EuanH91 said:

SquirrelMeat said:

I genuinely would not care if I never heard Purple Rain live again. I've heard it 200 times. Same goes for Lets Go Crazy, Cream, Raspberry Beret, Take Me With U and Kiss.

I'd be happy for less played hits (When Doves Cry, Sign O The Times, Most Beautiful Girl), but I want the set lists to contain most or all of the new album.

There is no reason why it can't be the new stuff, with a balance of hits. Most artists do it. Prince always seems to go to one extreme or the other.

And no covers!

That's the problem. Most people haven't heard them. I've NEVER heard any of them live. Not everyone gets to see Prince 200 times. I'm a huge fan, but I would be so disappointed if the sets were mostly new stuff, albeit partly because I'm not actually keen on it. 3rdEye stuff is dull, and I really don't like LGC Reloaded. The mainstream 'fans' wouldn't dig it either.

He can't really please everyone it seems. This is why a few small shows for fans like you inbetween a few arena hits shows for everyone else would be the best plan, I'd say.

It'd be fine if he came and played the UK every couple of years, but he doesn't. The Welcome2America/Canada/Australia shows looked amazing, I really wish he'd brought them here and done a Welcome2Britain, or something

I hear you. If I had not heard them so much, I'd want the hits. And that is Prince's biggest problem, he can't please everybody.

jjazznola said:

It's kind of funny all this debating when NPG is just 3rd Eye Girl + another bass player, horns and some female singers. The NPG shows do tend to be longer and he does tend to play 70's covers sung by the background singers. (which I don't care for) As long as it's Prince, I doubt he'll have any problem selling tickets. And whichever band is there and whatever he's calling it, he hasn't played a so-called hits show in quite a while and I doubt he will now with a new album coming out.

[Edited 1/27/14 11:36am]

That's a BIG difference!

It would be great if Prince would play a lot of the new material, but likely won't be happening.

his best bet (if he's playing smaller venues) is to play the 3rd eye girl rock stuff as that would cause the best buzz in UK, i think the r&b/soul/funk/jazz stuff was played out during O2.

SquirrelMeat said:

I genuinely would not care if I never heard Purple Rain live again. I've heard it 200 times. Same goes for Lets Go Crazy, Cream, Raspberry Beret, Take Me With U and Kiss.

I'd be happy for less played hits (When Doves Cry, Sign O The Times, Most Beautiful Girl), but I want the set lists to contain most or all of the new album.

There is no reason why it can't be the new stuff, with a balance of hits. Most artists do it. Prince always seems to go to one extreme or the other.

And no covers!

the Moheghan shows were great mix of new and old especially Saturday show.... i have seen PR many times live but the way he played it that weekend was epic,,, horn intro and searing guitar shredding with extra coda at the end ,,, sort of like Syracuse show... just jaw dropping incredible!! you are in for a real treat

[Edited 1/27/14 18:35pm]

[Edited 1/27/14 18:35pm]

[Edited 1/27/14 18:36pm]

jokocur said:

horn intro and searing guitar shredding with extra coda at the end ,,, sort of like Syracuse show... just jaw dropping incredible!! you are in for a real treat

There's joy in rpetetition, but that song is about something else.

Hits can only be played so many times.

His show would be a treat if he did stuff previously unheard. Not just one or two songs.

Half the show.

SquirrelMeat said:

I genuinely would not care if I never heard Purple Rain live again. I've heard it 200 times. Same goes for Lets Go Crazy, Cream, Raspberry Beret, Take Me With U and Kiss.

I'd be happy for less played hits (When Doves Cry, Sign O The Times, Most Beautiful Girl), but I want the set lists to contain most or all of the new album.

Agreed!

There is no reason why it can't be the new stuff, with a balance of hits. Most artists do it. Prince always seems to go to one extreme or the other.

P is no other artist....

And no covers!

Depends on the mood and the show. If P does the main part(s) it's mostly no problem.

Oh, BTW:
Why does the title of this thread mention 'tour'?

We do not know the size of the venues or actual amount of the shows.

Just that he'll do some appearances in London.

It could be a number of try-outs just like last year's shows.

We need a bit more than this to call it a tour...

EuanH91 said:

fnksoul said:

That's exactly it, if he wants to sell it as 3rd Eye Girl, they would sell less, but Prince ft 3rd Eye, they could sell out O2 a few times over, however you can gaurentee you will get loads of people complaining afterwards from people who were expecting him to do a set of all his hits. its a Catch 22 situation I guess for him, he can do small venues playing what he is currently playing and sell out with some Massive fans missing out on tickets, or he could do the O2 and then have casual fans complaining when he doesnt play the set they are expecting.

[Edited 1/27/14 7:30am]

Yeah, exactly. Bearing in mind that he hasn't done a proper UK show in almost 7 years, and those were generally hits shows.. that's why they were so successfull. Same with Hop Farm.. part of it's success was down to his classic setlist.

I'm afraid to admit that I'm one of those fans who would be, in part, disappointed by a solely 3rdEye set. I live in the north, and I was only 16 in '07, so I could never have made it to London, and I heard about Hop Farm too late, but probably couldn't have gone anyway. I've never seen Prince live. I've never seen the majesty that is the Purple Rain guitar solo live in an arena. It's all well and good if you're a fan who's already seen him countless times and you're sick of the same songs over and over again and want him to change it up a bit, but I've never seen any of them.

The majority of UK people who would buy a ticket to a Prince show, especially just off Prince's name, would want to hear all those classics. They're not gonna care about any new music, and won't want to hear different arrangements of his classics. They'll wanna hear the full that he is best known for.

Also, call me a cynic, but I can't see the 3rdEyeGirl album going down to well either. The tracks we've heard so far are some of Prince's weakest to date, IMO.

I don't think anyone has heard any of the tracks from his forthcoming album except maybe the title track which is pretty awesome. It basically sounds like a Led Zep/ Lenny Kravitz riff. Maybe he'll put "Let's Go Crazy - Reloaded" on there too. I get your point though about which band you'd rather see having never seen him before. I've been checking him out since the 80's so I like hearing something different and more guitar driven. Not sure about the "NPG synth-soaked pop music" though. NPG is more like horn-soaked funk-rock-jam party music. At least that is what I saw last month in CT. I do believe however that these shows will be of the 3rdEyeGirl variety. Either way he always delivers the goods! Hope you get to see him!

[Edited 1/27/14 22:22pm]

[Edited 1/27/14 22:24pm]

udo said:

Oh, BTW:
Why does the title of this thread mention 'tour'?

We do not know the size of the venues or actual amount of the shows.

Just that he'll do some appearances in London.

It could be a number of try-outs just like last year's shows.

We need a bit more than this to call it a tour...

If he is doing a number of shows, it is a tour, a tour of london maybe, but still a tour.

It is unlikely to be the hits package if he is choosing small venues to play in. The hits work well in big arenas, Hop Farm for me was the best large venue Prince concert I have been to. Main reason for that being that the crowd really got into it and there was a proper party atmosphere. However, I am not sure I would shell out a large sum of cash to see the hits in a small venue.

The 3rdeyegirl concept is what I want to see, and judging from the reports of last years gigs, it is a must see for the diehards. At the moment though, I fear it will be next to impossible to get tickets.

Whitnail said:

It is unlikely to be the hits package if he is choosing small venues to play in. The hits work well in big arenas, Hop Farm for me was the best large venue Prince concert I have been to. Main reason for that being that the crowd really got into it and there was a proper party atmosphere. However, I am not sure I would shell out a large sum of cash to see the hits in a small venue.

The 3rdeyegirl concept is what I want to see, and judging from the reports of last years gigs, it is a must see for the diehards. At the moment though, I fear it will be next to impossible to get tickets.

fnksoul said:

If he is doing a number of shows, it is a tour, a tour of london maybe, but still a tour.

You visualize the tour caravan taking teh tube to get to the next venue?

udo said:

My sister went to tw gigs in Vancouver and the most noticeable thing was the lack of hits. Generally he played new material and the classics he played were reworked so sounded different.

This tour is for the hardcore fans. I'm the same as Squirrel Meat as the last thing I wanna hear is the hits at a concert but if he does a big venue casual fans will want to her the songs that the recognise. If the first time I saw Prince play he hadn't played Purple Rain I would have been very disappointed.

This tour sounds like it is for the fans and maybe he does another tour in a acouple of years which is for a wider audience

udo said:

fnksoul said:

If he is doing a number of shows, it is a tour, a tour of london maybe, but still a tour.

You visualize the tour caravan taking teh tube to get to the next venue?

I've heard he has hired an open top big red bus and painted it Purple himself, the girls are going to be shifting the equipment from venue to venue

[Edited 1/28/14 5:02am]

goodfella said:

My sister went to tw gigs in Vancouver and the most noticeable thing was the lack of hits. Generally he played new material and the classics he played were reworked so sounded different.

This tour is for the hardcore fans. I'm the same as Squirrel Meat as the last thing I wanna hear is the hits at a concert but if he does a big venue casual fans will want to her the songs that the recognise. If the first time I saw Prince play he hadn't played Purple Rain I would have been very disappointed.

This tour sounds like it is for the fans and maybe he does another tour in a acouple of years which is for a wider audience

Like I said, it'd be fine if he played the UK quite regularly.. then he could do what he wanted. The casual fans could miss the shows if they aren't hits-based and wait for the next tour, and the die-hards could skip the hits shows and wait until he comes back with something different.. but he hasn't done a proper show here in 7 years.

If P's people + the media make a big deal about these shows and then they turn out to be 3rdEye only with no hits, there will be disappointment, guaranteed. He'd be better off keeping them fairly quiet so only the hardcore fans get a chance to go.

EuanH91 said:

goodfella said:

My sister went to tw gigs in Vancouver and the most noticeable thing was the lack of hits. Generally he played new material and the classics he played were reworked so sounded different.

This tour is for the hardcore fans. I'm the same as Squirrel Meat as the last thing I wanna hear is the hits at a concert but if he does a big venue casual fans will want to her the songs that the recognise. If the first time I saw Prince play he hadn't played Purple Rain I would have been very disappointed.

This tour sounds like it is for the fans and maybe he does another tour in a acouple of years which is for a wider audience

Like I said, it'd be fine if he played the UK quite regularly.. then he could do what he wanted. The casual fans could miss the shows if they aren't hits-based and wait for the next tour, and the die-hards could skip the hits shows and wait until he comes back with something different.. but he hasn't done a proper show here in 7 years.

If P's people + the media make a big deal about these shows and then they turn out to be 3rdEye only with no hits, there will be disappointment, guaranteed. He'd be better off keeping them fairly quiet so only the hardcore fans get a chance to go.

This did make me laugh! You do realise that this is 2014 right? Where pretty much the whole of the Western World's lives are lived on the internet, FB, Twitter etc etc and u think something like a Prince concert can be kept quiet?

"Shhhh!!!!!! I'm gonna do some gigs in London but don't tell a soul. It'll b our little secret"

[Edited 1/28/14 6:42am]

onecrush said:

EuanH91 said:

Like I said, it'd be fine if he played the UK quite regularly.. then he could do what he wanted. The casual fans could miss the shows if they aren't hits-based and wait for the next tour, and the die-hards could skip the hits shows and wait until he comes back with something different.. but he hasn't done a proper show here in 7 years.

If P's people + the media make a big deal about these shows and then they turn out to be 3rdEye only with no hits, there will be disappointment, guaranteed. He'd be better off keeping them fairly quiet so only the hardcore fans get a chance to go.

This did make me laugh! You do realise that this is 2014 right? Where pretty much the whole of the Western World's lives are lived on the internet, FB, Twitter etc etc and u think something like a Prince concert can be kept quiet?

"Shhhh!!!!!! I'm gonna do some gigs in London but don't tell a soul. It'll b our little secret"

[Edited 1/28/14 6:42am]

Well, I know.. that is a bit of an issue But there are ways of keeping it.. quieter. Doing a press conference in Lianne La Havas' living room isn't one of them

EuanH91 said:

onecrush said:

This did make me laugh! You do realise that this is 2014 right? Where pretty much the whole of the Western World's lives are lived on the internet, FB, Twitter etc etc and u think something like a Prince concert can be kept quiet?

"Shhhh!!!!!! I'm gonna do some gigs in London but don't tell a soul. It'll b our little secret"

[Edited 1/28/14 6:42am]

Well, I know.. that is a bit of an issue But there are ways of keeping it.. quieter. Doing a press conference in Lianne La Havas' living room isn't one of them

Someone please explain to me what a "hardcore" fan is? A fan is a fan! And that comes from a person who has seen every US tour since 1985. Why would a "casual" fan pay $200 to see anything? That's absurd. And why on Earth would any artist or band want to keep something quiet? He's promoting a new album. That's what this is all about! He's looking to make new fans. As for the hits vs non-hits, it's Prince we all go to see, not any particular song. Do you really want to go see an oldies act? He's probably the greatest performer over the last 50 years. Isn't that enough? When I go to see him, I want him to play whatever he wants to!(although I wish he would only play his own songs and not have his women sing 70's covers)

[Edited 1/28/14 9:28am]

Hi everyone. I'm a new member on here but a long time lover of Prince.

I'm thrilled Prince is returning to the UK again but deeply sad that i will not see him this time round. I live in Scotland and with the short notice there is no way i could arrange holidays from work to fly down to London. I can only hope and pray that somewhere in the future he shall play in Scotland.

Good luck to all you lucky people in the London area who atleast have a chance of getting tickets.

I will be attending at least 2 nites if he has decent management who realise fans need a bit of notice prior to tickets going on sale.

(yeah I know)

ConsciousContact said:

I just hope that the dates aren't announced only 2-3 days prior to taking place so I may actually get a chance to fly over from Ireland to see him- I'd really love an intimate show having only seen him at the 02 for the 3121 arena shows and in Dublin for the one off show he done in 2011 :\

lordfalconer said:

I just hope that the dates aren't announced only 2-3 days prior to taking place so I may actually get a chance to fly over from Ireland to see him- I'd really love an intimate show having only seen him at the 02 for the 3121 arena shows and in Dublin for the one off show he done in 2011 :\

3 words.................

.......Hit and run

onecrush said:

lordfalconer said:

I just hope that the dates aren't announced only 2-3 days prior to taking place so I may actually get a chance to fly over from Ireland to see him- I'd really love an intimate show having only seen him at the 02 for the 3121 arena shows and in Dublin for the one off show he done in 2011 :\

3 words.................

.......Hit and run

Hopefully not with my wallet!

:

Militant said:

I don't know why people are talking about hits shows vs non hits shows. I saw 3rd Eye Girl in Vegas last April. The show was an even mix of both hits and new/lesser known material. For example, Let's Go Crazy, Purple Rain, When Doves Cry, Sometimes It Snows In April, She's Always In My Hair were all performed, and also Screwdriver, The Breakdown, Fixurlifeup, 2 Young 2 Dare. The UK shows will undoubtedly be a similar blend of hits and new.

Exactly. There are no "hits" shows. Don't know where people are getting this from. Maybe some shows they saw years ago. I saw NPG last month and it definitely was not a "hits" show. That being said, not into the version of Purple Rain that 3rd Eye Girl was doing with Prince playing piano. C'mon P, let it rip! Thank God that's what he did at Mohegan Sun. He played a great 13 minute version with some jazzy sax at the beginning and then the full blown guitar explosion!

[Edited 1/28/14 12:44pm]

The suspense is terrible!

Hope it lasts!

Now what would really be great is a selection of concerts in Paris.