whilst we all hunt around for the Dance 4 Me remix ! ponder on this. Can you think of a better experience / thankyou from P?,we had the pre show sound checks/ mini shows[with crowd pleasing trax] + chats with fans followed by the main show followed sometimes by an aftershow. It really doesn't and couldn't get much better?.

funkyhead said:

i have only seen a main show, nothing else. But i think the atmosphere was great. Prince seemed to play only what he liked to play. Great experience.

I say this all of the time. This was the only time that we actually got a chance to see the real Prince in action. He wasn't really Prince the performer. He was Prince the man that happened to play music.

I have to say that i found the whole ONA experience real refreshing...an exciting band, amazing musicianship, intimate venues, releases were well packaged and, of course, we had the aftershow disc.

The one thing about right now that keeps the excitement for me is the return of Ronda/ John/ renato. Montreux and Monoco give us a flavour of how special that time was.

the cellys were closer to the ultimate fan experience. if ONA is your bag, then the xenophobia celly was the place to be

I think you're right.

I'll never forget the first ONA soundcheck. Queueing for what seemed like days, and then rushing in, getting a seat in the front row, too busy to notice that Prince was on stage at the time just watching the crowd! And then, the realization that he was there - the hushed audience, all sightly uneasy, not sure how to respond to his presence. Couldn't have been more than a few hundred of us in there. It felt very special, and Prince was indeed simply Prince, not the performer you would ordinarily see in a main show.

A very special experience indeed.
Perhaps only rivaled by the Celebration week?

O+>

unique said:

Some of us couldn't afford to attend the Celbrations,so this was the next best thing.

daPrettyman said:

sure, but that wasn't the question, no budget restrictions were mentiond, and if you lived near MPLS it worked out pretty cheap, in fact perhaps cheaper than the ONA shows which were about £75, and you had to be a paid up club member to get to the soundchecks and aftershows, and depending on where you lived you still had travel and accomodation on top. i think the celly was about $100 for the whole week, plus travel and accomodation if necessary, so even bearing in mind the overall cost, the cellys weren't that expensive. i spent a lot more going to the o2 shows than the cellys. in fact the o2 shows probably cost about the same as all three cellys, if you include travel and accomodation and everything

hell yeah it was ..and it's the last time until hearing the recent shows of this year prince has made me felt that u had 2 b there 2 xperience it all. ONA tour goes down as the last time prince blew my fucking mind live

the celly was off the chain!!!

Ahhhh, they both were awesome!

For me the difference was just what the others said, the ONA experience, we were allowed to witness Prince The Man...relaxed, funny, regular Joe (as regular as Prince can be). While the celly's were Prince The Performer. Although he hung around Paisley, spinning records and watching the crowd, there was still that mysteriousness about him - popping in and out without anyone noticing where he came from, and needless to say the performances...ahhhh, those performances : )

I was really great.

I saw him in concert in Oberhausen. What a day the weather and everything;-)

It was a very exciting time to be a Prince fan. I went to both Manchester Apollo gigs. The first night there was no soundcheck as such we just had Renato checking his keyboards and the mood amongst the fans was pretty negative. One lady near me shouted 'Yeah this is what I paid my hundred dollars for!' However once he finally took the stage all was forgiven Prince tore it up it was amazing I love The Rainbow Children and to hear that material live and being so close in such an intimate venue was a real treat. And when he played Empty Room I nearly fainted such a surprise!

The second night we got our soundcheck it was such a cool experience he was so relaxed, chilled, accomadating. At the end he played a storming version of SOTT and asked 'Should I play that tonight?' Answer was a resounding yes.

I really would love him to do a similar styled tour. I treasure my memories of ONA.

soulyacolia said:

2 very, very special nights. Can you believe he was standing there playing empty room on the purple symbol guitar!. The 2 shows were very different, loved the sound check / mini set at the 2nd show, P wandering around on stage inbetween jams chatting and sipping on a mug of herbal tea!.

ONA tour was THE best Prince experience.

Hammersmith Apollo, soundcheck with a few hundred fans and then amazing gig with great view of the stage and a performer in his relaxed prime IMHO.

I didnt go to the O2 gigs as I reckon small and intimate is the only way to experience P live. But probably never again sadly...

funkyhead said:

I remember all the incense they burnt on stage as well fistfulls of the stuff!! You from Manchester funkyhead?

Definately for me. Manchester was amazing, especially the soundcheck.

The soundcheck was amazing. I wasn't at the Cellys but listening to Prince say "thank you" to his fans for the first time, made me cry. He became human to me after that. It was the first time I had seen him without any makeup on. And he had on flipflops. When he came down off the stage to talk to us, I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

soulyacolia said:

yep, just down the road near Stockport. Met some serioulsy great fans over the 2 nights. Did you trek down to City centre and wait for the aftershow that never was!.

YES!

funkyhead said:

I'm from Burnley. I went to the Life club I think it was called on Deansgate after the first show is that what you mean?

I have a gig on Sunday with a piano player from Stockport. Freddie Garner don't know if you've heard of him?

soulyacolia said:

nah, only local musician i know of is Tim Scott, genius guitar palyer [just released his 2nd album]. Since Burnley beat Man Utd I've gone off you!!.You in a band?.

funkyhead said:

Yeah I play alto sax and have my own quintet. You might like this thread

http://prince.org/msg/100/316844

The 3121 shows and aftershows in Vegas were awesome. The 2002 Celly was electric. But nothing compares to the ONA DC Sand Dollar Soundcheck Experience.

CJBabyDaddy said:

CJBabyDaddy said:

Rebecca shut the forums down with that mess...and tried to become a phoenix rising later but nope!

I enjoyed the ONA Tour when it hit NYC but I'd have to say the ultimate experience for me was the Club Black gig right after the Rock n' Roll Hall Of Fame. Prince was in full celebration mode that night and it showed from the minute he stepped on stage. This show was excellent and I got lucky enough to find a boot of it so now I can play it back whenever I want.

I loved the show even though I was really far away...I had a corner seat in the first section over the doorway on the floor...I couldn't dance without the fear of falling 12 feet to my death.

Just watch ONA Las Vegas, Had a great time, cain't wait for the next time!

CJBabyDaddy said:

ah, but just you spend the 2004 mini celly with rebecca. she had only recently got into prince, and only knew his most recent music and some hits. i was playing some mixtapes i made in the car, and she hadn't heard stuff like DMSR, sexy mf, days o wild, and couldn't believe all the swearing

yes

oh, and what is sand dollar? i was at the dc soundchecks too

plus nyc and kansas city

amazing