To the statement;
-“ may U live 2 see the dawn. “ I am honored 2 reply –“ I have!” and I sincerely wish the whole world could too, it was really something else.

The past week has been the absolute most joyful experience in my life.
Its so hard 2 put it in words, all the sights, sounds and emotions. It was truly amazing.

I still cannot believe that I actually experienced my favorite artist, my guitar hero in his forte and in excellent form. I still have goose bumps all over. That energy still reverberates right through me. It was a life changing experience.

It all begun on Tuesday, October 28, 2003, I had my bags packed and was so excited to embark on a voyage to hopefully get to live glimpse of my rock ‘n roll dream. Little did I know what I was about 2 experience …

I left sunny Sydney and landed in Melbourne in the morning, it was raining, the city was weeping, perhaps from either the presence of genius in town, or from that legendary performance at Bennett’s Lane the night b4, or maybe in anticipation of what was yet to come.

I took off from my hotel room to the Rod Laver Arena early that evening, when I got there doors were still closed but I could hear the first sound-check from the outside, the sound was coming through an air conditioning duct. I heard Prince on guitar and John Blackwell absolutely killing it on the drums. At this stage I was disappointed not to have bought tix 4 the sound check, I couldn’t wait for the show to start.

I got inside the main foyer as soon as the front doors opened and heard the end of that sound-check. They were playing “When The Saints Come Marching In” then Prince thanked the crowd inside and said “…we’ll be back soon.” The look on every One’s face when they came out of that said it all, people were jumping from joy, calling their friends telling their stories from their encounter with the NPG it was a wonderful sight.

Then the doors finally opened, I strolled in and found my seat –bottom end of the lower stand L/hand side from the Stage, 25m away, 45 degree angle – Great view, I was happy with that. N.E.W.S. was playing over the p. a. system and it was generally well received. Many people were moving to the groove in there, it was cool.

As the arena filled up, the more anxious people got, the Mexican Wave kept every one amused for a little while and then…

The lights dimmed out, people started screaming at the slightest bit of movement on stage. A slow mellow synthesizer intro begins, the purple light shines on the subject, -it’s RAD, sporting a funky white hat she opens the show with a great solo, the rest of the band takes their place on stage and join her playing.

The band begins to play the first few bars of “Lets Go Crazy”, the loudest roar of all fills up the Arena, every one does go crazy cheering and clapping and there he is; -out of back-stage area on the right-hand side of the stage, wearing a very stylish white pinstripe suit, he wonders through behind the band towards the middle and stops, raises his arm struts his walk through center stage towards the mic… “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life…”,”it means forever and that’s a mighty long time…”, “but I’m here to tell you… there’s something else”, “… The truth.” And off he goes with that Telecaster sounding as good as ever and everybody jumping and singing, by the time he got to that guitar solo at the end of that song I already had a chill down my spine and at this stage I went crazy. I couldn’t believe I was actually there.

The show was opened with a few numbers from Purple Rain, a perfect beginning, I was very surprised with Prince’s vocals – Seriously, how good does he still sound after all these years?! He moved around the stage with such grace and style too like the perfect show-man that he truly is, He still has it all. He was holding his axe like Jimi did and made it sound just as good too.

For me, the real surprises were “Nothing Compares 2 U”, “Shhh” and “The Question of U”, these are the favorites that I would never expect to see done live. They were very well delivered with such energy. His stage presence is something else too. Normally when a good performer delivers a good song, its like they’re throwing a sharp object at you, they hit U and cut U. Prince on the other hand will use the same object put it on the end of a wooden steak and drive it right through your heart. That’s the sort of impact he makes.

Prince showed great form in demonstrating what a great front-man he is by holding the whole gig together and directing the whole production, improvising and commanding many great individual solos from the NPG – and what great musicians they are too, these guys really were the essence of the whole tour. Rhonda held the funk together with her bass so well. Renato Neto with the quickest fingers was ever so good, his intricate solos, the speed and coherence of his piano playing is really something to admire. Johnny B’well’s powerful drumming is another highlight too. But the smoothest of all was Maceo – what a legend!, that solo amongst the crowd on the lower tier was beautiful, a nice touch.

Prince made a reference as to how long it has been since he was here and how glad he was to be back. He had a funny moment when talking about how to pronounce Melbourne,
“Is it Mel-bourne, Mel-burn, or Mel-bin -(in a funny Australian accent.)”, then he goes on to say something like –we’ve got to make it funky like a rubber ball (with his hand motion of bouncing a ball) “I’ll call this city Melboiiing” everybody laughed and the band broke into a funk frenzy. The NPGMC members also got to get up and dance onstage.

Chance Howard got a chance to step down from the organ to the stage mic and sing “Soul Man”, the guy has a very powerful voice and got everyone moving on their feet.

Prince also used the side podiums to get close to those sitting on the lower tiers of the arena. He makes the point of making contact with the crowd in every direction and if you’re sitting close its like he’s singing to you, his presence is unbelievable. During his rendition of his very own “Insatiable” there was a cylindrical shaped prop made of pearl strings that slowly dropped from the stage ceiling and draped around him it gave a very cool effect with the light shinning through. It was awesome.

Overall this was a great show, musically better than ever before, I was expecting Prince to put on a bit of a stage production like before, but it was better still –Prince and the NewPowerGeneration doing what they do best -Music. It was amazing. In the end Prince pays his dues to everyone and says goodnight, and everybody gets off the stage.

Everybody is screaming for more and after a brief moment there is movement on stage again and the NPG begin to play an improvised intro to Purple Rain, Prince wonders back onto the stage just as he did when he first came on, the purple Symbol Guitar is handed to him from front-stage and he delivers a nice rendition of my favorite song of all time. It was something special for me to see it live for the first time.

Everybody was quite emotional not only from the song but because it was an obvious closing to a very fine concert and nobody wanted it to end. And end it did, Prince finished with an improvised solo to PR, picked up some flowers that had been thrown at him and everyone left the stage for the last time. That was it for show number one.

At this stage I remained sitting at my seat in astonishment over what I had just witnessed. As the crowd moved out, John Blackwell came back onstage and handed out some drumsticks to some people still at the front. Then came the announcement “The Official After-Party is at the Prince of Wales” as soon as I heard this I just got up and ran out and caught a cab to the club.

It was great to meet some of the fans in there, everybody was on such a high there were only smiles all around as the DJ (the Groove Terminator) played some funky tunes. Everybody kept talking about the show and there were some great stories about the sound-check. At about 2am Prince made his appearance on the dj booth. Everyone went wild as soon as he walked in with Trevor (the bodyguard).

Prince was in a good mood; he even tried to tackle Trevor and threw some fake punches at him as he blocked an open section of the dj booth area. Prince danced around with his head bopping up and down, made a few selections for the DJ to play then made a quick getaway. I finished off my Bacardi and went back to my hotel.

If the first concert put him on the mantle as the best there is, then the second show puts him on the realm of the greatest that there could ever be. The second show was incredible; even better than the first show, and for me the best ever, the band was really turned on. The solo improvisations were so much better than in the first show, and Prince’s guitar work was truly inspired, his solos were so unbelievable; he held on to those riffs for that little bit extra and made it so perfect.

Another highlight for me was his delivery of “The Beautiful Ones”, it was a very moving performance, and he put so much spirited energy in2 this song it was exhausting for me to just watch him sing it. He lay down and sang with his back on the floor turned and flipped to a one arm push-up position -(as in on top of a girl laying down) and continued singing never missing a beat. He must have been thinking of someone as he sang this song that night.

The whole band left the stage just as the night before and like the night before, people were cheering wanting more, after a prolonged absence in darkness there was some movement at the front of the stage –it wasn’t the band and it looked like something was up… finally this giantesque object is propped up in the middle of stage – it’s a great big song-book, and as the crew clears it becomes obvious, there’s an electronic piano as well, now this didn’t happen the night before. Something special was about to happen.

Prince gets back on stage, sits by his piano and begins this amazing encore; he really opened many people’s eyes by showing his musical versatility here. He is known for being a multi-instrumentalist, but tonight he showed how good he really is. Even he was finding it hard to remain in his seat, he got up, kicked his heals and had a good time up there. The highlights of this encore were “Adore” and the very funny “sleep on the couch” song.

The show was closed off with another Bible inspired version of Purple Rain. He begun on the piano before he was handed his Symbol guitar, again as in previous guitar solos earlier that same night, his work here was very, very good, it was a great ending to the greatest concert I have ever seen. Even by Prince’s standards this was quite a unique experience.

Again like the night before, I remained seated as the crowds poured out of the arena, after a few minutes there was an announcement of that night’s after-show at The Metro. I got up at once and ran out, caught a cab. It was only after a 5 min ride and a very generous cab-fare that I lined up hoping and praying to get in. Once I did get in, I made my way to the stage and wriggled my way through to the front rows.

After waiting for about 2 hours, John Blackwell came out on stage, sat on his stool and made sure his drum kit was perfectly adjusted in the right position, he even had a skin changed on one of the smaller snare drums. Then the anxious crowd went crazy when the NPG came out on to the side of the stage. Everyone was so revved from the concert.

When Prince came out we all went crazy and he kept pumping everyone up by motioning his arms in a rise motion, he was goofing around the stage while the rest of the band were getting set. Then the funky music started, we were all jumping around so much that the floor was actually moving. They played “Musicology” and we all went crazier still, the funk vibe in that song is great. I just could not believe I was there; the energy in the place was something I’ve never seen before.

I spotted Mani getting the whole thing on tape with a handy-cam –(who knows, maybe they will put it on the official site!) and I waved and started blowing kisses to the camera, Mani smiled and kept on filming everyone in ecstasy. The whole band went backstage leaving everyone screaming for more. When they came back on after a brief break the whole place erupted again. We kept the energy on that level throughout the whole night. Prince too was having a lot of fun always interacting with us in some form or another He handed out a tambourine to a girl standing in front of me, she was all excited as Prince tried to get her to play to the beat.

When the band came back after a second break they got this awesome “it ain’t over” jam going, everybody was on top of their voices for this one. I could not believe I was there.
Prince was getting really funky with his Telecaster and we went on and on, it was so incredible. Just as they did before, the band stopped playing and walked out to back-stage, Prince was nodding his head as he walked out with Mani, leaving us screaming out –“It ain’t over…It ain’t over…It ain’t over!” I can still hear those chants in my head.
Soon after that the crew came out and started packing up their gear.
I walked out in disbelief; it was the absolute greatest day of my life. Amazing!

I came back home to Sydney and barely had enough time to rest from the whole Melbourne experience when suddenly it was time for concert number three, the first at the Sydney Entertainment center. Again as for the previous shows, I was very lucky to have purchased very good tickets for this one. My seats were just above the main camera crew, right in the middle, another great view.

I wasn’t ready for a big party and dance that night, I just wanted to sit down and absorb the whole spectacle but couldn’t help myself though, I had to get up a few times and kept stomping my feet. My first impression of the first Sydney show was Purple Rain, the sound, the choreography and dance moves by the band-members, it was just like the movie.

It was also on this night that I noticed the change in Prince’s hairstyle, it’s gone from that lil’ fro to a mini Typhoon do he had 11 yrs ago. Again like the previous shows, Prince put on a great performance. Even though his guitar solos were a little less inspired than the last Melbourne show also the Ent Cent does not sound anywhere near as good as the Arena, it was still a great night.

The setlist and delivery was a little different from previous shows. “Sign O’ the Times” was my highlight here, it was just raw funk, I also liked “The Everlasting Now”, again the funk went on and on here. There was also a beautiful moment in “Nothing compares 2 U” when everybody joined in on the chorus and Prince made us repeat it a few times. It was nice. There were also a few nice surprises in his solo piano encore, and as in the previous concert he held it very well –everybody was moving to “All the Critics Love You in Sydney”. The concert ended with Purple Rain and again everybody joined in on the chorus on top of their voice.

I took three of my best friends to this show, who also happen to be my harshest critics when it comes to my appreciation for Prince, needless to say they were all blown away by this performance, it was the topic for the rest of the night as we chilled out at a bar after the show. Now they want to listen to the albums and watch the DVDs. I’m glad to have shared that experience with them.

Then it was time for the last concert in Sydney and my fourth and final experience. I was expecting a big finale, I was right in the center of the floor area directly in front again, not too close but close enough. The setlist was similar to previous shows but it sounded better than the first show, The highlights for me were “The Beautiful Ones”, he lay down on the podium this time and everyone went wild.

The Org’s very own Monte had his own thing going on on-stage, Prince pointed him out and said something like –do your own thing Monte!, don’t worry about those people down there.

I cheered and applauded as he played “Sometimes It snows In April” and “Strange Relationship”, two of my faves and yet another Prince surprise. The encore was a little shorter than previous that’s because there was yet another surprise coming. Prince picked up a bass guitar and started jamming. He then and introduced Larry Graham, it was awesome to see them jamming with Rhonda the three of them were fantastic.

They played Days O’ Wild, looong version it was more like an after-show jam. They also played Higher and “Freaks on This Side”. It was unbelievable. It was an extra extra long concert and what a way to end it…

When Larry Graham and the NPG left the stage, the lights came on and there was an announcement of the after-show at the Basement. I got up and ran out. People were catching cabs outside the Centre, I just kept running and running.

I went 5 blocks across the city and caught a cab on a not so busy main road (Elizabeth St.) who took me right to the Basement’s front door. I was one of the first few to get there first few to get there from the concert and got in!!! The best thing was when a lovely couple from Melbourne actually saved me a spot right at the front row. Thank you Xenos, I owe ya big time!

The stage was no more than 20cm high and very small area with photos of Miles Davis on the wall. Prince would have loved that! Best of all, there were no barriers at all. Only eagle eyed Trevor standing with his back to the wall.

Prince came out wearing a stylish turquoise suit with an open neck shirt, needles to say we all went crazy. He didn’t rev us up too much this time around, (no high stage and barrier like at the Metro) he was trying to stay low key, picked up his telecaster and begun to play. Renato and Maceo were right in front of me with greetings and smiles for everyone. I was very impressed with how they approached their fans.

Prince wondered over to Renato as he did a killer solo on the keys, I yelled out –“Hey Prince, He’s the man!”, Prince leaned his head to hear Renato play then looked up and said “Nah! He’s not the man..” with a smile and waving his finger. He then took over the key for a while with a look of “Who’s the man now?!?”.

The band played a great version of “musicology” and “brick house” before they played the greatest song of all, by now Mani was sitting on the side of the stage and Prince begun to play the first bars of Purple Rain. We all broke into song in unison, everyone was so emotional Prince was clearly moved. It was a very inspired and the original version of the song. I quickly looked around and saw tears running down many people’s face.

Mani was clearly impressed and she too was caught up in the moment. It was by far the best feeling I have ever experienced in my life. A moment I will never ever forget.

The band had a break for about 10mins or so before they came back with another hard core funk jam “Shake”, Greg Boyer had a solo on his trombone and as he played he put down his saucer on Renato’s keyboard, while this is happening Prince was goofing around the stage looking for something to play. He wondered over to Renato and picked up the saucer and was looking for something to do with it, I then called out his name, He wondered over to me and I asked him to put it over Greg’s head, and he did as Greg was busy blowing his horn.

Maceo also got a spot on the mic singing “pass the peas”, at this stage Prince was sitting down with Mani playing his Telecaster. At the end of his jam he said something like –I want to introduce you to my guitarist, his name is Prince. Prince then looked up at Maceo with this look on his face suggesting “since when did you become a band leader?”. It was funny.

Chance Howard then kept us going with a great version of “No Diggitty” before RAD sang another song, another funny moment here was when Prince was checking her out as she sang, Mani simply laughed. It was also at this stage that we spotted the white bass, -it was clear Larry G would come on stage, I was hoping he would take his time getting there cuz I knew that would be the beginning of the end of a great performance.

When Larry came on they begun to play this raw super funk jam that was so incredible, He had a duel with Prince who was still on the Telecaster, I couldn’t believe it. They played “Alphabet St” in the end before walking off stage. Prince waved to us in the front leaving us anticipating more, after a few minutes it was clear they had made a clean getaway.

For me this the perfect ending to the whole Prince Live experience, I couldn’t believe I actually got to witness not one but two of the legendary Aftershow performances that I have heard of and read about so many times. Also I am overwhelmed from having the opportunity to witness and experience God’s creation of Music in the Human form.

I know how much we all love and praise Prince, after my experience I now look at the whole band in the same light. I love them all equally.

Cool report, thanks! I'm glad you've enjoyed the concerts!

I hear u brutha...God damn I hear u...

Excellent Review Orlando These posts bring it all back 4 me, and u have spent alot of time on this one - Thank U!

0rlando said:

Damn! U did go far! From SEC all the way up to Elizabeth St, love u're dedication bro!