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Performing his big hits for (maybe) the last time??? http://observer.guardian....84,00.html
Sunday August 5, 2007
The Observer Prince O2 Arena and Indigo2, London SE10 You could accuse Prince of many things - hubris, say, or self-indulgence - but you could never accuse him of being stingy. He makes his contemporaries look like pusillanimous amateurs. He gives his albums away with gig tickets or newspapers. His recorded output is practically unquantifiable, given all his aliases, unreleased tracks and bootlegs. On the first night of his run of 21 gigs at London's O2 Arena - from which he has banned all photographers - he clocks on at 8.30pm with the opening guitar notes of his most famous song, 'Purple Rain'. Everyone is instantly putty in his hands. He finally clocks off just before 3am, when he flings the salmon pink jacket he's been waving like a lasso up into the air, crowning a brass instrumental of 'Down by the Riverside'. In between, music just pours out of his compact, dapper form. During the three-hour break between his arena gig exit and his intimate after-party entrance, he's probably been yelping in falsetto in the shower. Prince is scheduled to be 'per4ming his greatest hits 4 the last time', according to the hype around this residency. (No one is ever going to hold him to such a claim. I can't imagine a night some years hence when Prince starts playing 'When Doves Cry' and the crowd shouts: 'No! You said your 21 nights at the Dome would be it! Play some new jazzy stuff!') But he is extremely generous with the songs that everyone wants to hear. 'Kiss' and 'Girls & Boys' and 'Take Me With U' are jags of undiluted pleasure dating from his heyday. There are choice cuts, too, from recent times. 'Black Sweat', his first properly excellent track in years, is particularly lubricious. 'Y'all can't handle me!' he hams. 'I got too many hits! I got more hits than Madonna has kids!' He doesn't play '1999', although the venue - this was once the Millennium Dome - demands it. And unlike pricey superstars like Madonna or recent O2 draw Barbra Streisand, who not only clock-watch but ogle the bottom line obsessively, Prince is charging a mere £31.21 for the privilege of seeing him hammer his body while wearing very high heels, the last vestige of cross-dressing left on a man who used to wear little other than ladies' smalls. Value for money does not begin to describe this gig: Prince does encore after encore after encore. Accompanied by the latest permutation of his band, the New Power Generation, Prince quickly dispatches his first encore - 'Planet Earth', the title track of his new album. It probably ranks as the only real lavatory break of the gig. Encore two features an energetic soul jam (Gnarls Barkley's 'Crazy', 'Nothing Compares 2 U', made more famous by Sinead O'Connor) that mounts into a long tease for 'Let's Go Crazy'. His brass section, his dancers - the Twinz - and his backing singers do just that. No inch of Prince's custom-made Squiggle-shaped stage is left unfunked. When the house lights go up in arenas, it's usually well after everyone has made a break for the car park or the last tube. Those who do so tonight miss a treat. Screams announce the passage of the Minneapolitan (and his security) through what is left of the audience. Once back onstage, Prince casually tosses out lines from 'Little Red Corvette' while the ecstatic crowd mills around and security look confused. In an industry where genuine excitement is increasingly scarce, Prince practically busking is a really rather special event. Laggards are rewarded by 'Raspberry Beret' and a lovely version of 'Sometimes It Snows in April', and - finally - a full-band funk party mix that takes in 'A Love Bizarre' and 'Le Freak (C'est Chic)'. It's a relief that funk is Prince's animating force once again. With the funk comes libidinousness, something almost absent from his shows in recent years, when God and jazz loomed large in his life. The Jehovah's Witness has thawed out sufficiently to hump his mike stand and squeal like a copulating fox. 'Come on Maceo, satisfy that little girl,' he urges soloing sax star Maceo Parker, once of James Brown's band. He is not quite the bonsai incubus he once was, but Prince's every shrug, pirouette and smirk is wickedly charged tonight. But this gig is not quite perfect. He may have brought 'sexy' back (as Justin Timberlake might have it), but there are still one or two elements crucial to Prince's mojo unaccounted for - his technological brio and his freakiness. The Prince jiving unbridled round these two stages is an entertainer of the old school, drawing expertly on a dense heritage of funk, soul, R'n'B and jazz. Tonight, he frequently boasts that his is 'real music by real musicians'. His after-party show nearby (for which 2,500 tickets were sold separately) goes on into the small hours, something like a Harlem speakeasy during Prohibition crossed with a saxophone convention. The New Power Generation take the stage around 1.20 and mess about with horns for what seems like an eternity before Prince drops by with an incandescent guitar line. We get a little 'Anotherloverholenyohead', and some great dancing, but it is disappointing. There is no doubt that Candy Dulfer, Maceo Parker and the NPG's own brass section (Mike Phillips, Greg Boyer and William Lee Hogan) are superb musicians, but their frequencies are uniformly strident. You do long for a glimpse of the Prince who made Sign 'o' the Times, a record that sounded like it had descended from space back in 1987. It had a poignant reference to HIV in the first line, a dribbling synth and artificial cheek-pop beats. In the Eighties, Prince was a studio wizard who had no hangups about 'real musicians'. Making albums entirely by himself, he was a technological visionary as well as a musical one and a polymorphously perverse biracial enigma. In 2007, he is a well-dressed multi-instrumentalist band leader, outpaced in originality by producers like Timbaland and Pharrell.    If this really is the last outing for his hits, a future Prince might just find himself accused of becoming a staid traditionalist."Let love be your perfect weapon..." ~~Andy Biersack | |
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gee i hope so...he has so much new stuff to come  Bounce party y'all 
Like the wall of Berlin 
It's going down people -(5.7.2010)  | |
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He has been announcing that last-time shit since 1993 hasn't he?
And he announced his retirement from touring back in 84/85 didn't he? Prince's announcement don't mean shite. He'll be performing Purple rain in his death bed, you mark my words. Besides, none of his new material can command a concert audience the same way yet. | |
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He said that right before Musicology too! | |
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wlcm2thdwn said: He said that right before Musicology too!
that is what i was going to say....   | |
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Hey, Prince told me I was Mrs.Goodnight. | |
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wlcm2thdwn said: He said that right before Musicology too!
 I don't know why he keeps saying this.I doubt that he would ever stop performing those songs. | |
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wlcm2thdwn said:
Hey, Prince told me I was Mrs.Goodnight. we can take turns  | |
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Imago said: He has been announcing that last-time shit since 1993 hasn't he?
And he announced his retirement from touring back in 84/85 didn't he? Prince's announcement don't mean shite. He'll be performing Purple rain in his death bed, you mark my words. Besides, none of his new material can command a concert audience the same way yet. i sincerly hope he stops playing purple rain sooner than him reaching the grave 
and also he's never been allowed 2 give his new music a chance 2 command due 2 most people begging him 2 do his old material. man, he has such an amazing body of music that it's sad to see him constrict it down to the basics. he's too talented for the lineup he's doing. estelle 81 | |
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Awesome review! But I have a question: Are they saying he did hump the mike, or just refering back to what he used to do? Just curious...lol | |
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marketing 101.
see Cher's five year long farewell tour. Space for sale... | |
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 Please, Prince, go ahead! You've played Purple Rain at every damn show I've seen!My Legacy
http://prince.org/msg/8/192731 | |
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LoveSymbolofaDove said: Awesome review! But I have a question: Are they saying he did hump the mike, or just refering back to what he used to do? Just curious...lol
The Jehovah's Witness has thawed out sufficiently to hump his mike stand and squeal like a copulating fox. 'Come on Maceo, satisfy that little girl,' he urges soloing sax star Maceo Parker,
I think it means now. I'd like to have seen it. Was anyone here present? Did they see this? Also, what do you think of this? In 2007, he is a well-dressed multi-instrumentalist band leader, outpaced in originality by producers like Timbaland and Pharrell "Let love be your perfect weapon..." ~~Andy Biersack | |
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NDRU said: Please, Prince, go ahead! You've played Purple Rain at every damn show I've seen!I've been to a Prince concert where he did not play Purple Rain....it was on the 1999 tour  ."Always blessings, never losses......"
Ya te dije....no manches guey!!!!!  I'm a guy!!!!
"....i can open my-eyes "underwater"..there4 i will NOT drown...." - mzkqueen03 | |
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Sowhat said: NDRU said: Please, Prince, go ahead! You've played Purple Rain at every damn show I've seen!I've been to a Prince concert where he did not play Purple Rain....it was on the 1999 tour .and during the gold experience  and it wasn't neccesary 2 play it then or nowman, he has such an amazing body of music that it's sad to see him constrict it down to the basics. he's too talented for the lineup he's doing. estelle 81 | |
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Imago said: He has been announcing that last-time shit since 1993 hasn't he?
And he announced his retirement from touring back in 84/85 didn't he? Prince's announcement don't mean shite. He'll be performing Purple rain in his death bed, you mark my words. Besides, none of his new material can command a concert audience the same way yet. Everything you need to know, right there. | |
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Sowhat said: NDRU said: Please, Prince, go ahead! You've played Purple Rain at every damn show I've seen!I've been to a Prince concert where he did not play Purple Rain....it was on the 1999 tour .but I hear he's working "1999 Tour, The New Master" which includes Purple Rain My Legacy
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L4OATheOriginal said: Sowhat said: I've been to a Prince concert where he did not play Purple Rain....it was on the 1999 tour .and during the gold experience and it wasn't neccesary 2 play it then or nowI didn't go to the ONA tour, but I HOPE he didn't play it there! My Legacy
http://prince.org/msg/8/192731 | |
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NDRU said: Sowhat said: I've been to a Prince concert where he did not play Purple Rain....it was on the 1999 tour .but I hear he's working "1999 Tour, The New Master" which includes Purple Rain "Always blessings, never losses......"
Ya te dije....no manches guey!!!!! I'm a guy!!!!
"....i can open my-eyes "underwater"..there4 i will NOT drown...." - mzkqueen03 | |
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NDRU said: L4OATheOriginal said: and during the gold experience and it wasn't neccesary 2 play it then or nowI didn't go to the ONA tour, but I HOPE he didn't play it there! when i saw him ..he said he wouldn't play it ..then during the piano segment..he did it  man, he has such an amazing body of music that it's sad to see him constrict it down to the basics. he's too talented for the lineup he's doing. estelle 81 | |
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L4OATheOriginal said: NDRU said: I didn't go to the ONA tour, but I HOPE he didn't play it there! when i saw him ..he said he wouldn't play it ..then during the piano segment..he did it that's terrible! Who was "in the wrong house" afterall?My Legacy
http://prince.org/msg/8/192731 | |
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NDRU said: L4OATheOriginal said: when i saw him ..he said he wouldn't play it ..then during the piano segment..he did it that's terrible! Who was "in the wrong house" afterall?apparently those that take prince at his word man, he has such an amazing body of music that it's sad to see him constrict it down to the basics. he's too talented for the lineup he's doing. estelle 81 | |
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