Aug 2, 2007

At the opening night of his unprecedented three-week residency at the former Millennium Dome on Wednesday, Prince pulled off the impressive feat of bringing a party atmosphere to a venue with all the ambience of a municipal ice-rink.

In high heels and powder blue suit, pop’s campest heterosexual was equal parts Little Richard and Liberace backed by a small but tight band. He played a generous two-hour set in the round, perched on top of a stage shaped like a giant replica of his famous androgynous symbol.

Since finally securing a divorce from his former record label and reverting to his birth name around the turn of the new millennium, the 49-year-old artist formerly known as Squiggle has proved more innovative for his marketing methods than his musical output.

He has experimented with releasing albums via the internet and including them in package deals with concert tickets.

He went one step further with his latest, the moderately enjoyable Planet Earth, giving it away free last month with every copy of a Sunday newspaper.

From some artists, such unorthodox gambles might smack of desperate attempts at brand expansion and career resurrection. But on Planet Prince, all bets are off, all normal rules suspended. Announcing 21 consecutive nights at one of London’s largest venues was certainly an audacious statement of self-confidence worthy of a champion poker player, but one that seemed to pay off on Wednesday. Following on from a six-month residency at his own Las Vegas club, the show was certainly well drilled and funky.

“You can’t handle me!”, the diminutive singer squealed theatrically. “I got too many hits!”

The last time Prince played in Britain, at a one-off promotional show in May, celebrities crammed the small North London venue while an amorous young stage invader appeared to attempt sexual congress with the singer. This new show is a more polished and choreographed affair, yet oddly old-fashioned, featuring cheer leader-style dancers and a hefty dollop of vaudeville showmanship.

Songs from the Planet Earth album were mostly well received, although some of them tended towards easy-listening schmaltz. The smoochy seduction ballad Somewhere Here on Earth was too syrupy by half, although the perky, playful Guitar came alive on stage. However, the mid-set cluster of Prince-free instrumental jams was pure musical air freshener, more suited to a hotel lobby than a rock concert.

Inevitably, though, it was the Purple One’s classic hits from the 1980s and early 1990s that received the most rapturous reception. He had the entire crowd on their feet with roof-raising versions of funk-pop classics including Purple Rain, Little Red Corvette, Nothing Compares 2U and the mighty Kiss, which featured the updated lyric “You don’t have to watch Desperate Housewives or Big Brother to have an attitude.”

After a storming cover version of Gnarls Barkley’s chart-topper Crazy, in a classic tease tactic the house lights went on and the crowd began to leave, but dashed back in at the very last minute when Prince came back on for a further set of encores.

After the seemingly endless parade of encores, the polymorphously perverse pixie proclaimed: “I got 21 nights of this? Too much fun!”

Not too much, but certainly enough.

http://entertainment.time...183108.ece
[Edited 8/1/07 19:31pm]

Thank u..

Do these cookie-cutter writers just plagiarize each other? With old worn out phrases like:"formerly known as squiggle." Do we have to hear about the first name change and then the name change back? Prince became Prince again seven years ago. Why is it still being written as some type of revelation. This so called writer did not even get into the details of the actual show till the very end. What a sucky review.

I'll get my reviews from the fams.

not too much? wat the hell do they want from him? to fly on a damn trapeze?! be satisfied he's there. humph.

>>> YOU AINT SEEN NOTHIN YET ...WAIT TILL THEY ALL START BITCHIN AND FIGHTING OVER THE SEATS AND HOW RUDE EVERYONE IS ...just wait...

wooooow Now that is what i call a show. I have been back home over an hour now & i still cant sleep (it's 2:45 am). Guitar is fantastic live & opening the show with purple rain just tells you what type of night ur in for. can't wait for friday

tznekbsbfrvr said:

Maybe hear different songs

"You don't have to watch Big Brother to have an attitude"

Guess that shoots the BB appearance rumour out of the water.

easy listening schmaltz.....perfect review of Planet Earth

I want pics!! are there any pics yet??

purplesweat said:

I thought that indicated the opposite.

radici27 said:

The phrase "polymorphously perverse pixie " was definitely new to me!
I mean WTF! I think I like it though

Thanks...

Man, I can't wait for the two shows AND AFTERSHOWS Princess and I will be attending in September.

Im REALLY looking forward to tomorrow night but I guess I was hoping it might have something in common with the ONA European tour....not playing songs from a total turkey of an album even though the Tour is named after it.

There are 4 or 5 good songs on Planet Earth - Guitar, Future Bbay Mamma,Mr Goodnight and Chelsea Rodgers...the rest are bilge and to hear that he might be doing the syrupy and sub standard ballads from that album is a real shame.

Doesn't really tell us how the show was. Now, when are we going to see some pics?

tznekbsbfrvr said:

Yeah! and maybe do some magic tricks blindfolded! They are some ungrateful asses.

Contrary to that review, he didn't play Little Red Corvette.

Oh man, he did play LRC, but I missed it!

I saw the whole band leave the stage (except him) and saw the house lights come on. I guess you've really got to wait until the very, very end...

That's not even a concert review. It's just a couple of hundred wordshashed together with a token "he played Purple Rain..." at the end. Talentless journalism.

He did play Little Red Corvette, but everyone missed it. It was the encore to the encore.

You can tell it wasn't a British journo who wrote that, because it didn't contain "Pint Sized Purple Popster" anywhere. Ah well, I guess I'll need to wait for the Sun's review to read that

Show was amazing. That's all you really need to know.

polymorphously perverse pixie, well another asshole reviewer just calledhim a pocket rocker, that's it I don't care about everybody else's reviews.

it was the most amazing show ever!!! this review doesnt give him and his performance any justice!! it was BRILLIANT!!!

This was a lazy,padded,disinterested review.

Someone who reviews a concert by referring to a performers height cares not one jot.

Timesonline?

I know some of you out there basically will lap up anything that mentions Prince but a bit of quality control is needed.

I will write my own review after Fridays concert. Trust me it will be much better.

thekidsgirl said:

im still laughing about that one

Sorry..... but maybe the Times was jealous that they did not get the chance to give away the free copies of Planet Earth?? ....

I'll be there tomorrow night the 3rd and as a Prince fan, I'll probably laugh as well if I look back on this review, because Prince is just Prince and that means the best live artist who walks around on this Planet!

No-one has picked up on the "3 week residency" part. Isn't it more like 7 or 8 weeks that he's there for?

PRINCE

London 02 Arena



Alex Petridis
Thursday August 2, 2007
The Guardian

Prince arrives in London for the first night of a mind-boggling 21-date residency at the former Millennium Dome with a familiar sound ringing in his ears: that of people suggesting that he's barmy.

This time, the questions about his mental health have been raised not by fans baffled by his decision to change his name to a squiggle, nor African-American groups horrified by his glibly equating a $100m Warner Brothers record contract with an act of slavery, nor even journalists discomfited by his erratic interview techniques - this is, after all, a man who famously interrupted a female hack's questions to inquire about the dimensions of her pubic hair - but the boss of HMV, who described his decision to give away his album Planet Earth free with the Mail On Sunday as "absolutely nuts".

The figure who appears through a trapdoor in the centre of a stage shaped like the symbol he once changed his name to certainly doesn't look like a man who has been wounded to the very core of his being by the opinions of the boss of HMV. Perhaps he's used to people saying things like that about him by now. Perhaps his spirits have been buoyed by the lengthy introductory video, featuring Salma Hayek, Pharrell Williams, Joni Mitchell and various former musical alumni offering glowing testimonies to his nonpareil genius. Either way, as he launches into Purple Rain, he looks like a man very much in control, as well he might.

You can question the ethical wisdom of handing your latest album over to precisely the kind of tabloid that would once have called for his records to be banned - you can't imagine the contents of his 1980 album Dirty Mind going down terribly well with the Mail's core readership.

But you can't deny the publicity the move has brought him: the arrival of Planet Earth is the first time the release of a Prince album has seemed like an event for the best part of 20 years. The fact that the album itself is lacklustre is beside the point.

He doesn't play much from it, or any of his recent albums, preferring to stick to the hits, which follow hard on each other's heels: Girls And Boys, U Got The Look, Cream. The appearance of the latter, and indeed Prince's willingness to simulate sexual intercourse with his microphone stand - "I'm gonna sink this thing like buried treasure!" he cries as he humps away - cheeringly suggest that he has finally overcome the religious dogmatism that one threatened to overwhelm his artistic judgment: for a time after his conversion to the Jehovah's Witnesses, that kind of thing was strictly off limits.

Last night, however, he seemed in cheeringly salacious mood, heightened by regular appearances by The Twinz, identical sisters whose role in the recently divorced Prince's private life has been the subject of much fetid speculation, but whose role on stage seemed to consist almost entirely of lasciviously gyrating around their frontman.

Talk of Prince's renaissance in recent years has less to do with the albums he has made than with a triumphant series of high-profile live appearances: show-stopping slots at the Grammy Awards and the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, an acclaimed residency in Las Vegas, a Superbowl half-time show before an estimated worldwide audience of 1 billion.

The cliche about him being a consummate live performer is a cliche only because it's true. Quite aside from his remarkable abilities as a dancer - no mean feat given the vertiginous heels on his white boots - he milks the audience in a manner that stops just the right side of shameless.

Occasionally, his pushes his luck to the absolute limits - he invites crowd members onstage and they dance in the most excruciating manner imaginable, he vanishes for 10 minutes, leaving us in the company of a lengthy instrumental easy listening cover of What A Wonderful World - but for the most part it works perfectly.

He points out girls in the crowd and commands former James Brown sideman Maceo Parker to play saxophone solos to them. He slides to the lip of the stage on his stomach.

At one juncture, he threatens to leave entirely: "You can't handle me!" he yelps melodramatically, heading for the exit. "I got too many hits!"

It is a wildly impressive show, but you still leave it uncertain about Prince's future. It works not merely because of his stage presence, or his fantastically tight band, but because he plays to the strengths of his back catalogue.

But these shows are advertised as the last time he will play Kiss or Nothing Compares 2 U. You can't imagine him being able to fill the 02 Arena for 21 nights again if he sticks to his word.

Still, if he is waving goodbye to his past, he's certainly doing it in style.

Copycat said:

Mr timesoline
every was dancing 2 crazy. ppl were not leaving it just that everytime there was a little princey break ppl were trying 2 get drinks! it was hot and u was only allowed to have the drinks with no lids on them and everything was in cups, even if u had drinks in ur bag, no lids

he did do a lot of encores and then when every1 thought he was gone 4 good he came back running through the crowd(every1 was running after him) with about a million bouncers went under the stage and came back and did 2 more encores, everyone ran 2 the front, we all had good seats by then

As 4 the aftershow it was amazing! absolutely brilliant!!! well worth the wait
"do u wanna hear real musicians play real music?"

Shelby gave her bracelet, 2 keep, when she was on stage at the aftershow

It's quite comical that Prince always says that he has too many hits, yet he'll only play 5 or 6 of them.