Yesterday I witnessed one of the best performances I have ever seen from our little friend. These are my experiences.

We arrived at 14:00 at the Sportpaleis. People were handing out numbered tickets, (not the same guys as in R'dam but again the Dutch were organizing this). We had no. 120/121. At some point we were told that we have to stood in line and that the doors would open at16:00 and we could pick up our lamintes and wait for the soundcheck to start. This worked pretty goof although pepole with nr 340 or something were in front of me at once. I just hoped that security would send them back but unfortunatley they didn't take care of the numbers. Inside we had to wait in front of the stairs that led us to the arena. This took some 30 minutes and when we entered the arena it worked better than in Rotterdam. There was one section for members and we managed to get a spot at the right, approximately 2 meters from the stage.

Bandmembers were already rehearsing (without Prince) and this took 45 minutes. Songs played were a.o. Something in the Water and The Question of You. Around 18:00 Prince joined the band. He was absolutely in a much better mood than in Rotterdam. Didn't ask nasty questions (who recently joined the NPGMC etc.) and was making jokes all the time. What we saw looked in my opinion like an aftershow. He played for 75 minutes (he stopped after 45 minutes but came back to play some more). Amongst the songs were Bambi, The question of You, The Greatest Romance, Empty Room! and Something in the Water.

When the soundcheck was finished (after 2 hours) I knew this was gonna be a long night. He mentioned several times that it was gonna be a party tonight. Also he said that there was no aftershow today since they had to travel and Rhonda was tired. Directly after the soundcheck the afterparty was announced. Location was Red and Blue, a gay club near the harbor. In the meantime the DJ played songs from ONA Live (the aftershow CD). This sounded very good with minimum overdubs.

The show started at 20:35 while the Sportpaleis wasn't full yet and ended at 23:15. The setlist was almost the same as last Tuesday in Rotterdam, but due to his much better mood songs were stretched out and he was more talkative. Ofcourse, since this was a big venue (the biggest of the tour) it became a greates hits show.

The setlist:

Rainbow Children
Poplife
Xenophobia
Money don't matter 2night
The work
Purple Rain
1+1+1=3 / Housequake
Love rollercoaster
Sexmachine jam
Strollin' /U and me
Gotta broken heart again
Strange relationship
When you were mine
Sign "O" the times
Take me with U
Raspberry beret
The everlasting now

Piano (alone)
Delirious
I wanna be your lover
Adore
Do me baby
Condition of the heart
Diamonds and pearls

Piano + full band
The beautiful ones
Nothing compares 2 U
The ladder
Starfish and coffee
Sometimes it snows in april

Final Encore (very long with 10 people on stage)
Days of wild

Funny detail. Near the end of the show a guy was invited to dance at the stage. After a few minutes he received a T shirt from a friend in the audience and changed clothes. This T shirt had on the back the words PaisleyParkVault.Com! I think this guy had a lot of guts when you know that Prince started a "war' against bootleggers. Although Prince didn't notice the T shirt, it was verry funny.

When the show ended we tried to find the club Red and Blue. We managed to follow a friend of a friend of ours but almost get lost when we were nearby. After some questioning we finally found the club. We were very quick inside and it was not too crowded yet (some 50 people were inside, most NPGMC members). I have to say that the club inside looked very nice. Also the music played by the house DJ was very good. The atmosphere was better than in Nighttown and it became directly obvious that there was no aftershow since this club has no stage. I think that a lot of (Belgian) people this already knew because it never became really crowdy. After some 25 minutes we first saw Prince entering the VIP room at the balcony, followed by Mani and after that the rest of the band. Nothing special happened, they had some drinks, Prince did some dancing and waving, moved to the DJ (his own) and handed records to him. The same did Candy. They left after 70 minutes. After we saw the tourbusses leaving we left also.

Good report Superhero, I have nothing to add on it BTW the t-shirt thing was too funny

I agree. The t-shirt thing was verrryyy funny.

But I noticed that the guy was gone soon (eliminated???)

no he wasn't, he was just standing besides me at the right of the stage wait what will happen in Oberhausen!

spaceboy said:

No he wasn't eliminated, I spoke him afterwards and his T shirt friend as well.

Superhero (aka nr 87)

PS Ur review is now on the PaisleyParkVault.Com! as well cause it's such a nice and complete one.

ja dat was ik ja maar gisteren was je 120 he `

Stylecipation said:

Goed onthouden! Gisteren nr 120 maar voor sommige mensen zal ik altijd nr 87 blijven !

@ answer your question... Antwerp was burning

my favourite quote:

prince: 'are you looking forward for tonight'
NPGMC: 'YEAH'
NPGMC: 'you ?'
prince: 'nope'
prince: 'I'm just doing my job'

funny man,
with a lot of guts

SuperHero said:

heheh ... reading this brings a smile to my just woken up face;) (it's 4pm!)

it was a gay club, and boy was it ever gay ... there were big cock rings on the walls with lightbulbs screwed in... there was a metal cage hanging from the ceiling, there was some guy with a white tablecloth around his shoulder dancing extremely poorly on a small stage... and lots of other stuff i can't remember at the moment... but definately one of the gayest gay clubs that i've ever seen

Also a minor correction ... this place does have a stage, it was behind the curtain next to the dancefloor.
[This message was edited Sat Oct 19 6:57:23 PDT 2002 by m3taverse]

created this one by sleepdrunken mistake, ignore
[This message was edited Sat Oct 19 6:58:17 PDT 2002 by m3taverse]

Stylecipation said:

Were you on stage too?

PS Do you go to EVERY show?

Hi JeePee, (not the JP from the Dawn.nl)

No I wasn't on stage, but a friend of me was and I threw my shirt to the stage and he put it on Dancing next to Prince with a paisleyparkvault.com shirt. too funny.

I go 2 every show no not all

Yo - Style spread da word for me! Praveer - Nederland Nov 2!?! I am actually awake now.

yeah guys if anyone has a memberticket (guest) available for my canadian friend for the November 2nd concert at Ahoy let me know: style@paisleyparkvault.com
The poor fellow moved a flight back to Canada to see the show, so tickets are welcome

EDD said:

LOLOL!! He's lyin'!!

m3taverse said:

:O



(ripping off Supernova for a second)... DA HORROR!!

SuperHero said:

This was the coolest "Soundcheck" of the whole tour sofar...
Agreed on the "Aftershow Feel"...

Neversin.