I'm in Los Angeles, and have really enjoyed reading many of your posts about the O2 concerts...Last time I saw Prince was in 04 during the Musicology Tour. Just wondering how many of you just thought Prince was average before the concert but became a fan or bigger fan after?

i'd never seen prince live before the 28th of august..
and it had made me love and respect him SOOO much more..
i never knew he was so amazing live

I've always been a fan of the music but had only seen one ONA show in 2002 stuck up in the Gods at Hammersmith, so I never appreciated the proper Prince concert experience. Only ever intended to go to 1 or 2 shows and never even thought about aftershows. That pretty much changed overnight after the first one.

I didnt like the man at all b4 my 1st show on August 14th, only liked half a dozen songs, needless 2 say i've not stopped listenin 2 him since, i hate Sinead O'Connor's version of Nothing Compares 2 U but cannot get enough of Prince & Rosie, so i was determined 2 go again & as i knew i'd have 2 pay above the odd's i went only the final night and paid £112.02 for my ticket & i cannot wait to go again, if i ever get the opportunity!!!!!

kitkatb said:

I'd been a fan for a while, before I finally go to see him live for the first time in 2002. Just made me love him more.....

Ellie said:

Glad you got to experience the thrill!!!

johnson01 said:

Yeah, I'm sure there are others that felt the same way before seeing him live, either don't like him or only like some songs, lol. But once you've seen him live, guess it's pretty hard no to like him even more!

Was a huge fan since the song 1999 when I was 11(I think),but now....wow...i'm an even bigger fan,if thats possible(didnt think I could be).I think i've converted my 13 yr old son,who still wont admit to liking him,but have cought him on more than one occasion singing "anyone here no about the quake",then he's like

hi, first post!

i have a mate who's a massive prince fan so he's made me some compilation CD's and told me to buy the albums etc but although i enjoyed the music, i wasn't overly into it. then we got tickets for the O2 show and it really did change my opinion. I've bought some of the albums now (Dirty Mind being my favourite so far!) and we went to see him again. we couldn't get tickets for the final night but i'd definately say i'm now a complete fan and i'd love to see him again and again. he's amazing.

URTHE1 said:

I think he's in incompreable, now i love Mariah Carey & i hate 2 admit it but the show on the 14th August was better than when i went 2 see her!!! All i can hope 4 now is that they do a duet as Mariah has already covered The Beautiful One's!! Fingers crossed

i have always liked his music and style but after seeing him live..... i even find myself wondering what he eats for breakfast lunch and dinner... slightly obsessive????? yes i would think so

I have always been a fan of Prince and his universe, but I'm amazed of how it continous to grow as the years go by and for each concert I'm lucky to attend. It really topped when I became member of the NPGMC and got access to all these rare live recordings (such a shame this friendship had to end! Especially since most of the stuff I bought I never got to download )

But I have to add, I knew about this prince.org site, but was never really involved until this latest tour, and it has totally made a revival to my Prince fan'ness. Much credit to the org!!

My 16 year old daughter now fancies the pants off of him and has been playing Planet Earth for a few days now. She's even learning Guitar on her, umm, guitar. She says he's gone from the 10th best performer she's seen to 2nd. Don't even ask who is first

iloveannie said:

Go on...who's first?

URTHE1 said:

first time i saw prince live was 14th August the fifth and last time was 21st plus aftershow - brilliant best performances i've seen (and i'm knocking on a bit) - completely converted - great voice, wonderful musician and artist - what more could you want. Took 12 friends and family to two concerts and 20 people i work with - luckily for me i am now flavour of the month. hee hee

I bought tickets for the 18/8 concert as a birthday present for my boyfriend. God only knows why, but prior to the concert I'd take the piss out of him for liking Prince, I'd turn the radio over if he came on, and I was generally dreading the concert. Awful long way to go to spend hours listening to a screeching wailer gibbering on about a lady's bits!

Basically, the concert was an epiphany. Not only did my opinion of Prince change, but my feelings towards live music - I'm a 'classically trained' musician and had pretty much lost faith in the live scene. I was told (warned, even) that Prince is a legendary performer, and a phenomenally gifted musician, but he was beyond that.

Luckily, being a music teacher, I had time to spend all day every day until term started on September 3rd on ticketmaster, and managed to secure fantastic seats for the 28/8 (block A2 - amazing), and I went to the aftershow on the 28th too! I'd assumed that twice would've been enough, but no, I HAD to go again, but thanks to school the only other concert I could go to was on the 21st (and I had to do some 'creative' timetabling to fit that one in!). Sadly, my quest for aftershow tickets failed for that night, but I still had an utterly wonderful time.

Best summer of my life. Unquestionably. And I've just about got over feeling like an utter pillock for having ignored the legendary Prince for the previous 30 years.

johnson01 said:

I like Mariah, have 2 of her albums, but I don't think she very good live.....Seems like she gets off key, and doesn't have the best overall presence. I saw one of her concerts from Hawaii a few years back and it was mediocre. But maybe she's gotten better, hopefully.....

Well, I never thought he is just average... well, at least not in the last 15 or so years! Quite early on I didn't really like him (still don't really like what he stood for and how he presented himself in the 80ies, I pretty much prefer what he did from the early 90ies on), even though I bought the Batman album back in '90 (I was and still am a huge Batman fan)!

Over the years my respect for him as an artist grew! And when I saw him live for the first time in '98 he blew me away! I was really impressed with how he gave himself and played during and also before his show, introducing the support act, even performing the last song with Chaka and Larry before starting his own gig! Also being an Michael Jackson fan, that really impressed me!

I saw him again on his ONA tour in 2002 and even though I liked the concert, it didn't touch me as much as the "Jam of the year" show! The same for the first mainshow on the 6th of september this year! I did like it, but I didn't feel the exictement I thought I would feel, after all the anticipation and build up for past couple of months! Little did I know what he would do at the aftershow!

Again, he managed to blow me away and touch something in me which only a few musicians have touched! The musicianship, the passion and energy was just amazing! I mean, here we have a superstar, who just has finished a gig, playing to 20.000 people, a guy who has basically fullfilled his dayjob, made everyone happy, received a fat check and could go home feeling great about himself, but still, he goes out in the middle of the night and does it all over again! Another show which is better and has so much more substance than his actual mainshow (not to say that the mainshow was shabby in any way)! The passion he still shows after 30 years in the business is just infectious! If I would have known what would happen I wouldn't have settled for only 2 main and 2 aftershows!

I have never described myself as a Prince fan... I still wouldn't... but after this summer, with all the anticipation, build up and great shows, I'm "this" close to pronounce myself a Prince fan!

purplerain33 said:

Yeah, he'll do that to you!

evilsheep said:

Thanks for sharing, great story! Funny line about not wanting to hear " a screeching wailer.....lol Just shows that it's never too late to discover his greatness, especially live! Some people will never car for him, but it's hard to argue his muscial talents...

PatrickS77 said:

My brother bought me a pair of Genesis tickets for Xmas 2006 (for June 07 concert), but when I heard that Prince was at O2 I begged him to change them!! He did (under protest), and said he wouldn't want to go with me....ahhh! BUT he changed his mind when he heard how good the gigs were....and I managed to get aftershow tickets as well (for 9 Sept), and now we are both MASSIVE fans....I can't wait for Prince to come back(you know you want to), and my 8 year-old sings Planet Earth in the car on the way to school every morning!! Everything looks purple since that night, and I'll tell everyone within earshot how good that night was....I don't think you can explain the feeling until you've seen the man perform....my journey up from Cornwall was worth every penny!!

Ive been a fan for quite some time, but these concerts were the first time that I saw him live outside Ireland and I have to say the atmosphere, especially on the final night, was amazing - like nothing I have experienced before. Myself and my friends agree we love him even more now than we did 25 years ago! He's sooooo fine!!!

always been a big big fan and andn avaid admirer of his musical ability... I bought tickets to three shows before the series of concerts. However, nothing prepared me for what an experience he is live. I ended up doing 7 shows and 7 aftershows.

listening to a lot more Prince now - but those live gigs were incredible. I guess I was vary lucky with his band and backing as I'm really into the funk side of stuff and a big Maceo fan too.