We have been truly spoilt this summer and it's all coming to an end soon.
How are you feeling, London?

Anji said:

if you'd like a detailed response...today I feel kinda sick and full of nervous anticipation that I might get to go again tonight. I know that I shouldn't (and don't need to) go BUT i kinda want to.

I've been to four and have tix for thurs but I'm sure I'd get lots of support on here for the view that I should go to more???

Other than that, I feel utterly spoilt, I feel ashamed to admit that I last saw him on Diamonds and Pearls and although my love never waivered. My musical focus did drift somewhat into electronica and other genres and I didn't make the efforts to get tickets that I once would have,

For that I feel truly remorseful.

However, I never once waivered from my view that he was the world's greatest musician and that his had been the best ever shows I'd seen. The fact that I've been able to see so many in such a short space of time just proves that he is actually as good as I say he is. I've always had a smidgen of fear that I'm always so euphoric at seeing him live that my perception is distorted. This experience (and going along with different people of varying levels of princification) has just made it an indisputable truism. He is king.

This stretch has just confirmed that he is out of this world, utterly peerless in today's land of music. I don't think I'll ever get chance to see him so many times so close to home and hear what we've heard.

I've had a pretty terrible 2007, ended up in drug rehab in a very near death state earlier in the year and music (and Prince's music in particular) was one of the things that kept me going. Sounds stupid as I write it but totally true. My ex bought me tickets to see him when I was in treatment as she is a massive fan and knows I am too and that was one of the crumbs of hope through some dark days.

So, all in all, I'm pretty fcuking happy that I lived to see this. And that does feel kinda spiritual and I'm thanking god for the chance to do this.

It has been fantastic.

I have tickets for the three final mainshows and the 21st aftershow so at the moment I am still buzzing with excitment.

Don't know how I will feel this time next week. Probably a bit down, but I have so many wonderful memories - it has been a great summer!

antine1 said:

here here, what a great post!

I have been astounded by the deep and profound emotions I have experienced through the arguably genius-like perfection of the music on this tour - not to mention the boundlessly positive engery that the music generates in those of us there at the shows time after time and the people experiencing for the first time and wanting to go back again and again just like we all did. That's the drug I think!

Prince's albums have been the sound track to my youth and young (wo)manhood...a formative, passionately lyrical, musically joyful one at that...bum shakingly funky, yet imbued with every raw human emotion...able to generate a monumental invluntary grin (like the spine tingling shivers I've been getting lately from hearing the crowd on It's gonna be a beautiful night) and completely involuntary weeping (like when I played the Ladder yesterday) and quietly blubbed at my machine. There really was nothing wrong - the song just touched me in a way I can't even begin to put into words...

So Prince thank you - lots of us have had our lives deeply touched by the musical experience that is one (ahhhh hahahhha hhah) of your shows

Peace all....

Raajput said:

ive been to one show and dont get me wrong it was COMPLETELY amazing!
but i feel kinda Really sadd.. i really wanna go again but dont think ill be able to but im just glad Prince gave London this FANTASTIC opportunity before he goes off to do his thing..

Hopefully he'll be back ina few years when im a bit older and wont have to ask permission if i can go lol


[Edited 9/16/07 8:43am]

antine1 said:

WOW! what a totally inspiring post! I'm totally taken a back. Good for you Anthony! Keep the faith man. There is so much good in the world and so much funky Prince music to get down to - we live in privildged times people. And YEAH - go to every concert and aftershow you can get your hands ontickets for - MAN if I lived in London I woulda been at all 21 for sure

And if you get the chance to go tonight - we ALL insist that you take it
I wish I could be there tonight...

antine1 said:

y'know, i know i'm deep into repetition now (but there's great joy in repetition ) but...i can't get over what prince has done here in london. i can't believe it's going to end

i can't believe what the aftershows have been like. for decades they were the stuff of myths. of legend. i used to read so enviously about the post lovesexy surprise mid morning appearances and wonder if i'd ever see anything like it. and now i've seen 5 in a month...

i can't believe that i spent my life regretting missing so many magical musical events that came and went before my dad's eye started to twinkle in my mom's direction that spring evening in 1972 but now had a chance to redress things a little in modern times....

i can't believe i live in a city where some people have no interest in seeing something so spellbinding, so enriching, so above the hum of everyday existence. i can't believe that to some people, this man whom the godlike miles davis called the best musician he'd ever played with is but a pop single and a haircut from they days of young madonna.

i can't believe i've stood so close to those hands. that voice. those feet. that brain. that sense of mischief. that incessant lust for life and improvement. that man i spent my life enraptured by. that man from purple rain, that man that offered charlie murphy pancakes, that kid that left home to live in andre cymone's basement...where there was a piano.

THAT music...that music as it was improvised, altered, invented, chased on and off a stage and in and out of the hearts of some of the most tuned in, music-loving musicians i've ever seen.

i can't believe i've witnessed maceo parker, whom i would never have caught with james brown, blowing right infront of me. with the wickedest cheekiest infantile 60ish year old man glint in his eyes at the sheer joy of improvising, travelling again besides prince rogers nelson.

but most of all, i can't believe how talented he is. in a landscape of occasionally springing beautiful musical fountains, he stands, arms aloft, melody echoing, imperious yet utterly humble, cascading infinitely into the untouched cracks and crevices of this life.

he has mastered music.

VanessaB8tt said:

really kind words all, I'm touched, thank you.

yeah it's strange the power than music has....uplifting is putting it lightly!

this is a great forum btw. I've not posted on anything I like for years but I can definitely say that I'll be staying once the dust has settled on 21 in London

Anji said:

I've been to two arena shows and one aftershow, and witnessed a guy with an unrivalled command of his music and stagecraft, with some amazing backup, on each occasion. All in all, not a bad way to spend one's late summer. Though I must say that I'm a bit sad that most of my future concert experiences will struggle to come anywhere near what I've seen here.
[Edited 9/16/07 12:24pm]

antine1 said:

What a great post!

I feel like this about Prince too. I sometimes worry that my complete besotted love for the man clouds my judgement. But hell I've had such a great time at all the concerts I don't care what anyone else thinks!

I live just down the road from the O2 and feel like I've been granted a wish or something.

I prayed for Prince to come back to England and play. I thought maybe Glastonbury but the O2 is the perfect venue. And then the Indigo lounge is sublime.

We couldn't have hoped for a more perfect Prince summer.

Also it's great to see so many fans and orgers at the gigs. I don't feel so alone in my Prince geekiness anymore.

PS Prince rocks!

Was anyone else there on Thursday night (13th Sep)

It was the most amazing show and towards the end when he was doing another great piano medly it felt like the most awsome experience of a sing-a-long-a-Prince karaoke.

It was the best night I've been too so far and it really felt like the crowd were buzzing and feeling like they were part of this amazing experience.

pepper7 said:

yes i was there and at the aftershow - and agai tonight - eveyr concert different - have now taken about 44 people to see Prince - don't think anyone was disappointed and quite a few absolutely converted - what a great summer\!!!

magictree said:

This is exactly how I feel.
When he performs he is out of this world & a little part of me feels sorry for all the people who are out there oblivious, who will never have the experience of him and don't know any different.
Just these few nights that I've seen him live are some of the best nights of my life. I don't ever want it to end, but that fact that it has to makes me treasure it so much more.

antine1 said:

Great! That's what Princey is about, he gives you a hand up without actually being there... his music brings in the light....

Currently.....I feel absolutely out of this world!!!!!

I had quite an incredibly great night.

Thanks (in sequential order to....

whatyaputtininyonose
John (gay men make great Prince fans...I think most hetero men are a bit macholy reluctant to show sufficient love!)

Jan (great umbrella my man)

Jane (brief but very pleasurable)

Mark (a fellow City fan....and great beard)

Phil (lovely fella, fellow Scorp and all round diamond) and

Sam (good hair, bit moody )



Who were all the most unexpectedly phenomenal Prince party companions





Well, haven't really the energy (nor the O2review expertise) to cover the Main Show which hit all the usually high notes but 2nite was my first Aftershow and.....

O

M

G

That was just another level altogether. I honestly don't have the words to describe how much I enjoyed it.

So I won't even try.

But.....I look kinda like this

My lovely new shiny car is currently at the mercy of the ruffians in E14s carpark but I had to get a cab which two lovely black scouse Leyton-based girls (yeah like I'd remember those names! haha) blagged....sorry.....hitched a lift in. They were also great....this was one of those nice gifts of a night.

So,in answer to the topic title.....right now I feel lucky and happy.


Finally, great great thanks to John's friend who (ironically, given what problems I have had this year is called "whatyaputtininyonose" (as I've only just noticed!!). God works in mysterious ways.....Peace

just a wee nudge so that the relevant ppl see it

This is such a good post - thanks to u all 4 sharing

This may sound a bit odd, but I had never seen Prince live b4 these 21 nites, always been a fan just never got round to seeing him, but I am glad that I hadn't because this summer 07 has changed everything for me, I have been to a good few concerts as I love live music and only one other (U2 Wembley Zoo TV) has moved me as much as all three of my Prince shows/aftershows have, I knew Prince was a talented man but just to watch him do his thing has me speechless, and causes some many emotions I never felt b4.....

Thanks Prince for the wonderful oppurtunity of seeing u live (and even holding your hand on Sept 1st)

Let's make 21st September as special for Prince as he has made these 21 nites for us

antine1 said:

okay antine i now feel a heel for laughing at your car predicament!!!!


glad youve made it thru


his music also helped me thru a death in the family and keeps me company every day on my 30mile schoolrun as my dyslexic son goes to a specialist school.

syble said:

don't be daft.....I would've laughed at anyone else doing it!

Anyway....car is now back safe and sound. Incredibly I didn't get stung for any more parking charge too which was a nice bonus (altho...having paid £20 to park it would have been pretty scandalous!!)

Music is the answer....well...not to everything but it's certainly one of the answers!

Tiger7 said:

That was your first Prince concert and you held his hand!!!! MUTHAFUCKER! You lucky lucky

Great thread.

Well for me I had seen him 11 times before this tour, and remembered the LoveSexy show in Birmingham as though it was yesterday.

This was a great opportunity to take people who have for years thought that I was a little weird in my love for Prince's music. I have told everyone I have ever known how great he is live.

So I have taken my wife, my two sons, my mum, my Dad my brother and sister in law. I have spent too much money but now they understand and I don't need to explain any more.

Had he not done 21 nights - I would never have been able to do this so I am forever thankful.

So on to the last night which will make it 17 times, and the 3rd for my 10 year old son!

I never thought before June I would ever see him again.

Good thread!

My mum got me into P in the mid 80s when I was little. I remember her taping the Lovesexy show off Channel 4 and me being completely enthralled by it. I was a huge fan and saw him live in 1990, aged 13, at Maine Road in Manchester on the Nude tour.

I would describe myself as a moderate fan in the last 10 years. Adored him but never made the great effort to see him live when he played London. These 21 shows have been my awakening, my epiphany.

I bought one ticket, for Aug 7 and saw the light. I had no idea really that it would lead me here and to 7 more tickets. I'm grateful beyond words for what he's done for me in the last 6 weeks. It's been a pleasure having him living in London (cleaning his hotel room apparently, according to the Mirror, lol!) and I'm going to be very sad when the shows are done.

But I know that although the O2 journey is coming to an end that I have a wondrous journey with him ahead of me in the years to come. That's what matters. The gigs will come and go but the music will always sustain me.

Indeed. As long as we have memories - it will never be 'over'. i was just listening to Chelsea Rodgers and that song just takes me right back to that place - dancing like my life depended on it - front row - section e at the side/back of the stage and Shelby laughing at my wild abandon.

I feel grateful mostly. That's he's playing here on my doorstep when he could have chosen any other big city. That tickets are £31.21 / £25 and not the prices certain other stars of his ilk have charged of late. That through him I've met some great new people and have caught up with some friends I haven't seen for ages. That he picked a venue which means I have been able to pop into a bar for a quick drink before, into Zizzis for a meal after and haven't been stood in the rain and cold for hours. And of course for the music. I mean... seriously..wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

So yeah, grateful. Who knew at the start of the year the five year drought would end not with Rhianna and her bloody umberella-ella-ella but with an absolute downpour of purple rain on the London summer...

Today, I am mostly feeling gutted - like a fish

MegCraig said:

Why you gutted Meg? are you on the low after the high? I'm def on the slope downwards but I listened to mountains when i was making the dinner earlier and had a dance around the kitchen and I think I'm 'stable' now but I did think I was going to cry like a baby when I was in Tesco earlier and realised I might never see that sexy purple pixie again...weeping and gnashing of teeth.