I have to say on a personal note that after exactly 25 years of following Prince, listening to everything I could, attending concerts and reading every book I could find. I had one unchecked box to tick and that was to see Prince in a small club setting and fortunately I got to do that twice (SBE & KoKo's). I was lucky enough to be about 12-15 feet from the front at SBE and well... I now feel content. Thanks 2014!

[Edited 12/31/14 3:33am]

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/dec/31/miley-cyrus-robert-plant-taylor-swift-prince-our-writers-favourite-gigs-of-2014

Dave Simpson

My favourite gigs of 2014 were triumphs of showmanship that could hardly have been more different. After starting to think I’d never ever get to see Prince, I saw him three times in the space of a few weeks and each gig was completely different. At Manchester’s moderately intimate Academy, he donned a Sly Stone–style panama hat for a tremendous three-hour marathon that saw him operating almost like an old-fashioned bandleader, “conducting” his jamming musicians and even the audience, some of whom he coaxed on stage. If his spectacularly lit Manchester Arena show was a more conventional but jaw-dropping arena triumph, his performance at the new Leeds Arena somehow felt both vast and very personal. The setlist contained so many hits he turned it into a joke (“How many hits? Too many hits!”), but he brilliantly changed the mood when he returned alone to play a stream of less often heard, sublimely soulful songs alone at the piano with the house lights up. With live music often so predictable that most encores are written down on the setlist, the idea that such a superstar could apparently conceive shows virtually on the hoof felt spontaneous and thrilling.

Paul MacInnes

It takes a lot to beat an intimate Prince gig on Valentine’s night for sheer musical phwooar: my year’s live highlight was catching the teeny tiny love god at London’s Kings Place on 14 February. The show was superlative; an acoustic set that morphed into a fully electrified freak-out and never once took its foot off the pedal. Highlights were Raspberry Beret, U Got the Look and an instrumental cover of Roxy Music’s More Than This. More than that, it was on a stage so small and so close you could study each movement of the artist’s dextrous fingers. Everyone there knew they were seeing something special and they lost their inhibition creating that communal experience that sets great live music apart.

[Edited 12/31/14 3:24am]

[Edited 12/31/14 3:35am]

And so he should get a mention He may have lost his Commercial pull for Album sales but a Prince Ticket will ALWAYS be a hot ticket. Especially loved the Manachester academy show too, met a few decent people in the queue and a couple off here which was nice.

How many acts can pretty much sell out a European Arena tour 2 weeks before it starts though? Especially what may would consider a Has been? Pure brilliance from who ever thought up the idea.