Just got back from tonights show.

I have to say, of the five I've been to so far, this was by far the weakest, and shortest performance. Prince didn't take to the stage until 9.26, and was finished by 10.51. The first time in 20 years I've seen Prince do less than 90 minutes in a headline show.

Of course time isn't everything (The 7th was proof of that, short but brilliant) but tonights show felt like I was short changed. It didn't help by the fact that the set list didn't work well tonight, and Prince still choose to jam whilst leaving out a great many hits. The set list was as follows.

The Entertainer
3121
Girls And Boys
1999
Peach/Rock me baby
Cream
U Got The Look
Shhh
Musicology
Keyboard samplers with small amount of vocals:
SOTT/Partyman/Alphabet St/When Doves Cry/Erotic City/Head/Nasty Girl/Pop Life
Raspberry Beret (band joined in)
Sexy Dancer/Le Freak
I Feel For You (Edit)
Controversy
Wonderful World
Purple Rain

Encore 1

Kiss (edit)

Encore 2

Lets Go Crazy (One verse one chorus edit)


I think a LOT of the audience were put out that the show started late and finished early.

The biggest cheers of the night were for the start of SOTT and When Doves Cry. It was a massive disapointment when he didn't sing them.

I'm sure some people loved tonight, but I took 7 casual fan friends tonight (always trying to convert!) and boy did I choose the wrong night! ALL of them though the show was simply OK. The message from them was loud and clear

Why was the show so short?
I didn't recognise half the songs and I thought this was a greatest hits show?
Why did he keep cutting the good songs short?
Why did he start the best songs on a keyboard and them not perform them?

Once couple I spoke to (met them on the gold tour) said to me that they probably wouldn't go again because he (Prince) finally seems to have lost it!

That was frustrating because I know how good the shows were on the 3rd and 7th!

It didn't help that the acoustics were the pits tonight. Worst of the tour so far.

Oh well, dust yourself down Prince. Everyone is allowed a duff night! Here's hoping next Friday is back to form!


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[Edited 8/20/07 4:51am]

shame that the actual performance hit so many sour notes with audience members - it looks like the best set list yet!

Anxiety said:

Don't get me wrong, the audience enjoyed it, bit I was surprised how many negative comments I heard after the show.

Also, I'm sure part of the problem is as a reviewer, I'm comparing it to the other shows. To a newcomer, it may have been the best thing since sliced bread.

My friends sister went for the first ever time tonight, gold circle and she was really disapointed. She was saying why didn't he sing When Doves Cry/Little Red Corvette/SOTT/The Most Beautiful Girl/Betcha By Golly Wow/Gold/Gett Off/Sexy MF/Take me with U etc etc etc. She even said she would have liked Black Sweat. Most of all she wanted to hear Guitar. She has been learning the new album really for the show!

She said, if I wanna hear Le Freak, I'll go to a disco. I couldn't really argue. The little man spent 15 minutes of Musicology and Le Freak when he could have been giving it to the audience right between the eyes!

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[Edited 8/18/07 17:57pm]

Just got in, I'm knackered.

Went on my own tonight and was a bit disapointed, although I had a fantastic seat every now and then I couldn't hear what he was saying and the concert didn't seem to flow like it did last Saturday.

No worries I'm going again on the 31st

HotPaisleyGirl said:

I thought the sound was so bad tonight I couldn't make out what P was saying sometimes!

I think the set killer tonight was wonderful world. Everyone got lathargic and then Purple Rain wasn't the right song to pick them up.

HotPaisleyGirl said:

Me too, come and join me and my mates!

Awful half-assed setlist for this tour. Last night's wasn't too clever either. Looks like any surprises (i.e. a single new song performance for this residency) has been jettisoned for now. Shame.

And even for the one-off viewer - that's an awfully short time to be on stage, especially given the 10 second song-snippets and another after-no-show. After Wonderful World he purple-medley'd just two tracks??? That aint good, considering there is normally a good 45 mins to come after that on an average night.

Hmmmmm.

It was better when Maceo did his horn bit closer to the start, although some used it as a toilet break!

SquirrelMeat said:

Where were you sat? I've been to 3 shows previously and sat D2 on the floor. Today I was in 102 on the lower tier and thought the sound was massively better in comparison.

TheEnglishGent said:

I'm in block 102 on the final night ,is it a good spot?

Does Prince always cut the length of the main show if he's doing the aftershow on this tour? As it was only 1 hour 50mins on the 14th and I've never seen him do less than 2 hours before.

bungle said:

Half the Org is in 102 that night .. I am !

Agree with everything you say here, Squirrel!

I was also there on 7th and on opening night, and both managed to be awesome yet quoite different. I did appreciate the way the show was different enough from the other two I've seen, but did NOT appreciate the few bars of each of his hits before they were abandoned. This happened too many times and went beyond teasing to just plain irritating.

I was in 101 and the sound improved but was not great, I felt.

On a personal note - gutted he didn't do the whole of Erotic City as it's my favourite and never thought he'd play it!!

I'm hoping to be going on September 21 so hoping the last night of the tour will be a climax and not an anti-climax...!

Any Orgers meeting up after the last night of the tour to celebrate and reflect on the best and worst bits of "! nights in London? I'm not a regular Orger but would love to join the celebrations!

yea, i didn't think it was the best show he's done either...this was my 5th so far of these shows...(every night i've seen him there's been a different opening number, which has kept me on my toes!)

he seemed really up for it though...

but the aftershow was unbelievable!

TheEnglishGent said:

I was in 110 last night row f...best view i've had so far, but the sound wasn't great...the best sound i've heard so far was on the first saturday, and i was in the upper tier....it really does seem to vary depending on where your sat

cloudguitar said:

yeah but the main gig had a good atmosphere where we were sat, people were dancing and singing lots compared to when I went on the 4th. But I will never get over him at the aftershow last night, its stuff my dreams have been made of for a long time! his hat was beautiful! and he seemed in a really good mood. Guess that was why main show started late, he'd already planned aftershow...

aymiderham said:

it was a great atmosphere...and a great show...i think squirrelmeat may have mentioned it above somewhere, that if we hadn't been to other shows to compare, we would have thought it was the best thing since sliced bread!

as for the aftershow...when he first walked out, i thought the hat was a joke! honestly...but then aftera few mins as he was bobbing his head to superstition, i thought - he actually looks really cool!...i don't think your average guy could get away with wearing a hat like that!

how good was that aftershow though!...as they were setting up the stage for the aftershow, i thought it was a bit weird, they took down prince's guitar amp...and i thought that's not a good sign, maybe prince isn't playing...then the put the keyboard front and centre...all very strange...then what happened happened! insane!

i noticed there was a cake pack of blank cdr's on the sound desk with a cd burner...hmmm...wonder if that show was recorded?!?!?

you must have been to a different show to me, cuz saturday nites show was one of the best. fridays show was good too. i never got into last saturdays main show tho

and after the main show was an amazing aftershow

and for the main show i thought the sound was fine from right up the back, the first time i did the uppier tiers. it seems the "worst" seats i get the better the show (not that i mind)

unique said:

The sound set up is really strange. I was in D1 last night and the sound was very duff.

One of my friends in 111 said they found the sound so bad it took them a while to work out what each song was!

unique said:

I gotta agree with Unique here.

I was down in BK C1 on the floor... Saturday night's show was brilliant I thought, a lot better than Friday despite being a good bit shorter. Sound was great too... compared to the BK 101 seats on Friday night anyway.

is it me or are the twinz not featuring as much??? they were in full swing on 7th and i'd been telling my hub about them... and they seemed not quite so funky or doing as much on fri...

y r u suprised 2 hear negative comments about the show? it's become quite obvious that london is getting a revamped version of the musicology tour.

as 4 u'r friends not recognizing some songs..perhaps what u should do is give them music other than purple rain and 1999. there is prince music outside the 80's.

SquirrelMeat said:

I´m so Tired .... allt this bla bla bla complaining all the time .First the Aftershows , now Setlist.

Shit Prince next time give the U,K one NIGHT.. NOT 21 nights..... tired of this -----

Not 100% sure, but I thought the snippet listed as DMSR was Head last night - which he embellished with some keyboard work - I could be wrong cause it all went so fast... but for me PARTYMAN was the amazing highlight. It was a nice build up before he sang the first verse & chorus with the crowd on the keyboard side singing along pretty loud. I went ape for that one. For me, even one surprise like that can make my night (although the show was awfully short! guess he was saving it up for that awesome aftershow).

myloveis4ever said:

Eh? Tired of what. People who won't suck princes dick? This is the first arena show I didn't give a glowing review to. There was one aftershow I didn't rate. Whats wrong with that?

Personally, when an established act like Prince puts in a show that is shorter than that of a new band with one album, I question the content. It has to be A++. Last night wasn't.

If you really can't respect other peoples opinions is there any point you coming to forums?

myloveis4ever said:

i was bitching about the setlists in vegas which is essentially the same songs he's doing over in london

Last night was my first time seeing Prince live, since Diamonds & Pearls got me hooked when I was in high school (almost saw him in Glasgow with the Gold tour, but that's another story ) and I was absolutely blown away.

Granted, I don't have anything for direct comparison barring the videos, but I'd wage pounds over pence that even though last night's gig might not have been the best so far in London, it was still an absolute stormer - when the house lights finally dimmed, and 20.000 people all stood as one? I know a shiver went down my spine.

Was the wait between Mya and the main event too long? Yes.
Was the crowd getting restless and a bit too liquored-up? Yes, imho.
Was the gig perfect? No.
Did he play everything I was really hoping to hear? No.
Do I wish he was on a bit longer? Yes.
Am I disappointed? Yes, a tiny bit.

Do any of these points stop the gig from being awesome? Absolutely not.

I thought the set list was great - so glad he opened with 3121, and not Purple Rain, or some other hit. I think the keyboard sampler/medley wasn't so much disappointing, as infuriating - hearing fragments songs that you always wanted to hear? SOTT and Paryman especially - I think the arena would have went into meltdown had be played them in full. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I'm kind of glad he didn't give in and roll out the hits all the non-fans know.

I thought the sound quality was excellent - my girlfriend and I were in Block 118 (if you're out there Banana-man, we were just down from you). We had the misfortune to be 3 seats down from some guy who got absolutely hammered and spent the last 15/20 minutes of the show falling over himself and hugging the people he was with, and the two unlucky guys in the row in front of him.
We did have a great view of the stage though, so that easily made up for the distraction

The showmanship was flawless, interaction with the crowd obviously rehearsed, but still cleverly done. I went to bed with my ears ringing, throat raw from singing/screaming/shouting, and my hands stinging from clapping.
My girlfriend was teasing me gently on the train back to our hotel, "You knew every word to every song he sang tonight, didn't you?" I just grinned and nodded.

Back in the hotel, a guy and his wife (I presume) got in the lift with us - my girlfriend spotted the guy had a 'Symbol' pendant (as I did) and she asked him if they'd enjoyed it. His wife (presuming again) turned to him and asked him if he'd enjoyed it as much as the other gigs. He admitted that last night was his fourth. Colour me jealous

My last thought before I drifted off to sleep in our over-priced and under-heated hotel room last night though? "I think I might just be able to die happy now..."

Thx a lot for the setlist.....

My girl was a little bit disappointed....about HIS playtime (the tix including Hilton plus flight from Germany were her birthday present for me....and we´ve got VIP-tix)....

And me....I´d like to hear some other funky stuff....not the 1.007th version "Purple Rain" and so on...."Shhh" was great....."Controversy" a stomper...
But the aftershow was the retrieval....
[Edited 8/20/07 2:39am]
[Edited 8/20/07 2:40am]

shockadelica1969 said:

I think Controversy has been the constant cracker for all the nights. Great overblown version!

SquirrelMeat said:

I've really been enjoying Controversy at the live shows. Don't particularly like the album version but the live one is superb.