And what a memorable night it has been!
I know you’re supposed to be discrete about the time you’ve spent with Prince, and to be hermetically closed about what you did with Him, where, and how.
Ladies & Gentlemen: no pictures, please.

But I’ve decided to be totally frank about my experience with the only man alive on Planet Earth I regard as a mentor, a special friend, and a role model.

Saturday morning 18 August I drove with my friends Potser, F.A. Johnson & Private LjipEYE D*I*L*L*E*R from Amsterdam to London.
During the 6 hour RIDE we listened to a lot of music.
We started with playing Planet Earth.
We were forced to skip song after song.
The only song we enjoyed from beginning to end was Chelsea Rodgers.
I felt the song was written for me.
About Planet Earth our final verdict was: if this is Planet Earth, let’s fly to Mars RIGHT NOW.

At 17:00 we arrived in Great Britain.
I didn’t get the Great, really: instead of greatness I saw a sad, lifeless, not great but greyed country sprawled with ugly houses and ugly people.
Polite, but not feeling it.
Going through the motions.
Everywhere we came we had to stand in cue.
I prefer living cueless.

The supporting act MAYA was a suboptimal choice.
Unless you want to preroll your own act with something boring, characterless, without any direction with ONE single purpose: to shine more yourself.

The videoscreens were small, cheap, and barely visible.
The badly edited clips of the badly looking Prince merchandise were cheaper, on the verge of being painful.
What an unpleasant suprise that a superstar like Prince has to sell his stuff so sexless.
The visuals were ugly, edited in a cocaine like rush.

At nine o' clock Prince started, sartorially dressed in black and white.
Sexy motherfucker, I thought.
The O2 dome was immediately charged with his energy.
3121 was the opener.
Although not a fan of the song, I enjoyed it anyway.
Peach was a Thriller.
Sheer orgone sweeping through the dome.

SHHHH was artfully performed.

Prince shouted: I want to tear the roof of this s*cker.
EYE want to party till 7.”

Great! I thought. This is going to be a beautiful night.

But then a strange, mesmerizing thing happened.
I got really, really tired.
The band wasn’t introduced.
Even stronger: the band did barely play

When PRINCE sat behind his synthesizer to ‘improvise,’ a CD was played with pre-recorded stuff.
The band members sat down in the dark.
For me, Prince was going through the motions: no song was finis..
A rushed, hurried, lifeless "SHOW"

I know Prince has rehearsed 150 songs for this 21 nights cycle.
From a 1 trick pony 2 a 150 trick pony.

But even with a million tricks, you’re still a pony.

The rest of the evening, I had severe difficulties to keep my EYEs open.

@ 22:50 the houselights were put on. There were BOOOO’S.

We drove home in Potser’s Picasso (a car, not exactly a Picasso).
We were disappointed.
Then an amazing thing happened: Potser put on Controversy.
I said: what a great, miraculous, totally true song! And how funky.

D*I*L*L*E*R said: " I think it was one of the highlights of tonight."
I said: " Highlights? I haven’t heard Contoversy! You must be joking. "

All my friends screamed.
But EYE was really sad because this meant that EYE had FALLEN ASLEEP while attending a per4mance of The Former Artist EYE respect so much!
NOW What's His Name is A 49 year old man who doesn't connect, stuck in his own world, untouchable, lonely, isolated, going through the motions...


Simply not alive anymore... Prince esta muerto?

Since yesterday evening, the evening EYE have slept with Prince, EYE say, yes, 4 me,
PRINCE ESTA MUERTO.

Love, liberty, life and light wished 4 all of U,

Chelsea Rogers from Amsterdam

The aftershow would have certainly woken you up and proven you wrong.
He seemed more alive than ever to me, see related thread http://prince.org/msg/12/240346

Oh dear, dear Chelsea, you went to the O2 Arena Bathroom without going to the Indigo2 at night? Why, why, why did you travel from Amsterdam to London to see a show without decent sound while you could have visited an intimate, funky show that wakes all of planet earths living death? You better get your car back to the O2, forget the arena and get into the Indigo2 for all remaining concerts.

EYE paid 4 the main show.

In life, there is no such thing as 'an aftershow.'

to quote my friend Alan Watts (and Prince in Cream): THIS IS IT

EYE feel cheated

EYE AM cheated

Love, light, liberty and life 2 U

Chelsea

EYE AM cheated


Chelsea[/quote]

No, you are not: people are disappointed by performances since J.Christ didn't came of his cross in time, you paid, Prince played. You are cheated on when you paid Ticketmaster for concert tickets on the upper tier as best available on the 1st day of sales and learn on the day of your concert Ticketmaster is selling floor seats for the same price since the tour operator AEG couldn't sell them all for major big money through their mob partners like Viagogo. And THAT is a reason to doubt British cueing formalities. Really: forget about the bad stuff and go to the Indigo2.
[Edited 8/19/07 11:54am]

speknestel said:

You are entitled to your opinion, but I have strong reasons to believe that there is certainly an aftershow in life, which I know from a reliable source will be even better than the current one... Be prepared... You can't say you haven't been warned!

[b] With any luck this person speknestel will have left this green and pleasant land that is England by now!!!

ShellyBean said:

Let's play nice, please.

sounds liuke u may B 1 very boring chick urself chelsea i'v been to 5 gigs and 5 aftershows where prince only really played twice now thats robbed, but still it was time to get funky i don't know about u? so a good time was had by all of the ppl who drove from sunny glasgow to grey london!

tashbootlegs said:

QFT Tash, and those of us who flew from Glasgow had a ball too!

Also, 'Chelsea' - using a sensationalist title for your topic is not usually a good idea, and using 'EYE', '4', '2' or 'U'? Even worse.
[Edited 8/19/07 14:33pm]

I like these novella type reports a lot better than the setlist type ones.

I respect UR opinion... But i think u need to STOP calling up that shrink... that's telling u everything is all right in ur life!!!! I think u might be Bipolar or depressive!
Seek help before it's too late for u!

Prince is very much alive and kicks any live act i can think off outta this galaxy!

Peace out!

You should've saved your money and stayed home listening to bootlegs. You're obviously incapable of experiencing joy.

On another note, the show on Saturday was the poorest so far. A good one by anyone else's standards, but below-par by Prince's.

The aftershow, though, was fantastic.

speknestel said:

Ik heb ook zoiets meegemaakt en ben zo teleurgesteld dat ik al 2 weken een 'tik'' heb !!!

speknestel said:

Hmmm - That would be like saying that Amsterdam is full of whores and everyone is stoned but it's ok because you never have to QUEUE for anything (of course it's not, it's a sweeping generalisation and that's not what we're about here on the Org)

OK, so London probably isn't the happiest place on earth but to say that Great Britain is full of 'ugly people' says a lot more about you than it does about us. The only ugly person around here is you - not in looks but in attitude. You are completely entitled to your opinions but your negativity and complete unwillingness to enjoy yourself even though you have travelled all that way is very telling.

So you didn't like GB and you didn't like the show...good, you won't be coming again then.

Oh and your constant use of 'EYE' instead of I, is very irritating.
[Edited 8/20/07 7:28am]

MrsGoodnight said:

I have a feeling, MrsGoodnight, that you'll be... ... talking to brick wall.