Great review headboy. Glad Prince gave u guys a fantastic show. Prince is excellent when he’s in a good mood. I’m so glad I’ve had the pleasure 2 see him up close and in an intimate setting at a few of his after shows, so I diffidently know how he gets down. What a treat u guys witness. Was the crowd into him and was it a sold out show?

The aftershow was pretty packed out and thankfully not with too many drunks as was sadly the case at the previous 2 aftershows I attended on Fri 3rd/Sat 4th.

pennylover said:

The aftershow crowd was jumping - even though someone [not Prince] spewed on my shoes - it was a good crowd.

You can tell P was tearing it up, he drank water on stage, I've never seen that before.

So its 8 am here and have just got back from London... getting that clipper along the Thames is THE way to get back to Victoria Station after the aftershow. Goes at a fair pace along the Thames, no?

And work in half an hour...

Still, I am not normally prone to hyperbole but that aftershow was quite something. For me, it totally blew the main show away, and Beverley Knight was pretty damn impressive too (had reservations before).

Highlight? Girls & Boys. And of course the I Never Loved A Man The Way I Loved You ending... Prince seemed to go off knowing that couldn't be topped... he was quite affected by that and was shaking his head with, presumably, the emotion as he left stage left. Wow.

I was also amazed how every tune seemed to start off as a Prince jam but soon was tighter than... well, you know.

So it's light now, have read the paper, had a coffee, and am wondering if it was real... pinch me.

Oh my God, what just happened was amazing. Tonight was my 21st anniversary of seeing Prince play live in his final London gig of The Parade Hit and Run Tour so I hoped it would be a special night. But words will never describe how fantastic it has been. I am just off the bus and sitting comfortably at my kitchen table and don't know where to begin. The main show was for me the best so far (I've been to 5/7). The whole vibe of the show from the surprise opening of 1999 was awesome - he played 7 and Forever In My Life and a beautiful Somewhere Here On Earth and the best ever version of Purple Rain - his vocals were so charged. He was definitely on extraordinary form at the main show - a good sign for things to come. Oh yes!! Beverley Knight alone had the place rocking for half an hour - she covered Raspberry Beret in a soulful/R&B style. She told us that we were going to see something special and that we were making history!?! When Maceo and the rest of the brass section appeared the place went wild - Maceo worked the front. The jam then heated up as Shelby and Marva joined Beverley on vox. The was a very funked out No Diggity. The rest of the band entered the stage and the opening to what sounded like Planet Earth began on Renato's piano and who else but Prince walks on to the stage as cool as he has ever looked - he had a few words with a roadie guy who had obviously made an error in putting his music sheets down in the wrong place - he soon sorted things out. Then, what we'd all been waiting for, The Man, who was on fire, begins a set that I cannot even begin to describe - what I said I thought was Planet Earth turned out to be Empty Room - the place was electric and the following two hours will rank as two of the the best of my life. Prince took the band through a masterpiece of free style funk, rock, jazz fusion using an instrumental take on the Peach riff with different lyrics followed by I'll Take You There - he even took up Josh's bass and the girls got the crowd to chant "Prince play that bass" ... and he did and it was truly funky, at one point he even took over on Mr Hayes' keys - the whole time he directed the band like a maestro who knew exactly what he wanted. The playing was tight, free flowing, groovy, rocky, electric and reached an orgasmic climax (Stratus?). Immediately Shelby was on vox and Prince on guitar for Love Is A Losing Game and this was sublime (Dear Amy the only therapy you need is to get down to Indig02 and immerse yourself in the love that Prince has for this track!!). Next was Sing A Simple Song which had the crowd participating to the max. Beverley joined Shelby on vox for Mary J Blige's Be Happy and the crowd joined in on every line. Very funky versions of Girls and Boys (Prince danced along so joyfully:) and 3121 followed with Beverley back on stage to sing fantastic vox with Shelby and Marva. The 5 mins off stage felt like a life time but th e crowd had him back when we chanted 3121 (shout outs to the guy that got this going - top job!!). The killa encore was Partyman - how cool was that!! The crowd would not let him leave "ooh way oh ...ooh ooh" and we were played out with Sly's Thankyou Falletin me B Mice Elf Again, Shake Everything You Got and Heartbreaker (?). I even got to shake Mr Hayes hand and clocked a smile from Greg Boyer when they came back in to the club afterwards. I am now in Heaven and will not be returning to Planet Earth for some time
[Edited 8/14/07 22:38pm]
[Edited 8/14/07 22:38pm]

Beverley Knight alone had the place rocking for half an hour - she covered Raspberry Beret in a soulful/R&B style.

The killa encore was Partyman - how cool was that!!

Show sounds fantastic.

How many songs did Prince actually sing on ?

Empty Room??!!!?? Oh My God!!!!! My fave track ever. Was it the '95 version?

what time did it all finish? - I lasted till about 2:30

headboy said:

Oh no she didnt, did she?!....

Everything bar Beverley Knight sounded fantastic about that show though, sorry to go on but there are three things I cannot stand about the UK music scene, Beverley is one, Craig David is the other and Lemar is the third. She was probably referring to herself during the "making history" comment

Empty Room??!!!?? Oh My God!!!!! My fave track ever. Was it the '95 version?

EMPTY ROOM !! OH MY GOD ! I WOULD HAVE COLLAPSED....WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND WHY THIS WAS NEVER A SINGLE....