. Rise Up
24. Last December

Out of the about 50 NPGMC members I was the only NON-Japanese one there so I HAD to talk, a few times Prince asked us all question and they didn't understand anything so they just stayed silent LOL - There was one guy who could speak a little English and after Prince asked a question they didn't understand he said "What did you say ?" Prince said to him "Can you sing a song ?" This guy obviously didn't want to sing LOL so he just said "I'm sorry" Prince and everyone laughed. Later Prince got a woman to come and interpret for him ... But still they were to shy to answer haha even in Japanese...

Concert started at 7.10pm and finished at 9.30pm
Including the breaks m a 2 hour show.
BUT we had a 3 hour soundcheck!!! Started 3.30pm
They had had a 4 day break before this show so they were ready to funk it up ! They practiced alot of stuff they would play that night...
They were already jamming on one song for 20 minutes before we were let in to the theatre...
We could hear it clearly waiting outside but it was just a jam, not any recognizable song, ...
I think that really WAS the soundcheck...
They worked on Hair (Larry Graham) for about 45 minutes, especially on the hornz and drums..
and the outro of Pass the Peas and then into Hair.. which they would play this very night.
They worked on Push & Pull ( Nikka Costa) for about half an hour.
About an hour was just soundcheck afer these songs, he complained that he couldn`t hear Renato`s keyboard strings.
He said `This is what I was talking about on the tape from the other night, you can`t hear the strings in the house`
SO then he went back to sit in the middle of the theatre and directed the soundcheck from there for about an hour
so the recording would be better this time teehee, I gotta get that tape !!!
They also did work on Strollin` - U Want Me for about half an hour with him sitting back there.
When he came back to the stage I said to him ..
"You NEED to release the Xenophobia album"! He said
"What are you ... My manager?" everyone laughed ..hehe I said
"Yeah I`m your manager and you HAVE to release that album !" He said
"Come on up here "I went up on the stage and he was just picking up his new orange Fender bass guitar.
"Managers..."he said
"...play bass ?" I said and then he said
"Yep, If you can`t play bass you ain't got no business being a manager!" and just before I got to play there was some electrical problem with the bass, it was overloading the DI so my chance was gone..
Then when Takumi was fixing his bass Prince said ...
"I left the record companies to get away from people like you ! Always tellin` people what to do, U gotta go this, U gotta do that ...Managers !!" Everyone laughs again
He told us he went shopping for guitars in Tokyo on his 4 days off and he showed us his 4 new guitars .
One was an orange Fender 4 string bass with white scratchplate, that was the one that had the problem.
Another bass - this one is totally clear, you can see right through it ! It has a small handle on it like his Awhite Auserwald? guitar from the Nude tour. Very cool bass.
Another was a very small guitar, it was so small, it was dark purple and in the shape of a heart.
I have seen it around before in guitar stores... It was probably about 40/45cm long...
And here is the cool thing, he also bought this aqua Fender Strat and told us that Sonny T had the exact same guitar when they used to jam together when they were 14 years old...
He said he had to buy it "just for the memories alone".
I just thought it was a really cool story.
Then he played it and said - "They dont play so well... but I just like the look of them"
They also did work on Strollin` - U & Me for about half an hour. They finished up with a 10 minute jam on Sunshine of Your Love (Eric Clapton) and Hear My Train A Comin` ( Jimi Hendrix) and the first of The Truth thrown in just for good measure All played on the new aqua Strat beecause I guess they were some of the songs they used to play when they were younger? maybe ...anyway ...finishing up at 6.40pm just as the doors opened...

Doors opened to the public at 6.45pm and then the show started about 7.10pm For Most of the show Prince was wearing this sort of apricot suit again with the high collar.

0. Prince Drum Intro
He played the drums for about 2 minutes, it was very cool, there was a delay on the drums which made everything he did sound even better...the lighting was amazing, great start to the show.

1. The Rainbow Children, (Long with alot of jamming and solos) He played his yellow Telecaster for this song

2. Mellow (cool solos by Eric Leeds and & Princ on his piano)

3. Money Don`t Matter 2 Night
(Prince played this on his piano and another great solo by Mister Eric Leeds)

4. The Work Pt.1 (Long jamming version) Maceo did his first solo of the night - 2 Guys and 2 Girls got up to dance with their turn in the spotlight, it was funny.

5. Push & Pull ( Nikka Costa cover ) Played on the new aqua Strat. NO hornz on this song. The way he played it made it sound like When Will We B Paid.

6. 1+1+1=3 - Housequake
He sang the chorus AND VERSES of Housequake !
Some great chants of Fukuoka - we party ... This was maybe the funkiest part of the night.
Solos by Greg & Maceo on this and Eric Leeds was cool as usual.

7. Strollin - U Want Me
He played this on the guitar George Benson gave to him and signed. Very jazzy version of Strollin.
Alot of solos on this, as Prince went off stage. Renato, Eric, Greg... Then Prince came back on stage went into U Want Me...

8. Pop Life
Solos by Eric and Renato

9. Purple Rain
Started on piano then moved to the purple symbol guitar for the 2nd verse. Amazing LONG guitar solo on this...

9. Strange Relationship
Extended version with a long piano solo by Prince

10. Pass The Peas
Prince played his blue cloud guitar for this one.
Prince let this one guy come up and sit on the pillows for about 3 songs .. This version wasn`t very long because they had to make way for...

11. HAIR
Played on Prince`s new orange bass guitar.
Long version with alot of jamming. Rhonda had a solo, followed by Maceo, Renato, Eric then...
A Bass duel between Rhonda and Prince, it was very cool, they were both laughing so much ..
SO MUCH BASS - this song was about 10 minutes long ...

12. Brick House
Great funky version and what a surprise, even the band didn`t know he would play
this, he had to tell them what key it was in ...

13. Sign O` The Times
Cool start with Prince beatboxing and Justin (that FONKY Baldhead doing some scratching)
Before starting the song on guitar..

14. Take Me With U
Good singalong by Fukuoka crowd..

15. The Everlasting Now
Solos - Renato, Eric, Greg, Maceo, Cool long version, I thought this was the end because
he was really stretching it out but it would have been a way too short concert - And he said Goodnight many times in this song and Thank you ... SO I thought OH NO !

17. Gotta Broken Heart Again
After about a 10 minute break and endless clapping, he came back on ... as Renato did a piano solo, which went into Gotta Broken Heart Again The room was absolutely silent for the song, his vocals were totally amazing and the acoustics in this place were great , the boot is gonna kill me ...
Maceo did a solo in this song...and startde doing a funny dance which made Prince laugh. I never liked this song before but this version was so good...

18. Empty Room
He played his purple symbol guitar for this one. Great guitar solo but it wasn`t loud enough, to hear very well... which was disappointing. After this song they moved his piano to centre stage.

19. How Come You Don`t Call Me Anymore
Cool version, the guy who sang `Call Me` was actually good, so Prince sang something else and this guy copied it almost exactly, it was great !

20. Anna Stesia - Rise Up
Started on piano and then he moved to his purple symbol guitar. This was a long version wth some great guitar solos
The Rise up section was long too ... And that was it ... the house lights went up and they started dismantling everything for about 15 minutes The Prince strolls out with his acoustic guitar, with house lights up , about a quarter of the people had left they all came running back in when he started

21. Last December
Short version on acoustic guitar alone, about 3 minutes long... And that was it ... He didn`t want to leave

That DJ Justin was scratchin on most songs but I could only actually hear it about 3 times in the entire show hehe..

The Afterparty was at Q`s Club in Tenjin, Fukuoka
It was a cool little club, all the upstairs was for him and his entourage He arrived at the afterparty about 12.30am but he stayed up in the VIP section most of the time and he came and waved a few times but he knew we weren`t going
anywhere so he came down into the dj booth was on a small stage and played a few tracks from ONA live (1+1+1=3 & The Everlasting Now) and sang along with the mic ...
it was cool and of course he teased us with the cd pretending to throw it into the crowd a few times... He was there on the stage maybe 20 minutes jamming to ONA live CD
He left about 2.30am DJ Justin from the Fonky Baldheadz was the DJ for the night and played mostly Prince stuff.
I have to say there were some fine Japanese women in that club Ohh... Rhonda danced on the DJ stage for about 20 minutes and after Prince had left, Alot of the people left after Prince did, there were probably only 30 people left in the club Rhonda and her sister? ( they look exactly the same ) danced with everyone 3.30 then the place closed up so we all had to go out. I asked Rhonda about going to Australia she said "i dont know yet" so i had some hope until I asked renato " 2 more shows right ? then back to USA ??" he said yep all done. I said "YOU gotta go to Australia man" He just shrugged and said something like "Its not up to me"
I also asked DJ Justin and he mentioned Hawaii and Australia in January but I dont think he was serious.
he just said he didnt want to be in MPLS for the winter LOL
SO then me and this Japanese guy I met, we have to wait until the trains start again at 6am? 6.30am ?
so here we are in this internet cafe typing this right now ...

thats it !

Where`s the boot ?
I don`t think the soundcheck was recored VERY UNfortunately but I could be wrong, but it`s likely the main show was.
And possibly a video ! I recall seeing a small red light in the balcony throughout the show...