After a long, wait, security fucked up in several ways, creating a chaotic, uncomfortable and sometimes even dangerous situation when we finally were let in. Examples: having people wait outside a door that only opened to the outside, then trying to open that door, expecting 1000 people to step backwards. When the door was finally open, they didn’t allow people to be let inside. A handful of security people blocked the door, while the 100 people were getting more and more angry and started pushing. Lots of shouting and pushing later they finally let people through afte about 5 minutes, that’s the time when the situation got downright dangerous, I felt like cattle being ‘herded’ through a too small opening. Then, inside the hall the first secrtion filled up for about half, then people were let into the second NPGMC area (I was right at the front of the second area). When Prince played his first song, security suddenly opened the first section again, letting in people who came in later into the arena then people who were at the second section. Of course this started a commotion with much angry shouting and people climbing over the fence between the sections. Only after Prince asked the people to calm down the situation became normal again. I stayed at my (quite good) place, but I was also damn frustrated by all the security screw-ups. These people are supposed to be professionals, but acted completely amateuristic. Luckily all this crap was made up by a fantastic soundcheck and concert!

No Maceo or Eric, but Sheila E was there, which as great. Candy got a lot of solos for her hometown crowd, which was very cool.

Soundcheck (length: about 50-55 minutes)

Prince talking with NPGMC (couldn’t understand a lot of what was going on)
Santana Medley (short version)
First section chaos, Prince talking and leaving for a few minutes)
Flashlight / P-Funk jam
Xenophobia (ending with a freaky Renato-Prince duet on keyboards and guitar)
A case of you (rince on semi-acoustic guitar, full band)
Don’t Play Me (funky, long version, semi-acousitc guitar, full band)
The Truth (solo by Prince on semi-acoustic)
Telemarketeer Blues (acoustic guitar)
Beverly Hillbillies Theme (acoustic guitar)
Santana Medley (long version)

Concert (2 hours, 20 minutes)

Rainbow Children
Pop Life
Purple Rain (Sheila E on drums, very long version)
The Work – Part One (with dance contest)
Mellow
1+1+1=3 / Housequake
Diamonds and pearls (solo piano)
The beautiful ones
Nothing Compares 2 U
The ladder
Starfish and coffee
Sometimes it snows in April
Solo piano piece by Renato / WNPG talk
Strange relationship (balloons all over the audience and stage,a rrangd by some dutch fans)
The Ride (very long version, first with aRenato solo, while the balloons were being cleared from the stage by a NPGMC member picked from the audience by Prince. He then was offered a seat at the cushions and got a great guitar solo played by Prince right in front of his face)
Sign ‘o’ the times
Take me with u
Raspberry Beret
The everlasting Now
-encore 1-
Sheila E percussion solo
Seven (solo acoustic guitar)
Alphabet St. (acoustic guitar, full band)
All the critics love u in Holland (full band, Prince still on acoustic!, lots of audience members invited on stage)
Flashlight / P-Funk / Rotterdam We Came To Jam (Prince on keyboards, audience member singalong contest)
-encore 2-
Anna Stesia (fantastic version)
Days Of Wild
Renato synth freakiness outro

A lot of omissions in the setlist compared to previous shows (Xenophobia, Money don’t matter, gotta broken heart again, strollin), but this was made up the inclusion of rare songs like Mellow, The Ride and the incredible encores. Sheila E was a fantastic addition and she had a lot of fun. Renato was amazing yesterday. He played his ass off in very adventurous solos, which caused Prince and the other members look at him sometimes in amazement and they were smiling a lot when he played. Renato himself was the fitrst onstage and the last ff-stage and was also smiling a lot, h defiantly had a good night! The sound in the hall was very good from where I was standing, much better than on October 15th. I didn’t buy tickets for Nighttown, so I can’t comment on what happened there.

-dennis-

It's the SECOND time that the security SUCKED.
They didn't learn anything from the previous concert on oct 15.
They are just a bunch of amateurs.

And what about the balloons?

Nobody told me the prince had balloonophobia !



(I had to put a smilie with that, so nobody would get the wrong impression)
[This message was edited Sun Nov 3 3:07:04 PST 2002 by EDD]

Snailey said:

Euhm.. What exactly went wrong the 15th? (cannot remember right now)

Yesterday's problem was a real fuckup. It's their core business to keep things, people safe and under control. They did absolutely nothing except opening the door, and standing there. Not even a few barriers (dranghekken) just for the heck of it.
And there was even a 'suit' standing there who was OBVIOUSLY not really being in charge (i.e. actively guiding his people) but hopefully will bear his responsibility sooner or later.
Especially THEY should have thought of the `door effect` on a 1000 die-hard Prince fans.

They all acted like a bunch of low budget underpaid amateurs.

Their ad-hoc amateurism showed in other places as well (e.g. the pat-down in the hall) but I won't go into that.

All that's of course just my opinion.

udo

dennisversteeg said:

Thanks for the report!

EDD said:

LOL...i was thinking the same.

Janeau said:

Imo the whole balloon idea was stupid in the first place ... i thought it was quite well known that prince hates it when people throw stuff on stage, it makes him unsure of where to walk and stuff, and he wants to be able to stroll around without looking at where he's walking.
Over the years i've seen it happen a couple of times that fans throw stuff on stage in an organized attempt to show their love for him/get some reaction from him.

Always always, prince will pause the show while the stage is being cleaned up, and either not mention the audience "gift" at all, or only mention it in passing.

He was making the point clear by actually having a fan cleaning up the stage while he sat on some steps playing the chords for The Ride, continuing the song only when the stage was fully cleared.

m3taverse said:

Well, i didn't know that! I could have guessed it, anyway... It could also have been his pride that made him pick a member to clean the stage. Certainly Prince can't clean the stage himself!

Or, more probable, Prince hates balloons (balloonophobia, hehe) because of the static. Also during the show, he seems reluctant to touch an electrical device (except instruments ), like fans, cords and the like. Either he's very sensitive to electrical shocks or is paranoid about being electrocuted during a show.

Sander said:

That one balloons that stuck to his mic stand was funny. It just hung there, and when the bassdrum sounded it would move a bit away from the pole, and moved right back again.

I think the guy cleaning the stage was sort of, you messed up my place, now you clean it up.

JeePee said:

If prince would have had his own people clean up the stage, the ballooning fans would have thought that it was some kind of game and balloons would have been kicked on stage for the rest of the night.
Having a fan clean it all up nicely solved that problem as it made clear he didn't want anymore balloons on stage without requiring him to actually say it.
[This message was edited Sun Nov 3 11:08:52 PST 2002 by m3taverse]