Okay, so now its 20.00hours, Monday, I’m still knackered from the weekend, but I still have that amazing feeling of being somewhere where everything was happening, and I was!

It started for me on Thurs at 7.45 am when I woke up and got a lift to the Station with my Mum. The train to London was uneventful and I won’t even bore anyone with that memory. I got the number 10 bus from Euston to the Royal Albert Hall, I thought the bus was going straight to Hammersmith but it didn’t. I could see directions for Hammersmith so I just followed it and within 30 mins it was obvious I was there, the Apollo was well sign posted and I soon arrived.
Once I arrived I talked to a few guys, no idea of their names and then kind of figured what was going on in the venue, no more than 10 people were there at the time. It seemed there was a list going down so that figured for the lack of people as it enabled fans to go the pub…

And pub is where I went, Weatherspoons, I wish I knew it was called the William Morris so I could have found it easier, eventually I found it though and entered. It was about 12.40 I guess. I was starving and ordered some food and had a nice pint of lager. I had a seat and my food came quiet promptly, at this time I saw a guy with a T-shirt with another guy (that’s all I knew them as at this time!) so I figured once food was over I’d go over at talk, when I’d finished the guy with the T-shirt had left but his friend was still there so I just wondered over…
It appeared he was the friend of Starbuck from the org who had come over from Holland for the gig, I pulled up a chair and we chatted, Starbuck then returned and we were introduced. The org meeting didn’t really happen on the Thursday. I’m trying to remember if anyone else actually turned up.
Unique, Serendipity and hmmmmm a few others, sorry no names! I really did feel like a teacher trying to learn new names!
At about 3.15, I, Arnold and Ronald left for Hammersmith Apollo.

Once we arrived at the Apollo there was a huge group announced at which time peoples name were called out, eventually that was done and we joined the queue, we started talking with the guys around us and found Jason, a local bloke who we talked a lot with.
Eventually people started filtering into the venue, I got my ticket, which at this time I thought was allocated; Row B seat 11 it said, I was chuffed! We went through to this other set of doors and I THOUGHT it was only a matter of time before they let us through the next door.
About 90 minutes later they let us through the doors, and I took my allocated seat easily enough, it was only then that I started to become aware of the seating hassles which were happening!
It seemed the general admission thing did take over the ticket numbers, and fair enough in my opinion. Before the gig started we all thought it was general admission so it seemed fair.

Next to me was a Dutch guy from the dawn.nl and Steve, a great chap from the locality. After the hassle of the seats died down, (which Prince came down and sorted, which was great, he was about 1 metre away from me at that time!) the sound check started, although I don’t think it was really a sound check . He only played Days of Wild and then left to get ready for the show as it was so late. I really wish we had more, but the seat hassle put stop to all that.
During the sound check I managed to get my NPG music club pass signed by Rhonda Smith (bassist) and John Blackwell (drummer) which was great. Rhonda was willing to give a brief chat as well which really was nice.

In the break between the concert and sound check I had a ‘little’ problem concerning my seat, but I cannot be bothered to discuss that, and will finally get onto the show!...

WOW! That was my thoughts as the concert started, the band were so smooth as they started, and seeing Mr Maceo Parker coming down right next to me was amazing! He was the man! So cool.
As The Rainbow Children started I was feeling so excited and nervous, I couldn’t believe I was so lucky to be so close to Prince and see him playing such cool things.
He looked great in the beige suit. I hope to get hold of the sketches that the Dutch man did next to me, they really were great, please email me them! 

I really believe that the band was without doubt the best I have ever, and will ever see. Rhonda on bass, Renato on Keys, John on drums (Superb!), Candy Dulfer (so hot!), Maceo Parker and (memory loss!) sorry! So amazing together and the gig was so well rehearsed, and it flowed amazingly. Prince was truly breathtaking on guitar and keys, his vocals blew the roof off the Apollo, I doubt the security guards had ever seen such a show. I know they were happy. Paid to see Prince on the Thurs and David Bowie on the Wed!
He progressed to play for 160 minutes worth of the best funk, jazz, rock, pop singing ballads and funk. Highlights of the show were; The Rainbow Children – What a song, and what a song live! Bambi – That song was so amazing live! He played the guitar so well then! Extraordinary – Briliant. The Ride – WOW! I wish Sonya was with me then! The piano medley was wonderful – Adore, I Wanna Be Your Lover, Nothing Compares 2 U. The Beautiful Ones was fantastic, I loved it. I don’t think we could have had a better show, and the audience was great. We all enjoyed ourselves so much.

The aftermath was more calamities and fun! Me, Steve (driver), Jason (London veteran) Ronald and Arnold progressed to the Mayfair Club in Berkeley Road, where we all thought the after party was to be. It became apparent Prince wasn’t to actually play, but we were all hopeful for a showing. It also became apparent that the fools in the club before us, what looked like an Eyes Wide Shut party with all sorts of tarts in not a lot of clothing and masks, were not going to leave. We saw Vic Reeves enter the club as well. Soon after this a member of the NPG team informed us all that this was free, and that he was going to have to find another venue, so off he went with a few local fans to sort another venue out. Leaving us all unsure of what to do. A lot of people left, at least half the number of people remained. Eventually he returned and informed us that ‘the click’ club was the place to be. Jason knew the way to it, and off we went! We got there and we were basically the first NPG members there, they hadn’t set up procedures yet. We got in and were shown the way into the venue, from one room to another, the girl still kept guiding us, eventually through this hidden mirror door, which was the VIP suite, it was amazing we got into there, we were so happy!
We entered and all looked at each other, we didn’t really know what to do. Steve ordered a drink for everyone, which Arnold paid for (cheers!) and we sat down on this big sofa, there was a table and chair in the suite, which soon became free so we tried to sit in it. However Steve got told “you can’t sit there, Prince is going to be sitting there”! so we got back in our original seat!
After 10 mins or so Prince himself walked in, he was not more than 5-6 feet away, he went and sat at his seat for a bit. John was there, and I think Rhonda was also.

It was really creepy for me, Prince seemed to be just staring in our direction, as I said to Steve, it’s weird drinking a Red Bull and having Prince looking straight at you!
Then after a couple of mins he got up and heading in our direction “where are the ladies?” he asked us in true Prince fashion! There were 5 blokes together so understandably so. “At home” was the general reply from us all, which was true. “Oh, you might meet some here tonight” was his cheeky reply! Brilliant! He then asked us where we were from. I don’t think he knew anything about Stafford. His reply to Ronal was nothing short of stereotypical though. “Holland” “Do you do bootlegs?” Even the best fall into the stereotypical nationality traits! They proceeded to have a good chat about them, in which hearing the musicians thoughts about bootlegging first hand was interesting and on the whole you have to agree with what he says. It is his music and people shouldn’t be allowed to make money from selling them illegally.
However as Ronald said, if he released some, even one from a tour, it would stop the whole business. NPG music club is a perfect place for some of them to be released, also!
I then asked him if he planned to release Empty Room on an official CD soon, and whether he knew what was in store for the music club 2003 (or be willing to tell) to which both he answered no.
Steve asked him a few things and I think then he said goodbye and walked into the DJ area.

We stayed around till 4am ish, Prince left about 3am I think, he didn’t come back into the VIP suite. The other thing of mention about the club was the waitresses, you got charged a service charge for each order, must be a VIP suite thing, usually people in this place are not poor students!
However the service charge involved the “waitress” stroking her hand down yours and trying to hold it, me and Steve both witnessed this. I was wondering what sort of place the club actually was. However I didn’t mind!
Once we left we parted for the evening, leaving Ronald and Arnold to party some more. I left for Kings Cross station and had about an hour standing at the door waiting for the station to open to catch the 5am train. When I finally got to bed about 7am in ended a truly amazing day!
Totally amazing!!!

More was to come on Saturday, and I’ll write about that later (A shorter version!).
[This message was edited Mon Oct 7 13:15:25 PDT 2002 by eggy]

eggy said:

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.Wow I missed that, I will have to go to the click more often.

Maybe they only did it to the good looking men!

woah girl, nice review!