We went to see Prince in Paris and this is about what happened
While waiting in the corridors, we heard the beginning of the
soundcheck :

- 1+1+1=3 (work on the drums)
- other drum things
- keyboard stuff
- horn parts
- a full band jam
- The Rainbow Children with some improvisation
- more keyboard things
- Prince saying 'Check 1-2' a lot of times
- Power Fantastic (band)
- beginning of Power Fantastic twice on piano
- Power Fantastic (with Prince this time) - not complete
- Power Fantastic (with Prince) - complete and with a solo by Renato

We were allowed in, but not all at the same time (mess up by security ?)

- Prince shouted 'stop running' more than once
- Sweet Baby (on piano)
- With U (on piano)
- Xenophobia beat with song that might have been called 'Stand Tall Baby'
or 'Sweet Baby (but not the one we know), it continued with a solo by
Candy and Greg
- Drums and keyboard improvisation which had a 'Paris, We Come 2 Get Down'
chant, another Candy solo followed and then something 70's funk-ish 'nothing's
gonna stop us down' (?)
- Cool with keyboard improvisation by Prince, Candy did yet another solo
- Automatic which had the Shake bit in it and a solo by Candy and Greg
- Underneath Your Clothes (title repeated twice in high voice)
- 'new age improvisation' on piano with sax solo by Candy, Prince then took his
guitar and continued the song on it
- Santana Medley with Maceo comming onstage to say hello to everybody
- Pass The Peas with Maceo solo and some improvisation

The soundcheck didn't last that long, but it wasn't bad at all
NPGMusicClub members were also given a chance to sit (probably in some
unsold seats, in section N of the venue), we thought it might be something
else to do this, so after the soundcheck we followed the concert from way
up in the hall

The concert setlist :

- drum solo
- Maceo solo
- The Rainbow Children
- Muse 2 The Pharaoh
- Xenophobia with solo by Candy, Greg, Renato and John + the leader/
follower routine
- Purple Rain (Prince on piano)
- The Work with solo by Maceo and a dance contest
- Mellow (those blue, red and yellow spots really make it hard for people
on the seats to see anything on the stage)
- 1+1+1=3 with 'We Want The Funk' chant and the Housequake thing, then
Love Rollercoaster which led into a very nice deep groove Prince and Rhonda
jam and 'Paris We Got The Funk' chant
- The Other Side Of The Pillow with Renato, Candy and Greg solo
- speech about good music, WNPG and the Takumi on Rolling Stone mag. thing
- Strange Relationship with Rhonda solo
- Pass The Peas
- When You Were Mine
- Sign O The Times
- Take Me With U
- Raspberry Beret
- The Everlasting Now with solo's by Candy, Greg and Maceo

break

- Pop Life with 2 solo's by Candy
- Delirious with solo by Maceo, Greg and Candy and it had a 1920's swing
horn part in it
- Strollin'
- U & Me with solo by Greg and Candy
- Gotta Broken Heart Again with solo by Maceo
- Condition Of The Heart (on piano)
- Diamonds & Pearls (on piano)
- The Beautiful Ones
- Nothing Compares 2U with Candy solo
- The Ladder, with a little bit more preaching then the night before and a
Maceo solo
- Starfish & Coffee (on piano)
- Sometimes It Snows In April (on piano)
- Days Of Wild with the 'One More Jam, for Prince & The Band' chant in the
beginning, it also had the 'We Want The Funk' chant, a solo by Greg and Maceo
and a 'Who's House - Prince's House' chant, then came an 'It Ain't Over Chant'
and offstage Prince introduced the band members in his deep TRC voice
- Outro

On to the next stop : Le Bataclan
We were in the venue when about 15 people were already inside
We saw a real soundcheck (with instrument tuning that is)

- Prince came on and just laid on his back while there was a piano and drum
jam, then came a drum solo and a band jam with the horns section
- Guitar jam by Prince with a 'Good Morning 2U' chant
- Bambi
- Whole Lotta Love with Renato solo
- Family Name
- Something In The Water with Candy solo
- The Question Of U - solo by Renato - The One - Fallin' - Take 5 - another
Renato solo - Maceo solo - Ain't No Sunshine
- She's Always In My Hair
- Peach with the very nice horn part and the nice keyboard sample in it (really
like that song now), it also had a solo by Greg and an 'It Ain't Over' chant, a
bit of Shake and a solo by Candy
- I Don't Want Nodody To Give Me Nothing - The Work with a solo by
Maceo, then suddenly the horns just stop while Prince gave a cue to do a
solo (he was surprised), The Work continued with a solo by Candy then John
did a solo on the drums
- Prince jam on bass with 777-9311
- Hair with Renato solo
- Brickhouse with solo by Maceo
- Skintight
- Cool with solo by Greg
- Jam on bass

break

- keyboard jam by Prince, Renato joins after a while
- drum solo
- Alphabet St. with the hillbilly thing in it
- Deuce & A Quarter/Johnny (?) which had the audience sing 'NPG In The
MF House', Prince didn't like that and changed it into 'NPG In This Funky
House', Candy did a solo, then Greg did one, then Renato was given a solo
- All The Critics Love U In Paris with solo by Maceo
- 'Body Don't Wanna Quit, Need Another Hit' chant by Prince
- Dolphin (not quite the same as on the London aftershow, I liked this one better)
- Santana Medley with 2 solo's by Renato

another break

- Come On with Prince on keyboard and John on drums, Renato eventually takes
over the keyboard and Prince launches a 'Party 'Til The Sun Comes Up' chant
- Housequake (slow version) with 'It's Time To Get Funky' chant and a Greg solo
a solo by Maceo
- Outro

appearently 'Prince & The Band' was going to be played afterwards (the lyric
book was set up), but all of a sudden the crew started breaking up the stage
and that was it

Tom and Joris
The Yormeister
http://users.skynet.be/yormeister

- Underneath Your Clothes (title repeated twice in high voice)

??? the Shakira song?

thecollector said:

Come to think of it, there was a yellow spot shining DIRECTLY into my eyes @ the Oakland show, that shit was annoying!



I asked this on another thread, but I gotta know - whole songs or snippets on these??

Thanks for the report!!

Justin said:

CalhounSq said:

lol hey I was just asking hehehehe

Justin said:

I know, but it's such a frightening thought!

CalhounSq said:

nah the scary thought would've been if he'd played "underneath the Creamy Disaster"
hahahaha

he said a lot of times "stop running"???

paris turns him in a bad mood then???

boh!

It's true he did a line of the Shakira song...

"Okay Paris who's this?" he played the line, we all laughed hard...

OK, so here is the BIG question...
Was it worth the 100 + 100$???
What was the length of the shows?

L8R
xir

actually we paid $38 for the zenith show (very cheap imho) and YES $100 for the Bataclan show was VERY worth it

pope said:

not at all, he said "stop running, nobody's chasing you" because when we were let in a lot of the members ran to get as close as possible to the stage...he didn't want anybodiy to get hurt.

Anyway we had a lot of room in the member section during the soundcheck so it wasn't a problem even if you were in the back.

I just have to add to this great report, that Dayz of wild was mixed with Duke Ellington's Caravan. Instead of having the usual organ line, the horns played the main line from Caravan. That's funny, because I've always thought that Days of wild sounded a bit like Caravan... obviously I was not the only one to think that...

odelay said:

That sounds great. Got to have a listen to DE's Caravan.

thecollector said:

After Prince started sying "check 1 2", he let out a "PARIS" and all the members started screaming!

I think the song he did with the xenophobia beat was sweet baby...it was the same words he just totally reworked the music!



The dance contest was funny...there was this one guy who was dancing in a frankenstein sort of way (i-e a little stiff)
and Prince joked around a little with him doing his moves and saying "um..that's sexy!" too funny!!



all of those tunes were insane!! when he started playing SISIP I just went totally crazy (like everybody around me)





When we started singing NPG in the MF house Prince stopped the band in a second and said "you got the wrong words, we aint doin' nothin' to nobody's mama tonite" after that he said that was old and we had to do something new "NPG int this funky house"

During candy's solo he had they guys singing "ooh candy" while the girls sang "NPG in this funky house"...I just love it when he makes the crowd interact!!!

Are you sure it's Maceo, not Eric Leeds?

JeePee said:

YES!! that's what was incredible...Maceo wasn't supposed to be there but he was and it was great!

That was Maceo. He was there last night since he didn't have any show on his own. Besides he plays tomorrow (or tonight?) in Toulouse, France.
Eric wasn't there.

Just the timings.

Soundcheck around 1 hour (I don't know when the first fans where let in, but when we were Prince was actually telling ME !! to stop running. I didn't...)

Zenith concert: 2h 35' (including pauses)

Bataclan concert 2h 25' (again including pauses)


All in all 6 hours on the scene !!!


Late concert in Bataclan, from a MUSICAL point of view, it was just amazing. Never seen anybody play the bass that way, that's for sure.

nick

Browzer said:

QstnOfU said:

How quickly we jump to conclusions...

nickfunk said:

hardhead.

Let's see if I can add to this very good and detailed setlist...

soundcheck :
- Power Fantastic (with Prince) - complete and with a solo by Renato

I don't personally recall a complete version of it.

We were allowed in, but not all at the same time (mess up by security ?)

Yes.
- Xenophobia beat with song that might have been called 'Stand Tall Baby'
or 'Sweet Baby (but not the one we know), it continued with a solo by
Candy and Greg

It sounded like Sweet baby to me.

- Drums and keyboard improvisation which had a 'Paris, We Come 2 Get Down'
chant, another Candy solo followed and then something 70's funk-ish 'nothing's
gonna stop us down' (?)


He sang several times the refrain of "One Nation Under a groove" by Funkadelic.


On to the next stop : Le Bataclan


- Guitar jam by Prince with a 'Good Morning 2U' chant

with public interaction. Prince wante us to sing "good morning to you" to him.

- Bambi
- Whole Lotta Love with Renato solo
- Family Name
- Something In The Water with Candy solo
- The Question Of U - solo by Renato - The One - Fallin' - Take 5 - another
Renato solo - Maceo solo - Ain't No Sunshine
- She's Always In My Hair
- Peach with the very nice horn part and the nice keyboard sample in it (really
like that song now), it also had a solo by Greg and an 'It Ain't Over' chant, a
bit of Shake and a solo by Candy


Shake was more that a bit ! It was a proper song, with a lot "shake" singing by the audience.


- I Don't Want Nodody To Give Me Nothing - The Work with a solo by
Maceo, then suddenly the horns just stop while Prince gave a cue to do a
solo (he was surprised),

Previously, Maceo took the initiative to continue with a fantastic solo, after an "on the one" instruction by Prince. Which was very well received by Prince, band and public alike. This time, for some reason Prince was expecting the same, but instructed Maceo a bit too late before the "on the one" and Maceo stopped. When he realized, he had a very funny face on! Prince tried to cover that up, but was not happy about it. Prince last night wanted to PLAY MUSIC, nothing else mattered, for real !!




- Prince jam on bass with 777-9311

Prince got the bass from Rohnda, who left the stage.


- Deuce & A Quarter/Johnny (?) which had the audience sing 'NPG In The
MF House', Prince didn't like that and changed it into 'NPG In This Funky
House', Candy did a solo, then Greg did one, then Renato was given a solo


It was definetly Johnny and I think that the small 'incident' prevente Prince from actually sing the song, which remained instrumental.


- All The Critics Love U In Paris with solo by Maceo
- 'Body Don't Wanna Quit, Need Another Hit' chant by Prince


This was part of All the Critics...


appearently 'Prince & The Band' was going to be played afterwards (the lyric
book was set up), but all of a sudden the crew started breaking up the stage
and that was it


Ironically, the decision not to continue with that last song had the effect to disappoint a little !! I mean the first 2 minutes after the concert was clearly over, I bet many people had that feeling... everything seemed ready, even the right page of the lyric book.


MUSIC was the word in the house last night. It was already evident from the soundcheck, it was damn confirmed at the Bataclan.

nickfunk said:

Mmmh... Excuse me Nick, I wouldn't want to spoil all the excitement of such an event -sure it was great under a musical point of view. But could you tell me how much you had to pay to be there last night ?

lickerdipper said:

$100, lickerdipper
didnt you know???
STUPID!

winterman said:

...Well, I see you didn't get my point...
Guess who's the stupid then. No, wait, you wouldn't

Y AM EYE IN GODDAMN CHINA !!!???

(Well, eye really enjoy it also, but still, when eye read this...)

100 euro dollars...not US dollers!

My only - is his senseless propaganda speech at the end of the concert about voting only for God, if he can’t/ don’t want to make the difference between a fascist politician and a democrat one , well, he has the right to be stupid

jnoel said:

even during that part, he kept it pretty mellow. He said that that's what he believed in but he wasn't forcing it on anybody he just wanted everybody to know that if he was on stage that night it was because of God.

I didn't think it was such a big thing.