Johnny McDevitt
Monday July 9, 2007
Guardian Unlimited



It was a busy weekend for Prince. In just under twelve hours, Minneapolis' Rock & Roll hall of famer returned to his hometown for his first performance in 20 years, played 3 sets to enraptured audiences and was only finally stopped when police intervened.

For the first time since 1987, Prince returned to First Avenue, the venue he made famous when it appeared in his 1984 film, "Purple Rain", an emotional return preceded by two less sentimental events in Macy's department store and the Target Centre.

The Purple one's first words of the day were "Minneapolis, I am home," but 12 hours later, the message was 'Minneapolis, go home' when irate residents called in local law enforcement and had Prince removed from the stage at 4am.
Prince had crammed 15 songs into a 70 minute set at First Avenue, including, aptly, "Controversy," which contains the line, "(I) wish there were no rules."

Prince was in town as part of his ever-growing world tour, which sees him descend on London for a 21 date run at the O2 venue later this summer, but it wasn't just about the music. The star was also promoting a new personally-endorsed fragrance, '3121'. Which ought to come in handy should the temperature at his concerts get too high in future.