Whoa...U know the feeling just after Prince kicks your ass,
and you need to set your mind straight and try to recollect
your experiences from the show....



Well. I am sorry if some of this is messed up and if I didn't
get the order of the songs right, cuz my ass was seriously
kicked just a few hours ago.



I managed to get a pass to the show from BMG Israel, and I give
MAD LOVE to my contact there who really tried hard for me.



The Setup



The event was held at the mermaid Theatre, a small venue
(400-300 people I would say) on the bank of the Thames, near
St Paul's Cathedral. It's more of an Auditorium. There was no
apparent way to get in through security - they were especially
tight this time. We were ushered int to lobby, in which Rave
and Other Arista music was playing. The guests were mostly
media and industry, plus a few celebs (Billy Brag, Beck).
They had some free drinks (alcoholic...I guess when you want
to sell records, that's OK) and snacks.



The Presentation



On 3:15 aprox they let people inside the theatre and on 3:30
sharp Clive Davis was introduced, and started his song and
dance routine about Rave and Prince. The guy is very impressive
and got the full atention of the eager crowd. He started by
showing a video - I thought it might be the clip for TGRES but
no, it was an EPK or at least that's how they referred to it.
It was a 5 minute promo video for the album, with snippets of
music and interviews. Prince talked about several songs, he said
he wanted togo back to "Let's go crazy" and that "Prince" could
edit better hits than "The artist". He talked about the
contributors for the album, and they showed a clip of him and sherryll
onstage. He said how impressed he was with Gwen's desk climbing on
the Letterman show (well...) and talked about the band, giving props
to all the players, the horn section, "and then...there's me". This
little remark got some applause.
The clip had some interviews from Londell McMillan and Clive Davis.



Then Clive presented the two yet unreleased remixes - they both got
genuine applause, methinks, though after finisihing Clive said something
like "that was for professional purposes, but let's get on with the art"



Clive strated going through the Album. He played it much like he did on
the NY show, skipping some of the more interesting tracks - Undisputed,
Tangerine, Strange but true...
He referred to "The Sun The moon etc" as a potential hit single.



The crowd applauded politely after every song - keep in mind most are NOT
fans...even when ManOWar stopped abruptly due to a failure in the system.



Sadly, after playing 8 songs or so, some of the people got restless
and One really Rude reporter (I guess someone with a score to settle)
Started shouting at Clive words to the effect of "Get on with it,mate,
the natives are getting restless, we've been here since 14:30" etc.
That was REALLY embarassing, Clive looked lost and the saddest thing was
one or two other guests supported that idiot. Clive said he will
not dignify this with an answer (getting applause) and went on to "I love
you but..." at which point the idiot said "exactly!" and left the theatre,
in a very loud manner. So much for British manners.
Indeed, the affair was very AMERICAN, with clive drooling on every song
and shaking his moneymaker (this guy must be sixty at least), and even I
was getting impatient - but MAN, nobody FORCED you! They feed you, give
you the hottest ticket in town, the legendary Chairman (?) of ARISTA
comes especially for the event, and that's your way of saying thanks?
And maybe they shouldn't have served Alcohol in the Lobby after all.
After that Clive said if someone got the idea that this was a clever
way of getting a free concert ticket - it was not, and this is an industry
event for showcasing new and exciting music.
The best crowd reaction was, I think, for "I Love you...", "SFSP", and
"Pretty man", maybe becasue it was the last song.



Anyway, when Clive Played TGRES again, it was time for the real deal and
the curtain behind him was raised to show a small stage setup in the ususal
manner. Clive got off the stage, The band members taking their places.



The Concert



It was my 9th or 10th time seeing Prince, since 1992. The man DOES NOT age.
I was worried the Industry folks will not respond the "right" way...
think again, when he took the stage EVERYBODY stood up. EVERYBODY went CRAZY.
He was wearing a dark blue/magenta velvet jumpsuit, and a pruple fluffy coat.
hair was done the Grafitti way and he had a LARGE sott style earing. I swear,
with his beard done the same way like 1992, I could really not tell 7 years
passed since I saw him first.



The band was Larry, Kirk And Morris, Three HornHeadz,
Mike Scott, plus a keyboardist/vocalist I never saw before (KIP? KIT?)



The first setlist was somewhat like this:
[pre:0deadbeef0]
Let's go carzy
She's always in my hair
U got the look
Long Bass jam with samples
Kiss
Gettoff
Gettoff Housestyle
Jam: It's Alright - Sex Machine - + More.
Purple House
The Jam.
A long Jam.
[/pre:0deadbeef0]
Some Mo' details: The crowd really freaked out with
all these hits. Prince was in a good mood, thogh I feared
the worst after the incident with the reporter. He kept gaving props
to Clive and reminded people to push the new album, but the main focus was
just showin' off onstage. He started with the cloud guitar, moved to Bass
(duelling with larry on an amazing intro to Kiss, with snippets from "pop life",
"my name is prince" and others), then to Habibi on Gettoff (really teraing
roof off with solos out of this world...then playing some keyboards, then
switching to one of those big guitars (like when u were mine) for "The Jam" and,
AGAIN, giving an amazing solo with the band quiet for maybe 2 minutes!!!
He danced and teased, he left the stage right into the aisles on the FIRST song..
on KISS he had six people dancing onstage already...
During Kiss he came to those ppl he chose and let them finish the song by themselves!!
Some of them sang pretty good too...!
During the sex machine jam, he stopped the band, said "ya'll ain't ready for me YET"
and sat down just lke he's been doing since 1982....the crowd went CRAZY!!! I never
thought those industry types would, but they DID scream like somebody was pulling
their eyes out. Man, he was impressed too, I believe, and came back - of course -
reinforced. The Mean Jam went on, with Solos for all memebers, and then he called
another girl onstage and tried to make her dance. She was not into dancing, but
after whispering something in his Ear, he smiled and slowed Kirky down from 120 bpm
to a slow Jam Mood....it was obviouly not planned. He took a ghuiar (cloud, i think)
And started singing Purple House...The Jaws did drop, to quote another, at this
cover, but the big thing was The GIRL, who apparently asked to SING nstead of dancing,
got to do this as a duet. She was OK, he was AMAZING. He flirted with her on the Guitar,
like he did with Chaka, and she answered back ad-libbing. When she finished she whispered
something in his ear - he said thanks to Andrea (?) and immediately told Clive (sitting
in the front row) "Clive, she`s already signed..".
The Jam was very very funky, only I wish Someone would consider giving Kirky J
some lessons. He's Ok, but when U remember Michael B....Whoa, big shoes.



The first set was 60 minutes long.



There was a 5 minute wait for him to come back - I Have Been to aftershwos
but this Industry crowd REALLY surprised me. The never stopeed clapping
and cheering, shouting for more etc. Nobody left (well, one maybe).



Prince came back onstage for the 2nd set-
[pre:0deadbeef0]
TGRES - plus remix
Baby Knows
LONG Jam, was it Release Yourslef? I can't tell!
[/pre:0deadbeef0]
Tgres was played in its fullest - it did rely heavily on a loop
and samples, but was as live as this song can get. When it finished
the loop played back and he did his rap from the remix and some jammin'.
He then did a full version of "Baby Knows" - here's a top 40
hit for you, no doubt. It's the "Cream" of this album.
Then he switched his guitar to "dirty"...and started hunting for dancers
in the audience. Now, I know this jam lasted 20 minutes at least and I know
It was a cool cool jam but I can't really tellya what went on there, I just
hopped onstage (kinda pushed myself) and danced like crazy, right to the
left of the man, 1.5 meter from him (and me, wearing an NPG Tshirt!!).
Bliss, Bliss, Bliss.
Prince left the stage and Larry kept jammin' for 3 extra minutes...then it ended.



I KNOW i got some of the songs wrong and am sorry for my spelling...as usual.
I am also sorry this is so long, but I know I need toget this out of my system.



Some extra Info:
The lighting was Superb, for such a small setup. I am always impressed
with Prince's lighting.
The show was professionaly filmed with two or three cameras, to be "Aired
on a later date".
They Gave "Rave" to every guest leaving the place.
I spoke with a band member and it seems There will be, indeed, and AFTERSHOW
in Paris, tomorrow - or the day after?
No aftershow in London (SOB) **BUT** they are back here this weekend,
on friday, and the band member sounded very positive about the chances for an aftershow...
So alot more to come!!



As for me, I will return to Israel and read about the next shows just like you
did now.



Ciao.