http://www.timesonline.co...50,00.html Prince by david sinclair
October 05, 2002
Hammersmith Apollo

IF IT wasn’t for the internet and concerts like this you wouldn’t know Prince still exists. His last album to be released on a proper record label, Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic, in 1999, sold a mere 5,000 copies in this country. His current album, The Rainbow Children, is being sold through his website, the medium by which the artist formerly known as a squiggle now conducts all relations with the outside world.
His performances are unadvertised and critics are expressly uninvited (although those who manage to write about his shows in sufficiently glowing terms may find their comments posted on his website).

His rejection of the demands of fame extends to the heart of his show itself and it is difficult to think of any other 44-year-old superstar who could get away with ignoring his core repertoire so completely as Prince did on Thursday night. More than two-and-a-half hours in, the grand tally of hits performed with the band consisted of Take Me With You, Raspberry Beret and Nothing Compares 2 U (which the audience was mostly required to sing for itself) while bits of one or two others found their way into a section performed solo at the keyboard. Whatever else he may be up to on this curiously-titled One Nite Alone tour, the singer who saw the era of the text message coming was certainly not trading on past glories.

Instead, aided by a six-piece band with a distinctly jazz-rock feel, he waded into a set dominated by material from The Rainbow Children. The dresscode was smooth criminal — suits, ties, a fedora here and there — with Prince looking like a star from the doo-wap era in his knife-sharp beige suit and floppy hair.

“I’m not interested in what you know, but what you’re prepared to learn,” he told us bullishly, after an incendiary version of 1 + 1 + 1 is 3, which like many of the songs combined a savage funk backbeat with extravagant lashings of faux-Hendrix guitar soloing.

Backed by a horn section comprising Maceo Parker, Greg Boyer and Candy Dulfer, and with bass player Rhonda Smith keeping the foxy female quotient up to par, Prince sang, danced and played with a knowing sense of regency flash to produce a performance that was more musically sophisticated than ever, and still dazzling to watch. “Real music by real musicians, huh?” he declared immodestly, but you could see his point.

The stage was thronged with fans, the houselights switched on and the band still going strong an hour after the show had “ended”. The man makes up his own rules. Perhaps they are still playing now.

I was at this show. I'm not religious, but I have to tell you, with Prince and the band playing like they did, God was in the house.

thebiscuit said:

Melody said:

:wOOt:

Um, the Rainbow Children isn't just being sold on his website, right? I see it everytime I go into a Media Play or any other weka sto.

"IF IT wasn’t for the internet and concerts like this you wouldn’t know Prince still exists"
So true...

"His performances are unadvertised and critics are expressly uninvited (although those who manage to write about his shows in sufficiently glowing terms may find their comments posted on his website). "
Lol, sums up my feelings about his L4OA site.. whoops, I mean NPGMC..

That's totally cool. I'm glad London got a good show

Go Prince Go

Blue

loosekiss said:

I think it's only sold as an import in England so it's not very available.

TheBluePrince said:

This was a review of the first night. And all the more impressive because it was this night that Prince rolled the video which illustrated how two majors - News International and the Mirror Group control so many different newspapers (rather like he ran the radio stations in the US). Included in the list was The Times - part of Rupert Murdoch's empire.

BTW London didnt get one good show - it got 3 great (and different) shows

I wish I could have been present. The reality the world of critics should start excepting is that Prince is what he represents on his terms, not on the terms of what fame has dictated through history. A true talent is not the sum of what has preceeded him untill this time, his substance, or the potential of it, is the challenge he can conquer or enjoy. Since Music as an art form cannot be conquered, let us all rejoice there is a Prince, who is selfless enough to let us enjoy his passion with him.

Thanks, July, for posting the review.

The Seething Media or what? they build you up then they tear you down and then wonder why they are excluded from the show.

unlike that misguided, "wrong reporter for the job" gavin martin, david sinclair doesn't refer to maceo as "mayfield parker"!