Started with a long instrumental with lots of guitar, curtain still down,... finally the curtain goes back at around 1.15/1.20... Prince and the band. Opening song or two with Shelby....many, many tracks we didn't recognise tonight, but it did include 3121, cream, boys and girls, blacksweat, lolita, satisfied with some great impro lyrics about his girl being a beggar (she begs for a minute for just a second), cock-eyed (he doesn't know if she's looking at the salt or the pepper, passes the wrong one, poor little prince always getting the blame!!!), and 3-handed (left-handed, right-handed, under-handed)... just picture these lryics with lots of hand gestures!!!!..... crowd were in stitches at this!!!!!
Also some talk about how he used to be normal like us... go out... not have people photographing you... be sent to the supermarket for breads and tampons by his mother.....!!!!!
He was in such a wicked mood tonight !!
Finishes the show shouting to Shelby, lets go to the balcony.... couple of minutes later. he and Shelby are amongst us up in the balcony....!!!!! What an ending. Set to this great tune that just couldn't stop.
Prince & the NPG - thank you !!!! Such a special night. This is becoming like a regular thing - can we do this every Sunday ????!!!

I'd agree. Another great evening. Seemed more laid back tonight or maybe that was just me. Does anybody know what the problem was with the sound? For a minute or two Prince seemed to be having problems.Bet the people behind the railing wished they'd been with us on the "dance floor" when Prince went upstairs.

Now the question on everybody's lips. Will he play on the 20th? I think yes but that guess could be rubbish!!
[Edited 9/16/07 20:05pm]

Simply the best version of 'Gotta broken heart again' I've ever heard!!!

Just made it home.

Shelby was right, the party was all at stage left. Unfortunately I was at stage right.

Of particular note were the two six-foot guys with the tambourines, in the white T-shirts. I don't know if you were orgers (I somehow doubt it) but man, what were you on?

As soon as the gig started, they shoved their way into the middle of the crowd (obviously believing that as long as you were playing a tambourine above your head, it'd be okay). Argument naturally breaks out (these were BIG guys), someone pulls a tambourine off them and chucks it behind them, security steps in...

So they eventually back off and stand right in front of me. But they manage to keep the argument going over a range of six feet, so I waded in and made the internationally-recognised gesture for "why not just calm down and try to enjoy the show?"... which they did thankfully. They could just as easily have whupped my ass!

Then they don't cheer, clap, sing, smile, or otherwise move a muscle for the rest of the evening. Go figure. (Of course, they were a bit restricted, because they were holding two pints of lager each the whole time).

Very strange.

Overall, I didn't think much of the crowd tonight (certainly not on my side). Not a patch on last sunday. After the encore there was so little appreciation being shown. (Classic moment on the balcony though... did P go up there to wake the balcony people up? From what I could see it looked dead up there most of the night)

Of the 100 or so people in front of me, there must have been only five or six clapping or cheering. So I wasn't surprised we didn't get another encore. Let's hope the crowd are a bit more hardcore on the 21st rather than simply acting like interested onlookers the way they did tonight.

But still, lots of great stuff in the show. In addition to the songs mentioned, I also recall the following:

Thank You (Falletin Me Be Mice Elf Agin)
DMSR
Everyday People
Nine Million Bicycles (Yes, the Katie Melua song! Just Prince and Renato. It's amazing, he can make something out of anything.)

Total run time tonight about 1hr 45min (onstage 1.15am, off about 3am)

popelife said:

The balcony people always look half asleep!
Crowd was ok where I was. I was to the right of the stage (in line with the speaker system on the wall) about 4 or 5 from the wall. It's actually the space I seemed to have ended up in for all 4 of my aftershows, I can't speak for everbody else but I was clapping, hands in air, dancing etc.

popelife said:

Lucky you - longer aftershow than he did the main show last night.

on their way up to the balcony, p and shelby came through one of the side doors and stopped in front of the dj booth! i was standing right there, having just been to the toilet. next thing everyone's crammed around and p's playing his guitar about 3foot away from me! what a moment! still can't believe it really happened!

Hi all
This was my first aftershow and i have to say i am still feeling very emotional and overwhelmed, i was at the front of the stage on Prince left we were all rockin that side clapping and screaming i had the best time so intimate, he was such a joker with his cockeyed beggin woman and singing about going to the shop for tampons for his mum and trying to hide them in the bag. I cannot get over how close we were to him and everytime he came over i just couldn't help but scream it was amazing he is amazing, how people cannot see his genius i will never know. After it had all finished i felt so overwhelmed that i was crying and i don't think i will be able to talk or write about it without welling up or crying. (I am welling up writing this)
I would just like to thank PRINCE AND THE NPG for the BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE i will never forget this special night. I think after Friday i am going to need some serious psychological help to get over these life changing experiences.
[Edited 9/17/07 1:30am]

londoner said:

Awww, bless you! Yep, I predict many tears at the last aftershow (men included).

Funkylondon7 said:

Well I can guarantee there will be tears at the last aftershow if the last aftershow turns out to be on the 20th, rather than the 21st!

DoMeBaby69 said:

Have faith! I'm confident that won't happen!

great reviews THANKS

popelife said:

Hi there, I was up in the balcony dancing my ass off, the rest of the balcony were pretty crap, exept 2wards the end when they seemed to wake up. I and another orger were kicking ass up there!!!!!

Sound-wise, I think all that was happening was his vocal mic was feeding back a little into the monitors. He could hear it ringing a little - monitor guy (if there is one at Indigo) EQ'd the monitor a bit, got his vocal higher in the monitors, and he was happy.

(At least, that's my interpretation from what I was seeing/hearing, I don't know this for a fact).

He could easily have got more upset (he said something about "Is there anyone here that knows how to work a mixing board?" or something) but did thank the crew when they fixed it.

westv said:

popelife said:

When he said: "Is there anyone here that knows how to work a mixing board?"
He replied " Put some chilli sauce on it"

I attended my 4th and final aftershow of this tour last night and it was an amazing gig, unreal!!
I don't know if you can ever quite match the first one (mine was 18th August) because it's such a new experience seeing someone like in Prince in a small club for the first time, that said, all of the aftershows have been fantatsic. I've been lucky because he turned up to every one I went to, the thrill of seeing the guitar tech come on stage to tune Princes guitar and knowing he will be playing is something else, the anticipation is almost too much!

I was at the back (in front of the mixing desk bit) last night getting ready for Prince to come out when I saw the twinz next to me in the audience I was a little bit star struck (stupid I know), I had to say something so built up the courage to introduce myself and they seemed really lovely, I said I thought they were great dancers, it really rounded off my aftershow experience. The gig started with an 70's cover "thank you for letting me be myself" I think then went into 3121 which is such a brilliant song, the best song on 3121 the album, throwing in the lyrics to DMSR was a brilliant surprize. Other highlights were Delirious, Satisfied and Nine Million Bicycles. My favourite Track tonight was Girls and Boys, it really worked so well in a small venue with everybodys arms waving etc.. Perfect! The Twinz joined Prince a little later on Lolita and I remembered meeting them earlier, the did'nt seem to be that many songs on the set tonight but it went on for 1hr 45mins so they must have jammmed some of those songs for 15-20 mins, he always leaves you wanting more..

I have my own gig on Thursday night so could technically go to the aftershow after my show but I think I have had my share and somebody else should have the last few tickets of ticketmaster and enjoy it. I have tickets to the main show on Friday but getting 2 aftershow tickets for £25 each now is looking very unlikely. Can't belive I'm only going to see him one more time, my life has been on hold for nearly 2 months because of Prince so I guess it will be like getting my life back again.

So, 4 aftershows, 6 main shows (after Friday)
Will I be getting tickets to see him in America??

Aftershow was best yet i thought.... 3121, lolita, satisfied, girls and boys, everyday people, thank you falletin me, the jams... oh and the fact he came right up to the balcony... he has done this plenty of times..but mid show with his guitar was fantastic.

Last night was cool and you could see he was in good mood. I managed to catch the towel that he through into the crowd. Well happy with that and it will be a good momento to remind me of the prince summer. Cant wait for fri night!

westv said:

I thought Prince looked up to the balcony a lot last night, right from the beginning, I think there must have been some celebrities there or something. He certainly played to them more and tried to fire them up (successfully or otherwise, I don't know). I thought the crowd was super patient (read quiet) during the wait for the show to start but once he came on totally woke up. I was bang in the middle about 4 people in and the mood was very good with people waving, clapping and dancing their butt off. My feeling was that he was loving it?! During "Everyday People" the crowd kept it going real good and sang so well that he just kept on playing and playing and after aaages came to the mic saying, "You sound so good, we just can't stop!"

secretfan78 said:

I think he said, "Is there anyone who knows how to work a mixing board who can help our sound guy?" Ouch! That guy probably got his butt kicked after last night. Prince kept going, "1, 2, 1, 2" - not good during a show!
When the basic problem got sorted he added, "Now turn it sky high! And then put some chilli sauce on it!"

savage12 said:

Oh, that is why it took them all quite long to get upstairs! Thanks for that, that is so cool! I totally missed that, being suddenly at the back, rather than at the front! But when he was upstairs, it was really fun the way he was looking down at all of us. He was dancing a lot up there while playing - he was dancing all night, but not those ultra smooth moves, pirouettes, etc but more "ordinary" dance moves. He also did quite a bit without playing the guitar, walking the whole length of the stage back and forth again and again, like those rapper guys do!