Hello Org-ers. Making one of my shamefully rare visits to the forum to say that I saw Prince at the Electric Ballroom last night - twice! - and I've reviewed it for the fine music website The Quietus. It's here if you'd care to read it... http://bit.ly/1bxYNqr

Superb review Simon - extremely well written but, more importantly, full of heart and soul and a lot of funk n roll !

I haven't attended these gigs so far, but this gave me a real sense of the excitement and sheer joy one experiences at a Prince gig/concert and brought back many memories of the dozens of Prince concerts I've enjoyed over the decades !

Hope to get tickets to one of the shows this month and head down from Birmingham (surely a more convenient location for all of us in the UK but that's just me being selfish !)

Thank you.

Very, very well-written article. captures the mood without any of the nagging we see these days. Thanks.

Great review! Really well-written, glad you had a good time.

Funklov said:

Nice read but one error: She's Always in my Hair is b side to Rasberry Beret not Paisley Park..

In the UK it was the b-side of Paisley Park too (and Hello was the b-side to RB)

From memory, so might be wrong, but pretty sure it was the B-side to Paisley Park - in the UK anyway.

R/Beret was backed up by "hello" here in UK.

I'm a UK writer, so there you go.

"As the strobes flash through the smoke and Prince's silhouette delivers that fretboard fanfare to a forest of raised arms, just yards from your eyes, you feel like you've stepped through the screen of the opening scene of Purple Rain and straight into the crowd at the First Avenue club in that film's semi-fictional 1980s Minneapolis."

Fantastic piece Simon, once again you bring me back to the days in the 80´s when reviewers wrote from an emotional point of view rather than copy and pasting whatever the industry machine e-mailed them.

I was very, very fortunate to witness both shows last night and for me the absolute spiritual moment, was the 2nd show version of "Something In The Water (does not compute)". I turned to Tony, aka mentalist/domebaby69's brother, and asked him if I was losing my mind, or is this the version from the infamous "Noon Rendezvous" rehearsal. As you point out in the above quote from your review, it was like being transported back in time.

And finally, it is nice to know that I am not alone in my choice of religion.

Fantastic article. I haven't read anything that well written in ages.

My favorite lines are the last: "Was that a religious experience for you?", someone asks on the way out. Yes, and no. Prince has religion. I have Prince. And I reckon I win."

Brilliant write up Simon