Sorry this report is so damned long. Just started writing and got carried away! Ah well...

Monday - Manchester Apollo
Joined the queue around the building at 4 and I was about half-way in the eventual length of the queue. We were let in to the venue at 5, however we then had to queue up again inside. So we waited and waited... Off in the distance somewhere we could hear Purple Rain being rehearsed, couldn’t hear any vocals though, then The Work, which kept stopping and starting. That was pretty frustrating, ‘aren’t we supposed to be watching this?’ people were muttering. About half 6 we were let in finally, the first 10 rows of the venue were for the 2 or 3 hundred club members only, I was on the last row, 10, in the centre but still a very decent view of the stage. Renato was fiddling with his keyboards for a while, but that was it, no soundcheck, all we saw was a ‘lightcheck’! It would've been nice if someone had come out and just said, ‘look, no soundcheck tonight, sorry’ but all we got was a guy who came on and told us the venue of the afterparty at a place called Life, ‘it’s just for you guys’ he said which was good and left us wondering if Prince would make up for the lack of a soundcheck with an aftershow performance, I think we are the only show so far where there’s been no soundcheck at all! It really was a disappointment, especially for club members only attending that day, after all, soundchecks are advertised as a major selling point for premium tickets together with the good seats. I suppose the first night at a new venue requires a lot of setting up, they just ran late. But I must say, everyone was very quiet and civilised and didn't complain.

The venue kind of funnels in towards the stage, which was quite compact and small, with 3 screens from floor to ceiling to project images onto inbetween some velvet drapes which changed colour depending on how they were lit. Also a wavy bubble thing at the back, a couple of cushions and lots of incense burning which made a great change from cigarette smoke or the acrid smell of dry ice!

At 7 they started letting in the general tickets, at 8 the concert began very suddenly, with John Blackwell starting the drums for The Rainbow Children even before the houselights had gone down. Maceo made his way down one of the aisles playing the sax before the place went dark. There was an absolutely fantastic reaction when Prince walked on stage out of the darkness, wearing a smart light-coloured suit and black shirt and those silver ear pieces, passing in and out of a spotlight, the people roared and the place shook! Prince did the Darth Vader voice bit at the start of The Rainbow Children, did a bit of roaring guitar as the lights erupted into bright gold, then left the stage for a while leaving the band to it. I think he leaves a bit too soon, I bet casual fans are like ‘huh? what’s going on? where's he gone?’ But then he casually wanders back to finish the song. It's really difficult to remember set lists because songs fade from one into another, so I've borrowed this and added comments, hope it's accurate...

The Rainbow Children
Muse 2 The Pharaoh(I think he did a line or 2 from Silicon in the midst of it all, but I could be wrong)
A Case Of U
The Work pt.1
Mellow
1+1+1=3
Love Rollercoaster (begun on guitar by Prince but no lyrics that I remember, some of the horns bit from Housequake too)
The Other Side Of The Pillow
Strange Relationship (a brief speech about how 4 or 5 companies in America control all the radio stations, and how the NPG like to dream they have their own radio station, radio WNPG, the dream lasts about 20 minutes)
Pass The Peas (begun by Maceo with lots of sax solos, this is from one of his own albums, right?)
When You Were Mine (about this time Prince really starts to wail on the guitar! Rock and Roll 101 Prince says, and it is a very funky rocky version, which fades into Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love, a pounding rock version, fantastic!)
Whole Lotta Love
Family Name
Take Me With U
Raspberry Beret (These 2 are obviously classics he's played a lot, but it was fantastic singing these with everyone knowing the lyrics, a very uplifting and joyful experience I found. I'm so used to seeing him cut off Raspberry Beret after the second verse, it caught me off guard when he sang the next verse, in fact the whole song right to the end, excellent!)
The Everlasting Now

(A lot of clapping and cheering later, during which we can just make out technicians bring a piano/keyboard onto the centre of the stage, and Prince returns initially alone)

Girls & Boys (Well not the whole song but a nice chunk)
Diamonds & Pearls (Same again, not the whole song but a nice chunk)
Adore (starts with a piano beat of I Wanna Be Your Lover before he looks up and says, 'I ain't going there this evening')
Starfish & Coffee (This brought forward a lot screams of approval and surprise, obviously a favourite with a lot of people)
Sometimes It Snows In April (One of my all-time favourites and a track I never imagined I'd hear live, so a huge thrill for me and I'm sure many others)
Nothing Compares 2 U (The whole band comes in on this, and he gets the crowd to sing a lot of the verses)
How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore (Back to Prince only)
The Beautiful Ones (A fantastic version, with the whole band coming back in the middle, did the whole lying on his back bit still singing it, cool to see he's not afraid to revisit great moments from his past)
The Ladder
Empty Room (Heard a lot of people rave about this track though I've never heard it properly before, and I thought it was indeed amazing, fantastic roaring guitar bits inbetween the lyrics to an epic sounding tune)

Purple Rain (preceding this Prince says something like, I know I said we weren't gonna play this but Rhonda said we won't get out of here unless we do... In the middle he's a bit preachy, he says we should value the things we have in common, and the oooh-ooh bit of Purple Rain is something we can all do together in harmony, which is exactly what we do! Then Prince leaves the stage and Renato is left last, leaving a synth sound rumbling away to glittering lights...)


Personally, I've only seen Prince a couple of times, but this was far and away the best I've ever heard him play. There was an immediacy and impact that I haven't heard before, and I think it was because the fact he didn't have a guitarist meant he had to do all the work himself, and he was on guitar a helluva lot this night playing many solos and intricate bits plus simple driving rythms, mesmerising. The whole band has a very deep sound, I mean the sort that shakes the ground and comes up the back of your legs! John Blackwell's drumming has a very heavy sound, and combined with Rhonda Smith often playing an upright electric double bass or whatever that was, it makes for a very deep rumbling rhythm section, cool. Blackwell is just so good, at one point he has a small solo, his hat goes flying and starts crossing over arms and juggling the sticks using his mouth while still banging away, before checking himself out in a mirror! Greg Boyer on Trombone is excellent, as he has to be in the company of Maceo Parker and Candy Dulfer on sax, all coming forward at various times to do small solos, you can't beat this for a horn section! Renato Neto on the keyboards is fine, I wouldn't say he has tons of charisma, he's looks like a nerdy techy kinda guy, concentrating heavily on his bank of keyboards and sound dials to twiddle with, but he certainly doesn't let the band down and he plays jazz piano solos rather well.

Some cool incidents - Prince announces the dance contest, the house lights go on and he goes down one of the aisles, with hundreds of people screaming and boyfriends pointing at their girlfriends, he picks out 3 people for the dance competition. 2 cool looking women and a, well, geeky looking guy, no offense! Prince says, 'this guy was making strange faces at me so I thought we could have some fun with him!' Turns out the guy is called Nick, with a last name I think was Tears, because Prince said, 'gee, you're making me feel sad already!' Anyway, you think Nick is gonna be hopeless at dancing, but in fact he puts his all into it and he's not half bad, and Prince is like, 'Wow, Nick, you're one funky guy!' So Nick wins, and then Prince makes them all do the Osbourne dance with him - just too funny. Then as the dancers leave the stage, Prince grabs Nick and says, 'oh no Nick, not you, we ain't finished with you yet' and Prince does some funky dancing which Nick has to copy, and again he puts his all into it. It was a very funny, joyous bit and got everybody laughing, it was a real ice-breaker and freed everybody up into a great mood.

Another bit - Prince asks, where's the music club? and we all put up our hands. He tells the people in the balcony, join the club and next time you'll be down here, which gets us all laughing. Then he gets just the club members singing a chant, Q: Where's the NPG club? A: 'We're down in front, we're down in front!' Then he gets the houselights turned up, makes us turn and point at the balcony and sing 'We're down in front, we're down in front!' at them! Just too funny and kind of bonded us as a group within a group.

Monday - Manchester - Afterparty

After the concert, which finished around 10.45, pretty much everyone in the club headed upto the afterpary at Life, you needed your laminate to get in (for free of course), which as it turns out was a quite small cellar bar in a semi-circular shape, where a DJ played Prince tunes all night, it was loud, you couldn't hear yourself talk. It was clear straight away that there was not going to be a performance, and it didn't look the sort of place Prince would even turn upto, there was no area for him to go and be private in. But after a few drinks, a lot of people (including me!) had a good ol' dance, it was a lot of fun and a great way to wind down after the gig. It ended straight on 2 and everyone had to go. Personally I had to wait hours for a train home, I got to bed about 5.

Tuesday - Manchester Apollo - Soundcheck

The next day I was feeling very tired, I was hoping to go and meet fellow orgers but in the end I was late getting my act together and when I got back to Manchester I went straight to the queue again! Meant to get there earlier, but ended up pretty much at the same point, ho hum! Same deal queueing, but this time we were let in to our seats on time, I ended up row 9 in the centre, big improvement huh?!

This time, the entire band was on stage, and Maceo and Candy did some solo playing. Then Prince came on, everyone cheers, he shushes us and says, 'We ain't done anything yet!' Everyone stays seated and it is very surreal, you feel a bit like you're intruding and don't know whether to shout out or what, mostly we keep quiet. Prince says 'You go to the party? Was it good? I was asleep!' Prince sits at the piano/keyboards and chats off-mike for a while, then from nowhere they launch into Money Don't Matter 2Nite, excellent. Then Prince asks for the 1 plus 1 groove, and goes over just the horn bit from Housequake with Maceo, Candy and Greg. They apparently keep getting it wrong, and they have to stop and go over it several times. If I worked for Prince I'd be scared to get it wrong more than once! But they seem to be in a good mood, especially Candy. The previous night Candy was in this big white suit and hat, but what a diffence today! She was in casual figure-hugging clothes with her hair tied back, looking gorgeous! Personally, I don't think her stage clothes (smart suits, though with a split down the leg side) do her justice. And she looked really happy and in a playful mood, grooving to the band even when she wasn't playing and joking with the other two.

Then they did a fantastic version of The Question of U with Prince soloing on guitar, he also sang the first 2 lines of the Alicia Keys song Fallin' to the Question of U tune, a nice little moment. Then Pop Life which went into a jazz style as I recall, and finished with Sign 'o' the Times, a very funky version with a DJ adding some scratch sounds. Then they went off with Prince saying he'd see us tonight. Everybody was pretty pleased with the soundcheck to say the least, especially after the disappointment of the previous day.

Tuesday - Manchester Apollo - Concert

The second night setlist was heavily changed from the first. Yes, there were the same TRC songs, but so many different songs were played, at one point Prince got his tech guy running off to change the lyric sheets or whatever they are, so I guess he was making it up as he went to some point. It was pretty much like seeing a completely different concert, which was fantastic for those who saw both shows I think. The first concert, Prince was on the guitar most of the time, this time there was a lot less and he seemed to concentrate more on just singing the songs, and he was in supreme voice.

Rainbow Children
Muse
Money Don't matter 2nite
The Work Part 1
Extraordinary
Mellow
Strollin'
Gotta Broken Heart Again
1+1+1 (including housequake horns)
Love Rollercoaster
Strange Relationship (this time he was talking about the newspapers)
When U Were Mine
Sign Of the Times
Take Me With U
Raspberry Beret (Before this he said, if it was good in the eighties, it's still good!)
Everlasting Now
---
Pop Life
Alphabet Street
All the Critics love U + A Love Bizzare (lots of people were invited onstage for a dance contest. Then instead of ushering them off, they just stood there, so instead of watching the band all we could see was their backs as they stood around Prince at the keyboard, doing a jam that in all fairness went on far too long and upset the flow of the show, losing the audience somewhat)
---
The Ballard Of Dorothy Parker (very much the jazzy version)
The Beautiful Ones (A more intense, impassioned performance than last night, lots of throwing down of the mike and writhing on the floor, even more so like the good old days!)
Nothing Compares 2 U
---
The Ladder (Did a bit of preaching here, about what a mess the world is in and we've tried everything before so why don't we all unite and agree on at least one thing, that Jesus was God's son. Although he did soften it a bit by saying, I know this isn't everyone's cup 'o' tea)

It ended like the previous night, with Renato leaving the keyboard playing a mean synth loop. Then the lights came on and they started dismantling the stage immediately. This ending seemed messy somehow, I certainly felt we'd missed out on the acoustic/piano bit he usually does in favour of tracks that were getting too much like over-extended jams. And everybody was a bit shocked when there was no announcement of an afterparty, people were totally expecting one and felt let down. I can understand why, compared to everywhere else Manchester did rather badly, we missed one soundcheck and one afterparty and no after-performance, though it's all relative, any other artist and you'd be quite content with just the concert, but Prince's reputation precedes him, you expect so much more, too much, perhaps. Every year people expect him to play longer and longer, but at some point that's got to stop, he is getting on a bit you know!

I much preferred the funk/rock of the first night to the jazz/jams of the second night, but overall, what an experience! I thoroughly enjoyed it and it's hard to imagine Prince sounding better. I was worried it was going to be really preachy, but overall it really wasn't which suited me. Also the npg club element was great this time, I knew that the people around me were all into Prince so it was easy to start conversations with total strangers, and I met quite a few cool people that I hope I'll see again sometime. Let's hope it's not too long before Prince returns!

daaayum, I wish I could've seen him do the beatiful ones

Great report.

Thanks

great review, cheers

nice read that, thanks!

sounds like i picked the right show to go to! (7th) phew!

Fantastic report
Thank You
How did you remember the running order ???


Nick should become an honoury member of the NPGMC
(and incidentally Nick , do you post on here ? if not , does anyone know him ? , he is clearly a cult figure from the tour - cool dude , unlike the girl with the raspberry beret on Tuesday night who having been bought onstage during the song hugged Prince inappropriately (his self contol was amazing) I had the misfortune to hear her remarking on the way out (I was by the ladies toilets wher my wife was) "he`s a power crazy bastard" , I hope she wasn`t referring to Prince , she did not deserve to share the stage with him.
(again moderators , if that is slanderous to you , sorry no , I know what I heard and I would recognise that lumbering ox again )

Great write-up! Thanks for sharing. At the Oakland, CA show for the ONA tour there also was no aftershow, but the main concert was SO good that I couldn't be disappointed. Some things are meant to be. I was so blown away by the ONA show that I almost didn't want to deal with the hassle of an aftershow that might taint the night. God I love seeing Prince live!

Excellent, Thankyou

What an excellent report you did. Very well detailed. I felt as if I was back at the ONA concert of May 2002. (sighhh). Thank you.

Great report, thank you

metalorange said:

Thanx for your exhaustive review. I went on the second night and thought it was excellent. I've seen Prince 3 times b4 and thought this was his best per4mance. In my opinion, he should never set foot in an arena again!

I do feel as though we missed out on not going 2 the first show - No Adore, Diamonds & OPearls, Starfish & Coffee or the much vaunted Whole Lotta Love thing. Damn! But at least we got All the Critics Love U In New York, Strollin and Money Don't Matter 2Nite.

We were sat on the first row of the circle upstairs and had a great view - the people on stage didn't spoil All The Critics Love U in New York - one of my fave tunes with its rhythmn and beats.

My faith has been restored after a bad decade (in my opinion). The band was excellent - the best horns section on the World??!!

Roll on the next tour!

Andy Jackson
Warrington

I'm so sleepy, I gotta read this tomorrow. But THANK YOU for such a long report!! I love these!

That extended version of Strollin' is so good, I really hope a recorded version surfaces somewhere (oops did I just say that?)

Nice that he is trying to acknowledge that not everybody shares his religious views. . .has he done away with the "if you don't agree, you can leave now" sorts of comments? Maybe he actually heard us on this one?

So happy for you all, keep those reviews comin'. . .

Doves,
M

great review, who's next ? dublin we waitin for ya

The Beautiful Ones (A fantastic version, with the whole band coming back in the middle, did the whole lying on his back bit still singing it, cool to see he's not afraid to revisit great moments from his past)

I was on the front row, whilst Prince performed The Beautiful Ones, he was right in front of my face...I CRIED

i was at the 8th, the only reason p broke out into the old 'floor fucker' again was because he dropped his microphone unintentionally while trying to through it to his other hand. suprised nobody else picked up on that! great show though. the opening two songs were my highlight.

From where I was it looked like he threw it down on the stage! Couldn't see much of what was going on from row 12 but saw enough to realise what he was up to!

I preferred the first night, maybe because I was on the second row but the shows were amazing! The best for a long time and the band seem to work with him better than any other I have seen before!

Altogether this was the ultimate experience and I can't wait to see him again!