Prince
3121 - The O2
Another week, another legend at the O2.
Prince is one of those artists who's wandered so far from the stuff that got you into him in the first place, that you forget just quite how good you once thought he was. Yes, Guitar, the single off his new (Daily Mail giveaway) album is alright, but you'd be hard-pressed to come up with a solid hit from the last few.
Live though, he's a different proposition. He's sold out 21 nights at the O2 (aka the Dome), which is pretty phenomenal in itself. But that would mean 420,000 disappointed Prince fans if he wasn't still so utterly on top of his game.
After kindly showing us the UK Rock n Roll Hall of Fame round-up of his career (Prince - he's great! Who knew?!), Sunday's show launched straight into Musicology, which turned into a long funk jam, introducing Maceo Parker (JBs saxman) and the rest of the band. Weirdly, they then gave us versions of INXS's What You Need and Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music (White Boy) (maybe some ironic comment on the crowd members he'd already encouraged to dance up on stage?), and The JBs' Pass The Peas, before hitting the back catalogue. "I've got so many hits, you can't handle them all" he kept reminding us, although he did find time to also cover Come Together, and Gnarls Barkley's Crazy...
The old cliche about him channeling James Brown and Jimi Hendrix is pretty much true - his moves are amazing, solos soaring, and he's got that conducting the band thing at the drop of a funky hat down. Pretty essential outing from a real master overall - could have done with 1999 and Let's Go Crazy, but maybe they the two we couldn't handle.
Setlist:
Musicology
Prince + The Band
What You Need (INXS)
Play That Funky Music (Wild Cherry)
Pass The Peas (The JBs)
Cream
U Got the Look
Shhh
Piano set
Diamonds and Pearls (1 verse 1 chorus)
A 1000 Hugs and Kisses
Little Red Corvette
Raspberry Beret (1 verse 1 chorus)
Sometimes It Snows In April
Full Band
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Come Together (The Beatles)
Black Sweat
Kiss
Purple Rain
Encore
I Feel 4 U
Controversy inc Housequake chant
Encore
Crazy (Gnarls Barkley)
Nothing Compares 2 U
Encore - Prince solo synth set
Sign O The Times
Pop Life
DMSR
Erotic City (sample)
I Wanna Be Your Lover
When Doves Cry
Alphabet St
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