My wife and I have just returned home (to Glasgow) from a great weekend in London where we witnessed Prince at his best, in concert, lifting the roof. We both enjoyed the Saturday night concert better than Friday, simply because we heard some real crackers like Pink Cashmere,Sometimes It Snows In April,Nothind Compares 2 U,... superb! Suffice to say that it was all good. I'll not go into the set lists, others have a much better memory than me and have done a good job in other posts. If you are going to see him at the O2, then lucky you, you will have a great time. If you are taking a non-fan, they will love it too. Prince can whip any music lover to a fan in ten minutes flat. The concerts were simply excellent - thank you sir!

Now for a few negative bits, for your review.
**** Please don't read or respond if you don't like alternative opinion.****

Since we had flown down to London from Glasgow especially to see him, we decided to make the most of the weekend and we bought aftershow tickets for both nights. My wife promised to take comfy shoes this time since my last aftershow experience in London was cut short cos her feet were too sore. Sorry Prince, I love you baby, but not like I love my... wife.

After the Friday night concert we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a restaurant in the O2 arena (Zizzi, Italian food, very nice btw) waiting for the queue to IndigO2 to fade before joining the rest of the fan following. We must have got there about 12:45am, sober I should add, we bought some water to keep cool and took a place on the main floor space whilst watching Dr John play. Dr John isn't really my cup of tea, but each to their own. I quickly learned that my wife wasn't too fond of him either, so I tried to assure her that this was merely a warm up before Prince came on. Dr John finally left the stage after a bloke at the side had attempted on several occasions to have him wrap it up. His jams seemed to go on forever. Having stood listening to it for several hours, in one spot so not to lose my restricted view past the two 6'3" blokes in front (who I should add were not for budging at all), our calves were rather sore and backs aching. When Dr John finally did close his set at around 02:15am (ref my wife), he thanked the crowd and mentioned something about making way to let Prince up to do his thing. Having spoken with several of the IndigO2 staff before going in and learning nothing from them re whether Prince would appear or not, you can appreciate the relief felt when we heard these words. Well, my wife was happy to hang around a little longer anyways! The black curtain was drawn over the stage, DJ started spinning some Prince tunes and the anticipation for a stage change was on. 3am came and went. I enquired again as to whether Prince would be likely to play tonight, and the same response came back as we got before we went in, 'we don't know,.... we just need to wait and see how he feels'. Why couldn't they just say sorry, Prince will not be playing tonight? Well I guessed they would rather have a load of Prince fans hanging around a dancefloor, buying drink thinking that something might happen, rather than leave in droves eh?

Saturday night came, again a great concert. We decided not to hang around the IndigO2 dancefloor for several hours listening to Dr John again and went to a late show at the cinema (in the O2 complex) to kill a few hours. When we got to the club we asked the staff as we were going in as to whether Prince was going to play that night. This was around 2am. Again, they responded that they didn't know. Getting inside we caught Nikka closing off her set. I was a little annoyed that I'd missed her, but hey, my fault. We also missed her pre-show warm up since I wasn't too well that evening and we just caught the start neat at 9pm. Anyways, back to the aftershow, we stood around waiting for the set to be cleared behind the black curtain. They put a DJ in front of the black curtain this time, so my wife and I had a boogie to the tunes on the sticky dancefloor, which now smelt like pee btw. At 3:30am we left. Whilst waiting in the queue for the O2 Express (boat up the Thames from the O2 to London Bridge/Warerloo) we learned from a couple from Manchester that Prince had been on earlier in the evening, around 1am? for a short while. I wasn't too disappointed that I had missed him since it was a short appearance, more disappointed that the aftershows were not consistent. We had stayed late both nights, past tube closing time, so we had to pay extra to get back to our hotel, boat and taxi fees around £50 over the two nights. The taxi rank at the O2 was a joke I should add, so make sure that you have a local taxi number if you do decide to brave the aftershow experience.

As others have stated, the concerts were excellent, really really good, but the Friday aftershow tainted it slightly. We felt as though IndigO2 were more interested in making money off the drink than actually finding out whether or not Prince was going to appear.

Like a few others, I will also be challenging Ticketmaster on the subject of a refund for Friday night. Selling a ticket entitled 'Prince the Earth Tour' for £31.21 for a concert with Prince is fair, selling a ticket entitled 'AEG LIVE PRESENT Prince - Official Aftershow' for £25.00 with no Prince aftershow is misleading.

Again, I should stress that we had a great time at the concerts. Prince was and still is a great performer. It has to be said though that the aftershow experience definitely tainted the memories of what was a fantastic weekend. I spent close to £900 (with flights, hotels etc) this weekend and it will take me a few months to pay it off, so I hope for the sake of those that have still to go, that the marketing folks, IndigO2 and Prince sort this aftershow stuff out, for the sake of the fans, like you and me, that want to share a great time and party with Prince to the wee hours of the morning and not feel exploited by the businessmen behind the aftershow ticket sales.

V cool tartanfunk.
Was @Sat nites aftershow. Nikka Costa & de band were excellent, fine set of lungs on the girl. Was cool seeing P join her on stage for a bit cuz i wasnt that far away. Even though he was only there for a few mins I thought it was still class just wondering will they be back or not, having a peek through that curtain.
I thought DJ Rashida was brill, there's not many places on a Sat nite with that quality of funk (kinda cool when ur @de bar & Lady Cab Driver kicks in).
Coolest part was near the end, I was on the dance floor dancin with the empty plastic glasses & heard a bit of commotion up the back, lotta ppl were gathered around a door. Apparently the man himself was there. A few mins later more noise & he was there, he went over 2de DJ box 4a min & then thru doors near where toilets were. Sadly again I didnt c him.
Big crowd gathered around dat door 4wile, 10mins later he was back & walked back to were he appeared from 1st, i was only a few yards away!!!
Still hasnt sunk in that I was so close 2my idol.
As for the main show itself, y'all just need2 go & experience it 4urselves.
Its not just the quality of real music, but its the arena, lights, sound, crowd (Sat crowd was jumpin) & especially that feeling u get like this can't be real.
Didnt get home till 5am, feet killing me, starving all day cuz Q's 4places were mad but didnt care, Brill nite.
Was so gd, wile waitin on taxi decided we r gna do it again in few weeks& when woke up in morn still wanted2 do it again, (so it wasnt 1of those drunk decisions u back down on de next day)

Funny because Prince appeared by that door at least 5 times that night. My wife and I were there most of the time and whenever he came out I told her to stay cool, because it was clear all he wanted to do was to check the crowd without any commotion. Anyway he came out, we smiled/waved, he did the same. My wife even got to shake his hand at one point. But as others noticed he was there, the crowd drew towards the doors. Some people started acting crazy and that was when P disappeared

darthbane2k said:

With you on this one. My partner was also one of them who he shook hands with over at the right hand side fire exit. Im not a big Prince fan but that memory of watching him shake my partners hand and gesturing at me will last forever. Simply Amazing.

But i guess if 2000 people are all gathering and shouting he is not going to show. Its the element of surprise and getting the attention of a select few that does it for Prince. I just feel sorry for the people who left early or where oblivious to this that night.

tartanfunk said:

I am totally with you my husband and i went down for both wed and fri shows we to are from glasgow we decided to go to the fri aftershow i asked at the box office if he would be appearing and was told yes he would he would play for an hour i am a huge prince fan and couldnt have bee happier... we waited in the que for an hour and a half got inside got our seats and waited and waited nothing we left about 4! got back to the hotel bout 5.30 then airport for 7! i love prince but looking back this spoiled my trip all i remember is how bad this made me feel ive been on to ticketmaster the o2 etc they were supposed to get back to me but havnt? as far as im concerned an aftershow means a performence an aftershow party is a party i didnt pay £50 to sit on my ass all night i'd much rather have had a sleep before my flight....
sorry about what you guys went through

Thanks for your response and support on this kornie. Please let us know how you get on with your refund request and I will be sure to post an update too.

I'm really saddened by the whole aftershow experience and what we all went through this weekend. I'm also bemused by some of the posts I have read on this forum suggesting that fans like you and me should somehow not expect anything more for the money that we paid for the aftershow.

I should have added that it took some persuading to convince my wife that we should go back to IndigO2 on Saturday after the gig, after what happened the night before, but when she experienced Prince in concert again that evening she was really excited about trying again, especially when I suggested that I take her to see Hairspray in between events

When you think about how late it was, if you are going to the aftershow, you could just wait another hour or so and go straight to the airport, catch an early flight home and avoid the hotel costs. I suppose that is a Scottish trait coming through though, or perhaps this is just me attempting to justify another trip to see Prince in London!