pplrain said:

And after they called the cops .... I said to folks don't go inside ( trespassing ) stay off the grass next thing here comes Chanhassen police dept

I wrote this when I got back from PP in 2002...long, but captures the experience as closely as I could remember...I actually took notes

Xenophobia: 7 Nites Alone With Prince 2002- One Fans Paisley Experience
General Info: Xenophobia, Prince's 3rd annual week-long celebration, at Paisley Park, Chanhassen, MN
Dates: June 21, 2002 thru June 27, 2002 Prices: $250.00 for the entire week, includes all daytime activities.
This year, the celebration was only open to NPGMC members, plus one guest, who also had to pay $250.00.

Day 1, June 21, 2002
Opening Act: Maceo Parker (9pm-11pm)
Prince (11:45pm- 2:20am)
Setlist: The Rainbow Children
Muse 2 The Pharaoh
Xenophobia
A Case Of You
Mellow
1+1+1=3/Love Rollercoaster
The Ride/Alphabet St.
The Other Side Of The Pillow
Strange Relationship
Sing A Simple Song (W/Larry Graham)
La, La, La Mean I Love You
Didn't Cha Know
When You Were Mine
Avalanche
Family Name
Take Me With U
Raspberry Beret
The Everlasting Now
Joy In Repetition (Encore)

Day 1 was great. At 10am, we lined up at Paisley to get our week-long pass. The morning was plagued with severe weather, with lots of rainfall. Once we received our passes, into Paisley we went. No phones, cameras, recording devices of any kind were allowed inside. The inside of Paisley is astounding, it took my breath away. Just as we entered, to the left side is his store, which sells concert t-shirts, perfumes, CD's, posters, candles, skull caps, etc. To the left of that is a hallway, which leads to the main entrance of Paisley, called the Atrium. The hallway is lined with blown-up pictures of Prince, categorized by years, starting in 1979. All great pictures of him, I smirk thinking that Prince is one vain s.o.b., but i wouldn't have it any other way. Across from the pictures, awards are lined up along the wall, nicely displayed. Two rooms lead off of the hallway, the first is the Paisley Museum. This room contains Prince's various guitars displayed on the walls, along with some of his songs' lyrics framed for all to read. Many large pictures of him in concert also are displayed. One of his piano's is in the center of the room, and a percussion set that i notice is from the Sign O' The Times era is off in the corner. This room leads into Prince's indoor basketball court, which is set up for pictures. For $5.00, i took a polaroid on Prince's black motorcycle from Graffiti Bridge. All money made from the sale of polaroids was being donated to charity.
The 2nd room off of the hallway is Studio B. One of 3 studio's in Paisley, studio B is where Prince recorded SOTT. Unfortunately, it is somewhat outdated, technology-wise, and Prince now records in Studio A. Studio B was blasting a recent One Nite Alone concert on the speakers. Throw pillows were tossed all about, and ppl chilled, listening to our hero. Studio B is so named for the "blacklite" room, which is towards the back of the studio. Couches, loveseats, awards, and still more pictures of Prince are in the blacklite room. I notice a rather large, and very good painting of Miles Davis in that room. In the actual studio, Prince's father's picture is displayed, along with 2 very nice sculptures, both made of flourescent lighting, one is the "Symbol" and the other is a portrait of him. Another of his piano's is in the studio.
Continuing down the hallway, it opens up into the Atrium. Spectacular!! It really must be seen to be truly appreciated. Colors on the walls are the first thing that catch your eye. Every wall seems to be a different color, and his gold, platinum records are all displayed here. They seem endless. I wander upstairs, where i find his pool table room, covered in purple felt, of course. In this room, i see the first of two paintings that Miles Davis painted for Prince, both of the abstact variety. Very cool! Upstairs, there is the conference room and a huge birdcage, which houses 3 doves. Downstairs is a cafe, complete with barstools and counter. Prince is said to have his breakfast here on most mornings. Outside of the cafe is a sitting area with plush sofas (Prince's taste in furniture is very good, he has abstract pieces everywhere). In the middle of both sofas is his "symbol", on the floor, in marble, huge. At the very front of the Atrium is his front desk, with a large(everything seems to be on a large scale) portrait of him behind it, from the Emancipation era. A very nice display unit showcases his Oscar, for the Purple Rain score, among other awards and plaques. One of my favorite pieces on display is the cover of a comic book that featured Prince, I own this comic myself. Again, it is done in large scale and is framed nicely. Studio's A and C are in this area, but is closed to the public. Unfortunately, someone tried to take something out of the refrigerator, security caught them, and the Atrium was closed to us for the remainder of the week. By the way, security was EVERYWHERE the entire week.
Back at the entrance, right across from the store, are 2 concert halls. The first, called the NPGMC room, has a small stage straight ahead, and a large screen projection TV to the right. Again, very nicely decorated, as only Prince's mind could do. A very nice room to chill and watch video's (They played the Rave special and SOTT most of the week). Next to that is the large concert hall. It's huge, fitting at least 2500 ppl. This is where all the concerts were held all week. Very large, state of the art, speaker sets are hung from either side of the stage. The walls and ceiling are covered with a black velvet material, from which blue stars sparkle. Very nice atmosphere for a concert. They set up a VIP seating section to the left of the stage, and Prince watches all the show's from a black sofa, which is set up at the rear of the hall.
There really isn't a bad seat in the concert hall. Very intimate.
Prince's concerts were all great.....he is very good at what he does and flows from one instrument to the next with ease.
Suffice to say that the man is amazing. Maceo, on opening night, was very good. In my opinion, he played about 30 mins. too long. He had me feelin the funk, then pulled out the flute, and there is only so much of that that i can take. Keep in mind, it was the first night, and we were in line, STANDING all the while, since 6pm. The concert hall didn't have seats. So we stayed on our feet from 6pm to 230am. Too long. Maceo's son, Parker, also sang and rapped on a couple of numbers. If this wasn't the opening night, when we were all so anxious to see Prince, and if there were chairs, as there were on following nights, then Maceo may have faired better in my memory. Out of the seven performers, I rated Maceo's performance 6th best.

Day 2, June 22, 2002
Opening act: Sheila E (9:15pm-11:15pm)
Prince: (12:30am-1:30am)
setlist: The Rainbow Children (Instrumental)
Power Fantastic
Extraordinary
Here On Earth
With You
Pearls B4 The Swine (Instrumental)
The Ghetto (cover)
Sweet Baby
When The Lights Go Down
Strollin'
Gotta Broken Heart Again
You've Got A Friend (w/Sheila cover of James Taylor)
Pop Life( encore)

Day 2 was Hot!! Not just the performances, which were also, but the temp was scorching. The previous days storms had taken out the air conditioning unit for Paisley. Sheila E held a seminar in the small concert hall from 2-4pm. She was very interesting, telling us stories on how her and Prince met ( i didn't know that they met way back in 1979) and how she learned to play from watching her father play. She would stand in front of him and learned how to play mirrored image. She now still plays backwards, but it works for her. She is very elegant, and has aged very well. Definately one of my favorite parts of the week. Her show was very good. She still plays concerts now, and hasn't lost anything on her percussion. She said that she doesn't play most of the Prince penned tunes anymore, but you could never tell that she didn't. She played A Love Bizarre, Neon Rendevous, Hold Me, Glamorous Life, etc. Her solo's on drums were astounding.
I rated her the 2nd best performance by an opening act for the week.
After her performance, we were asked to leave the building so they could repair the air conditioning. We went and partied outside, where they had an outdoor stage set up. There were give aways, and everyone stayed in a joyous mood. After an hour, we were let back inside, where Prince was already performing. He apologized for the problem, and apologized to Sheila, saying she showed her professionalism that night. He kept saying that he was going to make it up to us....that we were going to the movies, on him. yeah, whatever. He played for about an hour, the highlight was when Sheila came back on stage and sung, You've Got a Friend, the James Taylor song, with him. He dedicated it to her for her loyalty. Very emotional moment. Understand, that i've always felt that they belong together, have a sort of vibe about them that only 2 musicians can share. They've both went seperate ways, but it was very nice to see them still performing together, and very satisfiying to me that they are still best of friends. After the encore, Prince told us to follow his white limo to the cinemas.
What?? Is he serious? So, at 2:30 am, on a Sat night, which Paisley had dubbed , Pajama party night, we all drove to Chanhassen cinema, which is only about 5mins away, and watched "Minority Report", with Tom Cruise. Prince rented out 4 of the theatres, and sat in one of them to watch the movie with us. The movie let out around 5am.....and we were off to sleep. What a night!!

Day 3, June 23, 2002
Opening Act: Victor Wooten (8:15pm-10:30pm)
Prince:(11:25pm-12:40pm)
setlist: Days Of Wild (w/ Larry Graham)
The Jam (w/ Larry Graham)
Dolphin
Sign O' The Times
The Work, Pt. 1
Paisley Park
Renato's Keyboard Solo
Peach/ "It Ain't Ova" jam w/ Damon Dickson

Tavis Smiley, whom i had met the previous day, lead a group discussion on record company practices, racial inharmonies, and various other topics in an open forum. Very interesting, and i'm glad i attended that during the day. As we arrived, the room was somewhat filled, so we scooted along the back wall to get a better view. I made my way to the soundboard panel of the room, and quickly looked to my right, there was Prince, decked out in a very nice, custom made, as all of his clothes are, purple suit. He was standing only about 5 ft from me! I didn't dare say anything to him, but rather listened to the discussion, and snuck a few glances his way. He was with his wife, Mani, who is just as small as he is. She is very beautiful, the pictures that ive seen of her do her no justice. She is 24, he is 44.....hmmmm.
Victor Wooten, was VERY good. I'm starting to see that Prince has very good taste in talent. The band, which consists of Regi Wooten, and another brother, plus a solid, and funny, drummer, is great. They play funk, and cover hendrixs and Black Sabbath. Imagine, Ozzy being played at Paisley! I would definately recommend this band. Victor plays bass, and Regi plays lead guitar, both have a unique style. I rated this band 3rd best of the week. Check out "Hormones in The Headphones" if u can.
Prince took his cue from the Wootens, and brought out some of the funkiest funk that he's done in awhile. He brought out the band from the back of the concert hall , and worked they're way to the stage. The audience had to break away, to form a lane, and i happened to be at the front of the line. Cool, once again, Prince was only mere ft from me! Day's Of Wild made my day! Prince doesn't curse anymore, because he says that children often come to his shows now. I was impressed with his reworking of that song. As U may know, Day's Of Wild is not, by any means, a tame song. Another Great Nite!

Day 4, June 24, 2002
Opening Act: Norah Jones (8pm-9:15pm)
Prince: set 1 (9:45pm-10:45pm) set 2 (10:55-11:40pm)
setlist: set 1 (Acoustic, Just Prince)
Don't Play Me
Whole Lotta Love ( Led Zepplin cover)
7
Tangerine
A Case Of You
Pink Cashmere
One Kiss At A Time
Atphabet St./Beverly Hillbillies theme
Girls & Boys
Motherless Child (cover)
The Truth
"Guitar Playin man" Jam
The Other Side Of The Pillow
She Loves Me 4 Me
Peach/ "It ain't Ova" chant
Wherever U Go, Whatever U Do
Forever In My Life
Last December
Set 2 (plugged, w/ Band)
A Train/Strollin'(Instrumental)
How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?
Diamonds & Pearls
The Beautiful Ones
Free
Starfish and Coffee
Sometimes It Snows In April
I love U, But I Don't Trust U Anymore
Prince and The Band (New Song!)
Xenophobia/"Bustin' Loose" chant

Norah Jones is sweet. Apparently, she's a young songwriter who plays piano and has a soothing voice. Somewhat country, with a little blues and soft rock. Her and her band played a short, but very good set. She seemed a bit in awe of playing at Paisley, mentioning it a couple of times. Shes doing very well on the charts, and i expect great things from her. I rated her 5th best of the week.
Prince, oh my god! Finally, an acoustic set from the man. He went on for an hour by himself.....all at once funny, singing and playing perfectly. If Xenophobia is released, this is the one you want to see! They taped the last 5 days, so i'm hoping they release it soon.
The thing that left a great impression on me was the level of loyalty, and party-hardy fans that Prince has. After the concert, we headed for the booked hotel, and had a karoke night, all Prince songs of course. What a blast! Fans from all over the world traveled to MN this week. I met ppl from Holland, Spain, Denmark, Japan, Canada, Sweden.....what a treat!

Day 5, June 25, 2002
Opening Act: Bernard Allison (8:15pm-9:20pm)
Prince: (10:30pm-12:25am)
setlist: Prince guitar solo
Bambi
Whole Lotta Love( Led Zepplin cover)
Something In The Water(Does Not Compute)
The Question Of U
The One
Jazz Jam
I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
Ain't No Sunshine (Bill Wither's cover)
She's Always In My Hair
The Ride
Alphabet St.
Blues Jam
Elephants & Flowers
All The Critics Love U In New York
Beautiful Strange
Calhoun Square( Encore )

We took this opportunity to head to Minneapolis and check out First Avenue, the club where Prince filmed Purple Rain. We snapped plenty of pictures, and even got to go inside First Ave. The club is legendary for the performers who have played there. We had lunch downtown, which, by the way, was sprawling with ppl, at 1pm on a weekday. Detroit could learn a lesson from MPLS. We then headed for the mall of america.....HUGE, insanely so. Bernard Allison was great. He's a young guitarist, now residing in MN, who brings to mind Hendrix's playing. He's totally blues, and wails on his guitar. He is known for his playing of the 'steel guitar'. He did a couple of Hendrix's covers. During one of his solos, he played while walking down the aisles, making his way back to the Prince sofa. Prince, funny as ever, picked up a bottled water, and splashed him down, then took his towel, and fanned Bernard, implying that he was just too hot!
Bernard's bass player had a solo, afterwhich, he shouted, off the mic, "U SEXY MOTHERFUCKER!", not cool, considering that Prince doesn't allow any cursing at his place, and that there were kids in the front rows. I rated Bernard Allison 4th best of the week.
Prince, having a laid-back show the previous night, went full guns this night! This was his ROCK/BLUES show. My nite was made from the start, with BAMBI being played in full. Prince has been known to cut off songs, and not give full versions during his concerts. Full versions of songs was just another treat for those who attended. ICNTTPOYM was totally reworked, played at half speed, and given a noticably bluesy flavor.

Day 6, June 26, 2002
Opening Act: Musiq Soulchild (8:30pm-9:40pm)
Prince: (10:50pm-1:25am)
setlist: The Rainbow Children
Muse 2 The Pharaoh
Money Don't Matter 2night
Xenophobia
A Case Of You
Mellow
1+1+1=3
The Other Side Of The Pillow
Strange Relationship
Sing A Simple Song (w/Larry Graham)
La, La, La Means I Love You
Didn't Cha Know
When You Were Mine
Avalanche
Family Name
Take Me With U
Raspberry Beret
The Everlasting Now
Day's Of Wild/"Soul Child" jam w/ Musiq (Encore)

Where do i start? Musiq Soulchild, while an addiquite singer, didn't blow me away. First off, he doesn't play any instruments, which is fine, but compared to the other performers of the week, he was a couple steps behind. He's a young man, and still has to work on his stage presence.....just being onstage, with a cool outfit doesn't cut it. The energy of the crowd wasn't right, and i blame it on his show.
When Prince came on, he explained that Musiq is a young man, who doesn't follow his peers, by cursing or rapping, but instead does old school R&B. Ok, that's cool with me, but still, the show was weak...i rated him 7th of 7 performers for the week.
Prince once again played his One Nite Alone show. The story was that they didn't get a chance to get it on film before, and this was more than likely going to be the last time that they played that show. So, we get the ONA show .....again. Eric Leeds, Prince's sax player during his SOTT era, joined him on stage, as did Najee. The show, muscianship wise, wasn't a disappointment, just the fact that we had seen it already this week. The first nite was understandable, because alot of the european crowd didn't get a chance to see it. Anyways, the show ended on a high note, with Days' Of Wild

Day 7, June 27, 2002
Opening Act: Rachelle Ferrelle (9:15pm-11:30pm)
Prince: (12:05am-2:10am)
setlist:Najee Flute Solo
One Nite Alone
Adore
I Wanna Be Your Lover
Do Me, Baby
Condition Of The Heart
U're Gonna C Me
Empty Room
How Come U Don't Call Me, Anymore?
Nothing Compares 2 U
Speech
Shake!/AUTOmatic/ Shake!
Manic Monday (sung by audience member Connie)
Soul Sanctuary
God/ w/Kip Blackshire, Musiq, and Rachelle Ferrelle
Last Decemeber
Purple Rain (Encore)
Anna Stesia (Encore)
"Party till the sun comes up" jam

Rachelle Ferrelle.....If you get a chance to see her live, take it! She's rated #1 of all performers this week, in my opinion. Her show was enlightening, she has a wonderful voice, full of many sounds that eminate from her soul. She was full of the spirit, and it came across in her performance. She broke the audience members down into 3 sections, and had each section sing they're own line....she kept it going for 15 mins or so. This was my first exposure to her. She's known as a jazz vocalist, but is so much more....excellent show.
Prince, came out in a white outfit, with a looooong train following him. I'm surprised he didn't trip over it all night.
At one point, he announced that it was karoke night at Paisley, and asked who could sing. He called Connie out of the audience, and told her that he was gonna play a song, any song, and she would have to sing. Cool? cool. He then played the opening keyboard part of Manic Monday. He had his book opened up for Connie to help her with the lyrics, but she turned it down. She killed it, and a very impressed Prince gave her his own ovation. Empty Room is an unreleased gem that the crowd went nuts for. Anna Stesia is a very spiritual song, with the chrous asking everyone to sing, "Love is God, God is Love, Girls and Boys love God Above" It all fit into the perfect show to close the week. I left feeling refreshed, even after an exhausting week!

These were just the shows that i recapped....there was so much more to the experience. The purple friends that i met were great. Prince offered a workshop given by various musicians most days of the week. Those usually went on from 2-4pm, at which time the place was emptied to get ready for the shows. They had outdoor volleyball set up , along with a couple of roll away hoops, and food and drink stands.
After the concerts, a DJ would spin Prince jams, remixes, till 4am. Then it was time to party in the hotel rooms! The last day, there was a BBQ orgainized by some San Fransisco fans...about 50 ppl showed up and it was a blast.
I remember waiting in line for one concert, and I see a purple Prowler pull out of the gate. Prince drives by, with the top down, as the crowd goes nuts. During one of his long jams, Prince asked us if we wanted a copy of his jam, we of course said YES!, he said, "Cool, i'll slip it to u". The next day we were handed a CD single of the Days Of Wild live in Montreal song. Just soooo many stories. Thanks for taking the time to read One Fans Paisley Experience.

I wrote this when I got back from PP in 2002...long, but captures the experience as closely as I could remember...I actually took notes

Your stories are all amazing!
But could you elaborate a bit more? (those of you who haven't already)
You know, share your experience?
Make us poor gals even MORE jealous for not witnessing anything like that?

porfyrivrohi said:

TOP 10 MOMENTS FOR ME AT PAISLEY PARK
1. Standing next to Prince on the dance floor as the DJ spun records til the sun came up
2. Listening to TRC before it was released in Prince's conference room with other fams and talking about it after
3. Every Prince show there during the Celebrations
4. Sheila E's workshop at the last Celebration
5. Larry Graham's workshop at the last Celebration
6. Prince playing DJ at the first Celebration
7. Prince and the band marching through the crowd leading into the Days of Wild at the last Celebration...and all the never before performed live songs showcased that year (ex. Calhoun Square...worth the price of admission for every show...he tore that up).
8. Price inviting everyone/leading the convoy to "Minority Report" at the Chanhassen movie theater
9. The air conditioning going out the night of the Sheila E show at the last Celebration and Sheila E laying it down.
10.The dance contest in the Paisley Park parking lot during the last Celebration with winners getting priority spots in line for the show that night. I got a spot in the first 5!

And after they called the cops .... I said to folks don't go inside ( trespassing ) stay off the grass next thing here comes Chanhassen police dept

I wrote this when I got back from PP in 2002...long, but captures the experience as closely as I could remember...I actually took notes


Hard to believe it was that long ago....
and to think we had to convince U 2 to room togethere

Your stories are all amazing!
But could you elaborate a bit more? (those of you who haven't already)
You know, share your experience?
Make us poor gals even MORE jealous for not witnessing anything like that?

porfyrivrohi said:

ok i hope this makes you jealous enough!!!
as previously stated, i took my mum with me who was also a mad prince fan. one night during the show, prince left stage and walked through the crowd towards the exit at the back of the hall. as he got near the back, where my mum and i were standing, prince walked ahead of his bodyguard as there were very few fans. he was walking directly towards us, i was happy i would get the chance just to say hi. as he gets almost close enough for me to say hi, my mum rushes forwards, throws her arms around prince and pinches his ass!

most embarrassed i ever been in my life. the bodyguard gently removed my mum, saying "sorry ma'am, you can't touch", prince giggled and as he walked past me all i could say was, "i am so sorry". for this i got the famous eyes down shy smile.

this incident is referenced in the notes to the ONA box CD, something about groupies and not being the 80's anymore.