Wednesday August 1st:


Dear Beloved,
I am back in Dublin following the three gigs and am totally depressed as my next show is not until Sep 9th. I have started to write up my reviews of the gigs to ensure they are assigned to the history books and as a thank you to the people on this site who did such a wonderful job of reporting on the musicology tour. Collectively we keep the dream alive!!
With prince in Europe, I have read so much in the press these past weeks and the times on Sunday wrote a fantastic and thought provoking article this Sunday that said prince’s greatest achievement was his survival and longevity. VIP tickets and after show issues aside, there is hardly another artist on the scene since 1978 that could sell this venue for 21 nites. Maybe U2, Springsteen, Madonna. So many artists from his 80’s era have faded from record sales and concert sales perspective...it is truly amazing and inspiring to see someone perform with such energy and be at ease 26 years later despite the many ups and downs. Prince is music, prince’s personality and it’s multiple facets are reflected in his music.

On the nite, i got my vip ticket and was initially seated in the F zone. I am going to be frank and state they are awful seats. I begged security to move to a free seat i saw in the a section on route from the restroom, as i was on my own, they allowed it just, but as mentioned this show has choreography attached to many songs and they will perform this on the circular stage that is halfway down the arrow and looks right out over section D2 which are the best seats in the house.
Lights went down at 8.30 ish and show commenced with PR. Great song but it does not work as an opener...per below setlist, the following hour continued with lots of hits and great songs, shhh was super but there was more passion in the version performed on the live experience tour in Europe in 1995.
Come together was another great performance but the hi lite 4 me was guitar and PE. Guitar just truly rocked and Prince loved performing it. He got a second lease of life every time a newer song was performed and while the older hits like kiss were performed very well, i got the slightest feeling he was going through the motions and if he could he would play pe end to end, which would be fine by me.
Pe was awesome, my favourite of the nite and i believe prince should have stuck with tradition on all previous tours and opened with the title track of his latest album. Think sott, lovesexy, nude, d&p, act III, live experience, jam of the year, ona, musicology tours . bring it back P and open the show with it – riverting....
After let’s go crazy, two hours had passed and the arena started to empty. I was about to leave but as the ground was near empty, i opted to head over to the stage and get a closer look at his guitars that were stacked near the left symbol on the A section. I was chatting to security guard for over 6 minutes when suddenly P appeared, walked down to the guitars approx 5 feet from me. I was thinking ....he needs this guitar now as he starting the aftershow in 5 minutes or he doesn’t trust me and he’s come to claim it. I was a little in shock but managed a sociable nod of my head to p and got a sociable nod in exchange – how cool was that !
Even cooler was the acoustic set that followed, corvette, beret, sometimes it snows..then P says ‘full band – back on stage’ before launching into a very funky ‘get on the boat’ le freak and a love bizarre, during which he reached guitar out to tech who sprayed the strings with some liquid to get ready for some serious funking !!

All in all this encore or if you wish this aftershow within the main arena was awesome. Why did he do it?? I’ve seen P live many times and can read his moods. He was not happy with the wed show and and knew there were sound issues, there were to be many changes to setlists, costumes, and hair styles in the next 24 hours to produce a very different show on Friday.

P came back on stage to make it up to the fans on the sound issue and when he finished bizarre he had a look that said i’ve claimed the nite but there is much work to do here. I’ve seen it before. With that i handed by after show ticket to the wonderful sandy from Australia, i just knew there would be no aftershow performance so i went to bed.

Overall, a great show and the most comprehensive setlist spanning his career of the three nights. Shelby is awesome, marva is wonderful, cora and renato are super. The brass section aside from maceo are a little anonymous. the twins needed to take a chill pill and take it easy.
Here is the wed setlist – thanks you prince, thank you to the wonderful people i met from London, norway, Australia and Scotland. London, you are a funky [ and very expensive town ].


1. Purple rain – amazing intro, amazing version. though it caught most people by surprise and the climax and whoooo whoo whoo whoo was not as loud as normal. Best reserved for later in the show, and this is what happened on Fri & sat
2. Girls and boys – great funky version of girls and boys, though at this point the sound became muffled and the vocals were drowned out by the keys...
3. Satisfied – of all the songs performed over the three nights, this was the single poorest performance. I love the song but the vocals were mostly spoken and not sung
4. Cream – great to see this on the setlist, the accompanying choreography by prince and the twins was completely different on the fri and sat nite. Really bizarre.
5. U got the look – slammin’
6. Shhh – i was hoping this was one of the tracks that survived from the musicology / vegas tour and it did. wonderful
7. Musicology - funky
8. Controversy – great, but the twins were in bomben jackets and acting robotic which was a little off putting
9. I feel 4 u
10. Wonderful world
11. Somewhere here on earth – my 2nd highlite of the nite. Beautiful, should be brought back to main set
12. Lolita - excellent
13. Black sweat – really excellent
14. Kiss – muffled sound, could barely recognise it
15. If i was your girlfriend – more muffles
16. Pink cashmere – more muffles.
17. 7 – love the song, but ok ish version and too short. No version of 7 will ever compare to the version he sang to 90,000 people at Wembley in 1993. That version at that concert was awesome and could never be out performed.
18. Come together – wonderful, long, great guitar work
19. Take me with u
20. Guitar – absolutely fantastic, the crowd loved it !!
21. Planet earth – my #1 highlight of the night and probably the tour. Performed close to record version. Crowd loved it. I am baffled as to why it was dropped.
22. Crazy – awesome. Peace and love to Shelby – the most energetic band member by a mile.
23. Nothing compares 2 u
24. Let’s go crazy
25. Little red corvette – welcome back from your 15 minute break prince.
26. Raspberry beret
27. Sometimes it snow
28. Get on the boat – awesome, and great sound !!
29. Le freak
30. A love bizarre – wonderful, play that bass guitar.


I will write up the Fri & Sat reviews soon !!!