Before the show started, some good old instrumental jazz was played through the PA system. The DJ played some records also by at least Graham Central Station, Parliament & James Brown, i.e. good funk!

The show started off with The Rainbow Children at 8.25 PM. Prince’s mike and guitar was a little too loud and it didn’t sound so good. I think Prince noticed this too because he left the stage for awhile and when he came back the sound was fixed. After TRC, they played Pop Life, which surprised me because I was definitely waiting for "Muse 2 the Pharaoh". The audience was going pretty well already during "Pop Life". So, it took Prince two songs to get the audience wild! At least it felt like it from where I was (third row). Then they played a looong Xenophobia. I was afraid they wouldn’t play it as they hadn’t on some evenings, but they did!
Some Swedish papers mocked Prince for playing these long fusion songs (TRC, Xenophobia), but I loved them!

I’m not sure of the order of the songs after "Xenophobia", nor am I sure if I remember all the songs correctly, but I'll try to do my best. I guess I've must been in a Purple high already at that point. However, I do recall that they played Money don’t matter tonite, The Work & Housequake at an early stage.

During "Housequake" Prince started his "I gotta brand new dance..." thing and asked Kirk to join him. Then they taught the audience how to dance the Housequake, which was fun. I noticed once when I didn’t jump up, that it literally felt like the house shook. It must have been the panels, which had been applied on the concrete floor, not the whole house... Prince did his Ozzy Osbourne imitation during "Housequake" also and it was hilarious.

There was another time, when it felt like the house shook and that was when Prince took his guitar and moved it around the mike to get the feedback sound. Then he put the guitar on the stage and slapped it two times and left it there (he acted as if he was angry towards his guitar). The sound was I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E.

At one point Prince looked to the side of the audience and said: "Wait a minute, the ushers aren’t dancing anymore, they’ve sat down. Then he got one of the ushers, a big guy, to come the stage and told him to "Get funky" and the usher danced his ass off It was funny!

Then there was this chant about Prince’s house. Prince told us that it was his house and then he got us to yell "Prince’s house", every time he asked "Whose house?" And he got that right; it surely was Prince’s house, the house of funk. He also talked about funk: "I don’t know what funk means but if someone can describe funk it probably ain’t funky."

Prince played Purple Rain. Before he played it, he said: "You’re so nice! So nice, that I’ll play this for you", and then "Purple Rain" started. Prince was sitting behind the piano; so I thought that he might as well not played it. But when I saw the guitar tech picking up the Habibi and handing it to Prince, I thought well alllrrriight. And that’s what I still thought after Prince finished his solo.

Then came The Ride! I just love when he plays the blues with his guitar. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the sound, but I couldn’t keep my eyes closed too long because I also wanted to see Prince making those funny looking ugly faces

It’s funny, but I can't quite remember how the songs 1+1+1=3 and Love Rollercoaster sounded, but I do remember the feeling: I was in a funk ecstasy

Prince had his talk about the radio and the WNPG, but first he said that he usually talks about the media on that point. He said: "We won’t be hating the media tonight, we will love the media tonight. Because there aren’t no media in the house." Don’t know what he meant by that, surely there must have been some media in the house because they wrote some reviews. Maybe I heard wrong? Or maybe he meant that there were no media invited?
After the radio talk the band started to play Strange Relationship, which was very funky!

Other songs I remember being played was: The other side of the pillow, Pass the peas, Strollin’, When you were mine - I love this song! Sign o’ the times - OH YEAH! Me like, me like! "Sign o’ the times" started off with a few bars from "Whole lotta love" and just when I’ve yelled to my sister "Whole lotta love" I got confused because it didn’t sound like it anymore and then I recognized they started to play SOTT! Prince got us to sing most of the lyrics on this one. Just like he got us to sing on Take me with you and Raspberry beret.

If my memory serves me correct Prince did his "Is it better to be a leader or a follower" question during Everlasting now. He asked the question and a guy replied "follower". Prince then asked the audience and most of them screamed "leader". Prince asked the guy again "Is it better to be a leader or a follower?"; the guy answered this time "leader". "Then lead yo’ ass back to yo’ seat", Prince said. The next guy answered "follower" and got to follow Prince on the stage and to sit on the pillows. There were members of the audience dancing on the stage during this one. One of them were a slightly disabled guy and Prince asked him to come and press the pedals on front of him (guitar pedals I assume) and sang directly at him.

Then there was a break where we applauded maybe 5 to 10 minutes. They were moving Prince’s piano to the middle of the stage, so we knew he would come back. He actually came back before everything was ready and said something like "Relax, we will play some more soon", as to tell people that they don’t have to applaud and could rest their hands. My hands were numb at this point already, so I didn’t feel the pain anymore.

Prince then did the piano medley: One nite alone - a slightly different version compared to the one on ONA, Adore - just a few lines , Condition of the heart - beautiful, Diamonds and pearls - he got us to sing with him, The beautiful ones - the rest of the band got on the stage here. They played the full song and Prince screamed "Do you want him, or do want me" like he does on the record, goosebumps! I actually had goosebumps most of the time during the concert. On some occasions, I had to feel with my hand if my hair had risen, ‘cause it surely felt like it.

They played also Nothing compares 2 u - The audience sang their heart out to Prince: "Nothing compares 2 U!". Starfish and coffee was a crowd pleaser. Delirious - very jazzy arrangement. "Delirious" is not my favorites, but this was a great version! And finally - The Ladder - B-E-A-T-I-F-U-L. I’m not a religious person, but I enjoyed the passion Prince had during this one. There are many people, who talk about god, but it doesn't come from the heart and I hate that kind of people. But Prince is not one of them! You could feel it came straight from the heart! I actually felt a little sorry for Prince when he asked "Do you love music like I do?" people screamed YEAH! Then he asked "Do you love god like I do?" and he didn’t get a response as big as he did to the music question. Sorry Prince I couldn’t relate either.

The band left, but the audience didn’t give up that easily and after a few minutes, we got our reward; the beat loop for Days of wild started. This was the highpoint for me! "Days of wild" is my favorite party tune. All the times I’ve requested this song in vain to be played by radio stations and club DJ’s has now been forgotten, because I got to hear this live by Prince himself! And what a finale it was, I actually get goosebumps now when I’m writing this. The same people who were up on the stage earlier were invited again to dance. Prince played bass (Rhonda was on keyboards) and at one point when he slapped it, a guy kinda repeated it with his dance moves. Great dancing! Then Prince got us all to chant "It ain’t ova’! repeatedly. The band was so funky and it looked like Candy especially was in a funk high... well who wouldn’t be at this point. The audience were chanting "It ain’t ova’! all the time and at one point Prince started to reply "Yes it is!" and shortly after that the music stopped and everybody left the stage.

Renato came back after a little while and played something to kinda chill us down, and to let Prince and the rest of the band leave the building in peace, I think. Renatos keyboard sound was incredible. Then it was over; it was around 11.15 PM.

What a wonderful evening! I was smiling and singing "It ain’t ova’! all the way to the metro station. This was the funkiest concert I’ve ever been to. Once during the finale Prince yelled "Ain’t nobody funky like me", and he had all the right to do it IMHO. I haven’t seen live too many big acts, but I’ve seen some really funky acts like: James Brown (twice), Kool & the Gang, Earth, Wind and Fire, George Clinton (twice) and I had seen also Prince twice before this evening. My best concert experience had been one with George Clinton & The P-Funk All-stars in Helsinki in the early 90’s. That was like a funk jam session and it lasted nearly 4 hours! Now, it’s nothing compared to what I experienced on the 22 October 2002 in Stockholm, Sweden! Prince & The NPG overtook so fast Clinton & P-Funk All-stars and disappeared from the sight as fast as the Ferraris did last season in Formula 1!

We did go to the afterparty, which was in Debaser. You could quickly realize that Prince wouldn’t play there, ‘cause there were only a few microphones standing on the stage. Well, maybe an acoustic session... I didn’t think so either. The DJ played lots of Prince. I have to say that "Cream" sounded pretty lame this evening, although it usually is a highpoint for me in the clubs I go to in my hometown. But to get to hear "Pretty man", "Controversy" & "I feel for you" played in a club; that got me to the dancefloor. Until this point I had slept maybe 5-6 hours in the last three days, but I got so much energy from the concert I felt I could’ve kept dancing all night long But we had to leave at 2 AM, because the ferry to Finland was leaving at 5.30 AM and people wanted to get some sleep.

One more thing: On the back of the "One nite alone" T-shirts, it said "Universal tour", what’s up with that? Is Prince planning to take a trip to the space and lasso the moon?

Satu

P.S. If you want to read about my experience at the soundcheck you can find it here
[This message was edited Sat Oct 26 11:14:40 PDT 2002 by Satu]

Good report. Glad you had fun

Wow, I love this review!
I've seen him in Hamburg and Berlin and can really feel your report! It was indeed

Jagjams said:

calldapplwondery83 said:

Thanks! I really had fun at the show and I had fun writing this report also
[This message was edited Sat Oct 26 13:27:16 PDT 2002 by Satu]

Damn, I wish I had been there! What a great show!

Did you take that picture?

Satu said:

Great report! It almost feels like I was there.

I always feel the same way you seem to do, in the quote above. I'm fine with singing 'God is love, love is God' and such as long as it is part of a song, but when Prince starts with his "Do you believe?" kind of questions, I never answer

VinaBlue said:

No I wouldn't dare to take a picture in a concert where it is STRICTLY forbidden to have a camera with you in the first place. I wonder when the Swedish newspaper has to take it off their site...

I just remembered something else: What was wrong with that young couple who was in front of me and stood almost still the whole concert!?? I just couldn’t understand that someone could stand still with all that fonky music!? Maybe they were too shocked to be so close to Prince? I don't know but at some points, I wanted to scream dance dammit to them!

Satu said:

LOL
In Rotterdam on Oct. 15th (where I had a very lousey far, far away seat) I looked at the back of the Ahoy at one moment and saw a whole row of people sitting on some sort of small balcony... NONE OF THEM MOVED during the whole concert! They just sat there and watched. Perhaps they were from the writing press or something?
I could never not move during an entire concert

Barbes said:

I doubt it. They were on the NPGMC seats and they were just in their twenties. I'd like to adopt the story that it was their first Prince concert and the fongk hit so hard on their face that they couldn't move.

Barbes said:

Nah...that row was reserved for the bootleggers taping the show.

He also talked about funk: "I don’t know what funk means but if someone can describe funk it probably ain’t funky."

If I were ever asked that question I'd answered "Prince is FUNK!"

now reading this report I have 2 go HMMM... (wink)

Satu said:

GREAT reports, Satu! Thank you!

Satu said:

dat man ain't got nae bit o' sense.

Lawd help me if i EVER xperience this live...likely 2 stand up & testify, screaming right along wit' him, then fall out on my side.
Anyway, EXCELLENT report Satu. Perhaps U should do musical/concert reviews.
PEACE

Satu said:

wonders how long before some bitter Orger calls him a hypocrite for saying "ass"...

CalhounSq said:

Or maybe start calling me a liar, 'cause there's no way Prince could say ass...

Thanks to all of you for your kind words, I'm glad you enjoyed reading the report.

&
Satu
.

Satu said:

Two of my favorite's as well... , "Days of Wild" makes me go .

Thanks for such an outstanding report, your pleasantness shines as you write, . So happy you had an amazing experience.

Beautiful Day and truly best wishes.

Very good report SATU

Its just like seeing the gig one more time.