Greg Kot has been tweeting from rehearsal for the Welcome to Chicago shows. Follow him at @gregkot

A few examples.

Kewl.

LOL @ retraining people from the Justin tour.

Sounds like the critic was talking about Mike Scott. I remember a Guitar Player interview from 2004 where Mike Scott said he plays a lot of Scott Henderson guitar runs until Prince told him to play the entire fingerboard and play less.

bashraka said:

Sounds like the critic was talking about Mike Scott. I remember a Guitar Player interview from 2004 where Mike Scott said he plays a lot of Scott Henderson guitar runs until Prince told him to play the entire fingerboard and play less.

Yeah, it was Mike.

He and Blackwell played on Timberlake's last tour and John has worked with Prince a ton since then and Mike hasn't played with Prince since '04.

Prince is humming melody lines to guitarists, instructing drummer exactly where to put a cymbal accent. "Gotta feel where that goes!"

Prince to the band: "Give that last chord more value." Which means don't be in such a hurry to let it go. They linger on it, Prince grins

Prince cracks up band with an admiring Chuck Berry temper tantrum story. "Chuck went St. Louis on my boy"

Thanks!

Paris9748430 said:

Prince is dancing behind the mixing board. "When the horns get on top of this, Lord have mercy!" And here come the horns -- 11 of them.

HORNS ARE IN !!

20 piece band? Count Basie? I hope this is true, big band sound would be incredible.

LOL at @Questlove: "Dammit Kot! Tell ol boy I need a job"

@Gregkot: "only if you tell me when the D'angelo record is coming out"

HORNZ!!! AT LAST!!!

Cue the horns argument.

I for one, bloody love them. 11 of them, sounds like this is going to be big and ballsy.

That's got to be a good thing.

Like me a bit 'o' Mike Scott too

Oh my, that sounds like an awesome setup!!!

2 kewl...hope the tweets keep comin

20 piece band? horn section?

what a purple treat!

Praxis said:

20 piece band? horn section?

No wonder the tickets were more expensive for this. He's feeding more mouths.

Also...RnR Affair would sound awesome with real horns. Hope he plays it.

Genesia said:

Also...RnR Affair would sound awesome with real horns. Hope he plays it.

Agreed! Here's hoping!!!

^

Here's a radical idea - LISTEN to the band before writing this configuration off.

Personally I'm interested to hear that the W2 band has been tweeked - horns are a welcome addition and I'll reserve judgement til I've heard what a difference the new band members make.

[Edited 9/19/12 10:19am]

Praxis said:

20 piece band? horn section?

what a purple treat!

Mercy!

11 horns?

This has to be his biggest band ever, right? I'm all for it, personally.

Keep in mind alot of those horns included are going to be part of Andy's band, not necessarily Prince's. Oh Lawd I see alot of horn segue's ala down by the riverside... meh

[Edited 9/19/12 14:09pm]

2elijah said:

Love when he adds a horn section to his band. In the words of Fela Kuti "Horns!". [Edited 9/19/12 6:45am]

Yes, Fela Kuti love! I came late to admire him, but I love how he spices the funk!

1725topp said:

errant said:

20 piece band? Awww fuck. That sucks. Background singers and horn players wall to wall. Yuck.

u don't have to go, I'm sure Prince could care less if u are there or not.

kenkamken said:

20 piece band? Count Basie? I hope this is true, big band sound would be incredible.

I agree, very exciting news.

Looks like Princey gonna shut it down in Chi-town.

horns are always welcomed; the louder, the better

Hopefully all the horns will help drown out that loud mouth Shelby J's shouting throughout the show.