http://www.dailymail.co.u...ge_id=1773


Prince £31-a-ticket shows sell out in minutes
By ALEXA BARACAIA and ANDRE PAINE -

More than 140,000 tickets for Prince’s London concerts this summer sold out within 20 minutes, causing the internet booking site to crash.

Organisers immediately added a further six concerts at the O2 Arena - the former Millennium Dome - and these were also expected to sell fast.


Within an hour some fans were selling £31.21 tickets - capped by Prince in a ground-breaking move to make them affordable to everyone - on eBay at five times the asking price.


A tour insider said: “It sold out even quicker than we could have anticipated. Prince is in London meeting his promoters to discuss what dates could be organised next.”


In all, he will play 21 dates in London.


An audience of 1,500 lucky fans were able to see the US star at an extraordinary secret two-hour performance at Koko.

Little Britain star David Walliams, singers Mika and Will Young and DJ Chris Moyles were among the audience.

At 48, Prince remains untouchable as a musician and performer.

But this was also a reminder that while he was happy to walk among the people, he is evidently not of the people.

As such, his zealous bouncers ensured he was never actually touched by the crowd.

His late arrival - around 11.45pm - was to be expected.

That came after his - admittedly brilliant - band had launched into a funk workout that included a tedious trombone solo in the first song.

When he strolled on stage in a furry white hat and started yelping and sliding around during Satisfied, the audience reaction was noisily ecstatic.


But the mercurial singer decided to tease us, leaving the stage to his band again, before returning to say mockingly: "So many hits, so little time!"

After that, it should have been easy. But rather than the hits he teased us with, there was material from last year's merely adequate 3121 album, and plenty of playful showing off.

It was often incredible to watch, especially when Kiss got a welcome airing.

But a bizarre incident halfway through nearly scuppered the evening. Several fans were pulled on stage to dance and, amid a party atmosphere, one girl gave him a peck on the cheek.

Apparently joking, Prince fell to the floor, but a bouncer appeared and removed the fan from the stage.

Prince disappeared and then returned with his head wrapped in a towel, muttering darkly about being kissed by a stranger.

Suddenly, the atmosphere sagged noticeably. That made his recovery all the more remarkable with a simply awesome 40-minute finale.

There were great covers performed with vocalist Shelby J, including Gnarls Barkley's Crazy and Amy Winehouse's Love Is A Losing Game. ("Respect to Amy," said Prince.)

Then we got hits, including U Got the Look, followed by encores of Nothing Compares 2 U and Let's Go Crazy, adorned with Prince's squealing guitar.

He returned to the stage for one final speech in praise of the London crowd - and a promise that the 02 shows will be his greatest gigs yet.

Singer Prince sung the praises of British singer Amy Winehouse at his surprise gig.


The pint-sized purple one, who has expressed a desire to work with Winehouse, declared onstage: "Respect to Amy Winehouse, respect! What a voice!".


And in honour of his musical crush, one of his backing vocalists took the lead on Amy's song 'Love Is A Losing Game' from her hit album Back to Black, a song he's said to be keen to perform with her during his residency in London in a few months time.


Although Amy did not attend the show, due to performing commitments in New York, according to The Star, the singer said she would "drop everything" for the opportunity to work with the Minneapolis native.


She said: "I hope I can do the gigs. I'd do it with bells on - all day long."

The new dates are on 17,18, 28 and 31 August and 1 and 9 September, call 08719840002 for tickets.

originally submitted by OperatingThetan

Anxiety said:

oh prince, you prissy little thing.

Ladies your lips must forever thrist because you cannot drink of Prince, unless you want you butt bounced out to the curve by his trained gorillas.

littlemissG said:

To be fair she grab kissed him, he did a comic fall to the floor and she literally leapt on top of him. I'm sure there's video somewhere if you want to look (there were cameras everywhere in teh audience). Only then did the two guys carry here off! She'd been all up against Prince all through the Musicology dance off. There's always one right who can'tjust get up and dance?!

See here: http://entertainment.time...777280.ece

It all proved too much for one girl, who leapt on the singer and attempted to straddle him as he lay on the stage before being hauled away by security.

Doubtless she was carried away by the sheer hedonistic euphoria, generated not only by the man himself, who even at the age of 48 did nothing to belie his status as music's supreme performer, but also by an ecstatic audience.
[Edited 5/11/07 10:23am]

UCantHavaDaMango said:

evenstar3 said:

Whatchu laughin' at?

Seriously tho, the guy is such a comedian!

Is that true? So many tickets, so little time (no pun intended)! Sometimes someone gets the facts wrong or it's just intentional hype, but if true, it's really impressive.

Congratulations Prince! just plaese give us some advance notice on the secret gigs

evenstar3 said:

he's such a freak.

The Reading festival tickets sold out in 14 mins, so it's hardly "record-breaking."

Arctic Monkeys' first tour sold out in 4 mins.

2 bad he only does London
I'm glad 4 the people in Britain and I know London isn't so far away from Belgium,France or The Netherlands...
but it's the fact we got 2 go overseas.It much easier 2 just take your car and drive 2 the concert.

Anyway,it still proves a lot of people wanna see him.

Spookymuffin said:

omg, BLASPHEMER! everything Prince does is record breaking!

Spookymuffin said:

maybe when he got the news he got all excited and took a dale bozzio vinyl and shattered it over his big, powdery noggin. how's that for record breaking?

Spookymuffin said:

Why don't you log on to artic monkey website instead, as it appears your in awe of them

Spookymuffin said:

how many shows? prince sold out 7 shows in 20 mintes or less than 3 minutes for each show..
[Edited 5/11/07 11:12am]

evenstar3 said:

with a towel wrapped around his head?

was he parlying richard gere's thing (kissing the Indian actress) into a joke, what?
[Edited 5/11/07 11:11am]

SlamGlam said:

and how many seats? are the arctic monkeys playing at a 160,000 seat arena? that sucker must be huge. where is it? are they performing on the moon?

XxAxX said:

he was doing a turbie-twist demonstration.

Anxiety said:

He didn't do a very good job!

Anxiety said:

the O2 is 23000 or so so he sold out 6 or 7 shows.

2903dad said:

How about you grow up?

SlamGlam said:

but what about the arctic monkeys?

Anxiety said:

take that Monkeys!


[Edited 5/11/07 11:25am]

UCantHavaDaMango said:

uh, it was a prototype model.

Anxiety said:

Stop it!

Spookymuffin said:

oh and when the AM's are on the eve of 30 years in the bizz and still selling 140,000 tickets (soon to be closer to 300,000) then you can talk.

Spookymuffin said:

OOPs have I hit a nerve?

SlamGlam said:

hey now they have a new record out


i think