Prince 2 Chicago: C U next month

June 29, 2004

BY JIM DEROGATIS Pop Music Critic

http://www.suntimes.com/o...nce29.html


The Purple Reign has been cut short. After a triumphant opener at the Allstate Arena on Friday, Prince rescheduled the remaining nights of his five-show run on the Chicago stop of his Musicology tour.

Monday afternoon, the artist's Los Angeles publicity firm announced postponement of shows on Monday night, tonight and Wednesday night, blaming a death in the family of New Power Generation drummer John Blackwell.

Prince publicist Jean Sievers said the artist did not want to release any more information out of respect for Blackwell, but "it's just about the worst thing that can happen, and Prince is not going to just replace his drummer in the middle of the tour."

In completely unrelated circumstances, Saturday's show was canceled just before the 8 p.m. start, when thousands of fans at the 18,500-seat venue were already in their seats, because Prince was suffering from a sore throat. About 6 p.m., he visited Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.

On Friday, Prince was in fine form musically, showing no signs of being ill. "Prince is a perfectionist, and this is a vocal-intensive show," Sievers said. "He's not going to perform if he's not at his very best. But Saturday's cancellation has nothing to do with the cancellation of the other three shows."

Monday's show has been rescheduled for July 22; Tuesday's show, for July 23, and Wednesday's show, for July 24. As announced earlier, the concert that was to have taken place on Saturday has been rescheduled for Aug. 3. Tickets for the original dates are good for the new dates. Ticketholders can request refunds at points of purchase.

Fans who showed up Monday at the Allstate Arena, unaware of the cancellation, were disappointed but understanding.

"I was very excited to see him tonight. We had the whole night planned around this. It's too bad," Stephanie Seligman, 38, of Schaumburg said, adding, "How can you fault somebody for wanting to be with their family in a time of need?"

Jason Epstein, 23, of Vernon Hills arrived Monday with friend Jerry Attere, 24, of Chicago, saw few cars and figured "something was up." Epstein and Attere will attend the makeup concert. "I'm disappointed, but we understand situations come up. We are looking forward to it. We love Prince."

Contributing: Ana Mendieta

superspaceboy said:

Prince is a PERFECTIONIST????? NO!!!!!

If he was a perfectionistm, then he wouldn't release so much dreck.

You can't even say something nice when someone is sick or going through a tough time. What a jerk you are. There is a time and a place for most things and saying that when someone is not feeling good or has lost someone close to them is bad judgement. If you don't like the music thats your problem. Save that crap for another trend.

yep kicking the boy when he's down. kinda like the ones that when he doesn't do well in sales are the first to point it out.

poor ass taste

and if he releases so much "drek" as you say

then go away


thoughts and prayers with the blackwell family!

whether or not you like the style of his studio material, you have to admit that it's really freakin' rare to see prince giving any less than a thousand percent onstage. say what you will about his songwriting or his asthetics, but it's hard to argue - impossible maybe? - that he's anything but a perfectionist as a performer and a live musician.

Anxiety, I would have agreed with you up until the 6/18 Friday night aftershow at Paisley. Talk about sleeping through a performance...but I think that's because he knows that the NPGMC members crazy enough to stand in one place for 5 hours literally until the sun comes up are gonna love him no matter what.

In front of hundreds or thousands of adoring fans though, I think you're right on the money - that man's a motherfucking perfectionist and a half.

I saw my nephews today and the first thing I thought of is how incomprehensible it would be to lose one of them....

I went to the Saturday night show, 6/26 that will be rescheduled for 8/03. They're calling this the Purple Rain Check. It's so sad about John's daughter. She's beautiful in the pic that was posted here recently. I'm disappointed that the show didn't go on saturday night but thankful that it's rescheduled. First HE got a sore throat (which I believe is true), then the death of John's family member. The other shoe dropped, ay? Listen to "Comeback" which is on the acoustic disc from Crystal Ball and it talks about personal loss. Remember, "It's all good. Never mind what you hear" from the Oprah interview.

Welcome 2 the dawn
[This message was edited Tue Jun 29 18:28:57 2004 by dolphin2K4]

theblueangel said:

You must be crazy!!! Are you sure you were there? That shit was off the hook. Now the Thursday aftershow at Paisley you may have been able to sleep through. But if you say you could have slept during Friday's aftershow you have not heard of funk! Cause that was pure funk that night!!!

Orionforever said:

someone needs to release 2 freaky4church1 from this site.

theblueangel said:

And of course, there's the matter of a certain wack-ass performance of Darling Nikki where the poor man has a towel plopped on his head.

Four of us saw the show in Chi-town on Friday night. We've seen the Cleveland and Penn State shows as well. BY FAR, Friday's show was the hottest of all of them. He put 2000% into the performance, which probably resulted in his strained chords. His energy level was WAY over the top and John's playing in particular was spectacular. That's actually the best word for that show... SPECTACULAR. Also, it was cool running into John as he was leaving the will call office next to the venue and to chat with him briefly. Always such a personable and warm guy to talk with, though I have no idea why he was walking around outside like everyone else (not that it really matters). We had great NPGMC side seats that were 2 rows off the floor at what could be considered the "front" of the stage (the side he faces when he comes up from below the stage). The only problem I see in this stage setup is that Prince doesn't play equal amounts of time to each of the four sections of the stage (he did better in Penn State than anywhere else with this) and is not easily visible from behind any one of the more stationary members of the band. Friends had 3rd row floor seats behind the big man (Chase?) on keys and couldn't see Prince more than 1/3 of the time, though Candy made up for that to a good degree. So Chi-town, your wait will be worth it! And again, much love and support to John B. and family... so sad.
[This message was edited Tue Jun 29 22:03:06 2004 by runt66]

superspaceboy said:

I love it when people say that. It's not true and it can easily be disproven: just read DMSR or simply listen to his 1980s output.

Or listen to his post-1995 output.

runt66 said:

I agree!! I also went to the CLEVELAND Show which was DA BOMB...That show as so Awesome, I didn't think it could be topped...BUT was I ever wrong!! He rocked Chicago Friday!!! I was not surprised at all to hear the next day that he had a sore throat... I had one too!!! I still can't talk... He put the Stank on it Friday!!!!

I also agree that I felt he gave more equal time to all sides in the Cleveland show too.. But hey Every show has been great for me due to excellent seats from NPGMC!!!
[This message was edited Wed Jun 30 9:41:29 2004 by jamiestarrsgirl]
[This message was edited Wed Jun 30 9:43:39 2004 by jamiestarrsgirl]

So sad when some people feel the need to be anal even in a time of tragedy.

2freaky4church1 said:

I will never understand why people get on forums to trash others. Why are you on here if you are negative about Prince....I thought this area was for fans?
Sandy in Chicago

Anyone know if P is still going to make his Essence Festival date in New Orleans July 1st?