Prince, O2 Arena, London 1 September 2007

Stealth pcitures courtesy of Sathish
I have to say that I am thankful to have been able to experience, in this lifetime, the eccentricity and pure musical genius that is Prince. This was a concert that I will never forget and one which surpassed every expectation I had.

Only Prince can say to organisers and promoters "I'm going to do 21 nights in London, each ticket will cost £31.21, I'm going to give away my new for CD free to every concert-goer and oh, no one is allowed to take pictures, not even the press" and they will bend over backwards and let him do whatever the hell he wants. And why not, because who would dare defy Prince! As you can see from the pictures above, the stage was in the form of his squiggly male/female/guitar symbol and was bang smack in the middle of the O2 Arena.

Each night of his tour has a different setlist and His Purple Highness keeps getting rave reviews. Oh, speaking of purple, loads of people were wearing Prince's favourite colour, oh how original (I'm just jealous really because I wish I had done the same!).

Prince emerged from the middle of the stage amidst dry ice and kicked off with 1999. The gig, from start to finish, was funkin' spectacular. The New Power Generation were amazing and his twin dancers and two other back-up singers provided a great Studio 54 70s disco feel to the whole concert. And what can I say about 'ol Prince himself? For one thing, he hasn't aged a bit! He looks exactly as I remember him from the 80s! And the man can strut. His performance was fluid, the man was born to do this. The whole theme of the night (and tour in fact) is basically Prince reminding London that we all ain't ready for him as he has too many hits and too little time. And he's right! He churned out the hits - Kiss (brilliant), Musicology (awesome), When Doves Cry (the man can squeal melodically!), Satisfied (the men finally understood why women want to sleep with Prince), Cream (yummy), Nothing Compares 2 U (beautiful), Guitar (funky!) etc etc etc and he did two medleys of his hits (felt a bit cheated that he only sang one line from Little Red Corvette, one of my fave songs!). He closed with Let's Go Crazy and left us panting for more. Those that got tickets to his after party were treated to more Prince as he obviously felt in agood enough mood to perform. Check out the official blog.

Real musicians, real funk. Prince can do anything he wants because someone who can create such amazing music should be given carte blanche over whatever the hell he likes.

Prince, you're filthy cute and baby you know it.