Once again, just when I think I can't be any more proud of Prince he pulls off something like this.

I was at the stadium as part of the onfield cast. I twisted my knee at the staging area and wasn't able to run on the field Sunday. But I did get to watch the whole halftime show and I participated in all the rehearsals.

Not only was it pouring rain out there, it was windy and chilly as well. I say this so you can appreciate what professionals Prince and his band are. They were the real MVPs of the Superbowl. Even with my leg aching I wouldn't have missed this for the world!

The majority of the cast were kids aged 16-21. Last week they were clueless about Prince. They looked at me like I was a crazy old lady because I was singing all the words to every song we rehearsed to. I was eavesdropping on some of their conversations...

kid#1..."How's Prince getting here?"
kid#2..."I bet he comes in his pink Cadillac!"
kid #1.."Yeah, and I bet it has a yellow interior."
kid#3..."How old is he?"
kid#4..."I dunno, he's pretty old. I think he's 40."


Everything changed at dress rehearsal.

When Prince came onto the field there was polite applause and a few cheers from the youngsters. By the time he left, these same children were screaming and running behind the cart he was riding in! He had those babies in the palm of his hands. They'd never seen anything like it. Some of them were so awestruck that they forgot they were supposed to be dancing and just stood there staring in wonder.

Words cannot describe what it was like to witness that. Real music by real musicians is something they're just not used to being part of the Justin Whatshisface generation. Prince totally blew them away.

I really wish it hadn't rained because he would have been able to dance around more like he did at rehearsal and the flames shooting up at the start of the show wouldn't have made so much smoke.

Nevertheless, the show was unforgettable for those of us at the stadium. The music, Prince's singing, the band, the light show, the fireworks...EVERYTHING!
Who else but Prince could steal the spotlight away from the actual football game??? The fact that he was wearing Miami Dolphin colors was much appreciated by the locals as well. They are still talking about Prince on the news down here.

Good times!

I wish you guys could have been on the bus with me on the way back with all of these young people going "wooo hooo hooo hooooo!" I asked some of them what they thought about Prince...
"He's baaaad!"
"Yeah!"
Their little eyes were as big as dinner plates.

Here's some pics of our parting gifts;













everything EXCEPT the 3121 poster of course.

babynoz said:

Awesome!

Thanks for the hard work all you guys did, it was truly something else. In 24 years of being a Prince fan I thought I'd seen it all...

Thanks for proving me wrong

Thank you SO MUCH for sharing, Babynoz! What an amazing experience. I'm glad you had such a great time. Thank you for the pictures.

I also hope your knee is feeling better.

babynoz said:

Lucky you - congratulation for having such a good time and for being part of a great event!!

I was lucky enough to see it live on tv over here in austria at 2 in the morning and had so much fun!!!

Hope he will soon be touring again in europe - i am in desperate need of a funky prince concert!!!

greats
netzverWalter

sweet story, babynoz! and yeah, i can imagine how psyched all those kids were...they better have been paying close attention to prince. he's one of the last musical mohicans, in a way.

BananaCologne said:

I thought I'd seen it all too there's no words to describe how proud I am of that man.

The scariest thing was when he was being lifted up in the middle of all that fire. I was like, NOOOOO! They better NOT let him get hurt!

I was having flashbacks of the MJ hair incident.

UCantHavaDaMango said:

Awww, thank you.

Lord have mercy! I'll be "old" this coming September. Maybe someone will give me some Geritol and Viagara for my birthday.

babynoz said:

thanks so much for posting!!! hope you're feeling better

and to those STILL discussing whether or not it was all live- you'll see from here that those on the field did actually rehearse their "woo hooo"'s so it wasn't just dependant on those in the seats and I also want to remind everyone that there was a full back up band and a singer as well, filling in any holes where you might have been looking for Prince to be singing or playing and it looked like he wasn't. I just don't get how anyone on this site could actually even consider that he'd go out in front of that huge audience playing tracks of any kind.

sag10 said:

He looks slightly disshevelled and completely in awe...not the Prince we see very often. I agree its a great pic Sag.

BananaCologne said:

Don't fret, just try again at Housequake.com if it gets too disfunctional here... it sometimes works wonders! If not there then go stir up ghosts at alt.music.prince....

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Girl, my co-worker's 20yr old nephew couldn't get over the fact that he's better than MJ.

You KNOW I had to give him the lecture about how Prince composes, arranges and produces all his own stuff and how many instruments he plays. He didn't believe me at first, his uncle had to tell him it was true.

vainandy said:

Yo Vain...I'll be joining you pretty soon....lol...

ufoclub said:

Wow, you still here?

I'm not fretting - simply stating my own opinion for once, rather than biting my lip.

RobDogg27 said:

Before I say anything I would like to acknowledge that, yes, I have too much time on my hands...thank you.

Hey RobDogg,

I thought I'd go back and check the video for that unexplained sound you can hear just after he screams and before he gets his left hand back on the guitar neck. There's definitely something there and it does sound like someone striking muted guitar strings followed by a couple of notes ( B I think then maybe a muted G and a D ). Here's what I think happened -

Prince lets go of the guitar to grab the mic and scream. When he does that you can hear the open strings of the guitar ringing. I'd say the soundguy turned the guitar down at that point to stop it feeding back while Prince was singing. Then when Prince was about start playing again he pushed the guitar up ( perhaps slightly over shot because the noise sounds a bit louder than the guitar had been up til then). Anyway, at the same time he does that Prince is letting go of the mic stand. As he does so you can see that his right hand and the mic stand are very close to the guitar strings. I think he accidentally hits the strings with either the stand or his hand just is the sound guy brings up the volume of the guitar. That accounts for the sound of guitar strings being hit once or twice ( the second may have just been an echo ). Then you hear a couple of notes ( B, D and maybe a G ). Those are notes of open strings on the guitar - the left hand doesnt have to be on the neck to play them. Again I think they were accidentally sounded by Prince's right hand as he was getting ready to play.

PHEW!!!!

So, dont be sad...the little guy was playing live, no doubt.
[Edited 2/6/07 15:31pm]

SDNafka said:

You also hear it when he walks down the stage at the beginning of Purple Rain too, not sure what he hit, but it sounds like a similar thing.

Personally, I still think that it's something to do with the ghosting from the stadiums pa feeding back into the mix - that couldn't have helped any and must have been bloody distracting if you're trying to play onstage.

BananaCologne said:

Yes you may be right, there'd be all kinds of sounds creeping into the mix. A sound dude's nightmare. It's just a combo of echos, feedback, open strings, pyrotechnic explosions and the sound guy shitting his pants trying to stay on top of it all.

I had noticed the sound as he walks down the stage at the beginning of PR. At the time I just assumed it was something hitting the live guitar strings but the doesn't seem to be much near the guitar at the time apart from his cute little jacket which seems to be hanging over the guitar on that side. Could just be a button or something hitting the strings. You can see that he grabs the guitar and mutes the strings straight after that as though hes just remembered the guitar is live and the volume is up.

er....I think theres a chance I could be over analyzing this! Its probably because I'm supposed to clean my apartment today and I'm looking for any excuse not to.

BananaCologne said:

it's not about you fretting, silly billy... it was to the posting people who lament their buried query or point...

SDNafka said:

the way I saw that is that right after he threw off his doo-rag, he adjusted his jacket and tapped the string.

One thing I've noticed during my repeated replays is where at the end of Best of You, he's coming back up the stage and is in front of the twins. When he turns to keep going, the one on the right almost bumps into the neck of the guitar. As he continues walking, it almost looks like she threw him off a bit- causing almost a slip- he recovers by sort of pausing his step (the man can strut!) before walking again. (yes, I officially have too much time on my hands too apparently ) and of course, I could be totally wrong, but did anybody notice what I'm talking about??

SDNafka said:

sound dudes are soooo underrated!!!

7

murph said:

What about me? Prince is only a couple years older than I am so I must be a relic too.

sag10 said:

This has got to be the most touching picture I've seen of him in quite awhile. Sooo precious.

I tell ya, what's not to love?

who was that woman in white singing with him? was that Tamar?

doctamario said:

no, Shelby. see here http://www.prince.org/msg/5/216812

ufoclub said:

Ahh yes...those poor innocent threads, now lost forever.

May they rest in peace

babynoz said:

welllll, there's that little habit of suing his fans...

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

ROTFLMAO...Touche'!

Now look at that face and tell me you don't forgive him???