Well I've wiped off my smile for a minute to report the Funky goings ons from Saturday night. On arriving to the Apollo sat afternoon at around 2pm I saw about 50-100 milling around outside the entrance. I proceeded to Weatherspoons where I arranged to meet some people for a
pre gig nasty 1, i managed to find dovetail (nice to of met your after all this time) and after a couple more drinks proceeded to the venue. After picking up my wrist band and laminate which was easier than I thought, they didn't even look to see if I was the person on the ID. So those of you worrying about this I wouldn't, just take a photo ID or credit card and you'll be fine. Also theres 3 or 4 times
when Prince ask people to come onto stage so if your near the stage you got a better chance of Dancing along side him.

The Soundcheck.

He just strolled onto the stage looking slightly shy and started chatting to the people nearer the front of the stage, the same people that had been there for the other 2 nights, and he was hard to hear if you was further away, after a while he warmed to the crowd and started chatting and joking with the mic so every1 could here, after a
bit of joking around he seemed to open up more, some1 shouted something which prompted him to question why a certain thing has different names, and as an example he asked the crowd what they would call the top he was wearing, which was a cream/beige jumper, some1
shouted out Ugly as a response and this seemed to really tickle him. He then said shall I play drums? And said John.B was still getting ready backstage, he then banged out Tambourine on the drums, very cool and a rare sight seeing him play drums, the others then joined Candy,Maceo,Rhonda,John and the new keyboardist (sorry 4got his name) they then jammed and played Strollin', Muse 2 a Pharoah, DMSR. (sorry if i 4get any songs it was a lot to all take in and my times might be out a little, didn't have a watch) I think the soundcheck was around 30-45mins.

Main Show

As this clocked in at around 2 hours 45mins its gonna be hard for me to remember exactly what was played, but I'll have a go, first up was The Rainbow Children followed by Muse 2 the Pharoah both of these sounded just like the CD versions and sound great live, then I think it was The Work where he invited a couple of people to join him on
stage 2 dance, first guy up was some1 who had been on Thursday or Friday, an Italian guy called Toto and damn that boy could dance, I'm not exactly sure what style it was but it was the funniest thing I've seen in ages, Top guy!. This is where it gets a bit hazy, I was
grooving to hard to remember what came up, so in no particular order this is the songs I remember When U were mine, Everlasting now, Family name, The ride, Strange relationship, Peach, Raspberry beret (I lost my voice at this point) Strollin', whole lotta love and I expect I've missed loads, then the encore, a stall was set at the
front of the stage with an acoustic guitar where Prince came out and played a 20-30 min acoustic set similar the Xenophobia – Celebration, the songs were Don't play me, 7 , Pink cashmere, It ain't over, this was great to witness, some chatting in between about the media and
Radio stations, I didn't get any strong feel of his new religious beliefs, the message he was conveying was more about `Real musicians playing real music!' he then did Days of Wild which was very similar to the one given out at this years Celebration, and cool version of
Joy in repetition where his guitar technician offered him his guitar but he didn't want it, he was happy to just do vocals, Damn! I would of loved to of heard that guitar solo.. The band was the tightest I've seen in a long long time, Rhonda, John.B, the new guy on keyboards and Maceo and Candy were on top form, I Didn't realize how
cute Candy was…mhm. After the main show it was announced that the aftershow was going to be at the Marquee in Islington, which was a big bonus for me as I'd parked ½ a mile along the road from there outside Arsenal Stadium.

Aftershow

Managed to get there around 12.30-1.00am ish all the NPGMC members were already inside and the people that weren't members were paying £30 to get in!! once in they were setting up the equipment, the DJ was pumping out some remixes of P. songs, it was nice hearing stuff like Supercute, Daisy Chain all on loud speakers, they sound so much better than a MP3 ever could. At about 1.30-2am the band started to wander out to the very small area they had to play in, they were all there from the Main show, Maceo and Candy etc.. and just when I thought it couldn't get any better the place exploded, lots of jamming and very very cool and funky versions of Sign'o'times and a mix of Shake/Automatic it lasted around 1 hour, just under I think
and was 1 hell of JAM!

Well until next time, peace

C/B

Chrisebabey said:

===
what can i say?! please give me a TIME MACHINE for my next birthday.
sono cosi' invidiosa!
what a report!
grazie mille.
pamela

Toto means "pussy" in Spanish.

EvilWhiteMale said:[quote]Toto means "pussy" in Spanish

Wow thanks e.
another reason-why, i love toto,
i love that thing too. ahhahahaa thanks for
share this juicy word with us.

Ciao

Pamela

.
[This message was edited Mon Mar 24 7:16:12 PST 2003 by lilJ]