4bjb said:
chiron said:
translate Pls.
Erm, you´re not really asking me to... well, I worked that out exclusively for you 4bjb...
I´ll give you my 2cents, just because of the stupid aftershow-yes/no-discussion.
Whatever was played that night, or not played, it wasn´t an aftershow.
I was at Porgy &Bess for about half an hour after it became clear that there would be no aftershow there. About 2:30 I went away. Then I roamed the streets a little and at about 3:10 I was at the Imperial. Conny from the U4 stood in front of there, who waited with his little red corvette and talked to a few people. He went away at 03:30, I was still there looking around. I couldn´t hear any sound from the hotel. Above the entrance of the Hotel, first floor, a hotel guy cleaned something. Every window was closed in the second and third floor. Shortly after Conny was gone, a white medium-sized Bus was loaded with something and moved away with one or two more cars. When I left the hotel at around 03:50 there was no sound whatsoever coming from inside. Same at the other places, the last guests left Porgy & Bess at around 04:20.
At 5:05 I got an sms that Prince still had played at the Imperial. But no one I know was in there and heard him. Just a few fans say that they were kicked out or not allowed in, the opinions differ whether they were fans or guests, and whether they were kicked out or not allowed in… however. Ok, so maybe he played piano inside.
The oe.24 article was corrected heavily. Rumors say (read that in the Krone) that a PA was built up inside of the hotel. That´s Bullshit – had Prince played through a PA, you would definitely hear it outside. So why was the oe.24 article corrected that heavily? Because the journalist is a selfish chap and regularly, the half of what he writes, is wrong? And then he writes he was sitting at the hotel bar and Prince said “Hi” to him – what a revelation, with all the BS that the journalist posted before!
Why shouldn´t Prince, if he has the idea, just play piano without any fans being around? We also like to do that. If anything, this was unofficial piano playing and he didn´t want any fans around, so what? If the artist sits half an hour at the piano and plays, without having fans or journalists or even the promoter of the Stadthalle-Gig listening (or should I say: gawking at him), he has the right to do just that. Same if he goes to the bar. A two-hour piano session seems a little bit unlikely. But I have no clue, since I wasn´t in the hotel but just in front of it, to wait if and where he goes at that late hour.
For me, playing piano at the Imperial has nothing to do with an “aftershow”. Whatever reasons he may have to tickle the keys - maybe because he´s just in the mood for it – if there is no public allowed, it means exactly that: fans from outside, and according to Gerhard12 the promoter (who has probably paid Prince 1 mil $, not 130!) isn´t there/isn´t informed, then I don´t think he lets other people – be it hotel guests that stay there and presumably have nothing whatsoever to with his music – listen. He´s a musician first and foremost and it´s highly unlikely that 5 people who understand nothing of music get the exclusive joy of listening to him, instead of a club full of fans five minutes away.
I think playing at the hotel could be true; I´m not saying it didn´t happen, but apparently it just happened to hotel employees who he can´t keep from moving through the halls and bar – to clean something, to bring him drinks (I don´t even know if a President could do that, except for reasons of extreme security - not for vanity).
Maybe he just wanted to play a nice Boesendorfer in the city of music in imperial surroundings. Maybe he would have preferred the state opera for another show, but I don´t believe that (on another note, it´s impossible to book that place spontaneously). I always do that when I´m on holidays, I miss my piano and I´m happy to stay in hotels that have one so I can tickle the keys in the bar where possible (of course, Prince can do that anywhere he goes). He also had no grand piano onstage, at some previous tours he had one..
Whatever, that´s exactly what I wouldn´t call an aftershow. Just like playing guitar in the hotel room for three hours for 5 groupies is not an aftershow. This is private pleasure, and the people being lucky enough to be around, are lucky. No stage means no show, no audience - no show, no club – no show. At the Imperial there was no stage, there was no PA, and no significant audience was allowed in. There was no show – if there was anything, there was piano. We don´t even know if he sang. Maybe he just improvised, tried a new song, was inspired by something or someone at the big concert. For a musician, there are hundreds of good reasons to play piano. This man breathes music, he embodies music.
“You didn´t play any after-SHOW (with smiling, looking good, discipline, no mistakes,..) for me, but just played piano for yourself” – to accuse Prince of that behaviour is a bit stupid.
I get it. When I improvise, I don´t like to have people around. Except maybe bandmates, okay, or people who I´ve known for 10 years or more. He didn´t want to do an another show, see? But for the fans, he always has to put up a show. Because he´s Prince. I´m sure he was exhausted after three hours of Stadthalle. On stage with all the lightning it´s double hot. The word “show” originated in “showing”, and apparently he wasn´t in the mood to show any more to anyone.
However, it was a phat gig, length was fine, I could have kept dancing to that band for another 2 hours. One of the most beautiful moments was playing Shhhh… I hadn´t expected to hear some Gold that night. Just one verse of Kiss, then interrupted, then continued the tune – crazy shit! He was nice and played the blues when I asked him to do that, and a very respectable one. Hope the Yoda man will be back soon, it´s clear we all revere him. And Sheila is so niiiiiiiiiiice!
[Edited 7/14/10 18:47pm]
-The bird
-Jungle love.
-"I like funky music" chant.
-Play that funky music white boy"
-Controversy