So this week we lost the unique and utterly amazing Prince!

I went to see Prince once, in 2007 – one of the 21 nights in London gigs. Technically I guess I actually saw him twice…both times on the same night. The main O2 gig was really good but not amazing, maybe seven out of ten (I always feel bad saying things like that, but compared with what came later that night, it was a firm seven out of ten). After the main gig my brother, Christian and I went across the road to the club 3121 at the Indigo with aftershow tickets. The DJ played George Clinton tracks until about 2.00 in the morning, I had lots of beer and I was happy as a man could be.

There was a lot of teasing that night: gaps in the music and cheers from the crowd at any kind of onstage activity – at one point a guitar tech appeared with Prince’s unique horseshoe pedal board and people started to get excited that this was really going to happen – we were really going to see a legendary aftershow gig.

There had been some nights during the 21 nights run when Prince hadn’t played after the main show, and there had been some articles published over the first few weeks of the London gigs warning that there were no guarantees for the £8 tickets we had bought (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6942963.stm) – so it felt like a bit of a lottery. He had played with different people every night at the aftershows so far: Amy Winehouse (Love is  losing Game: See video below – Prince amazing on guitar yet again), Grupo Fantasma, Dr John & Nikki Costa to name a few – so it was a lottery as to what we were going to get – Piano Prince, Duet Prince, Guitar hero Prince, Latin Prince or…no Prince at all…

Time was getting on and just when we thought we weren’t going to hit lucky – and that Prince wasn’t going to turn out, the music went off abruptly and someone started playing a funky chord on repeat from behind the stage curtain. After about 2 minutes the curtains whipped back and there he stood, continuing on with the riff with his back to the audience. He played with his back to us for another minute or so before spinning around and breaking into an extended version of Thank You For Taking Me To Africa (Sly and the Family Stone) as part of a three piece band.

He was playing a seafoam green strat (with white pickups) and was wearing a massive over-sized white shirt – we were close enough to make it feel like we were in a pub.

Everything he played after that was raw and heavy – really heavy! Amazing versions of songs from all areas of his back catalogue along with covers of rock and roll standards and he carried on playing until about 3.30am.

If he hadn’t played I would have been a bit sad…probably disappointed (because it was standard for him to do 2 hours for the main gig and then a 90 minute after-show!) …but I’d just seen him in the O2…so hey ho…it had been good night out…However he did play and just wow! wow! wow!

He had someone from the crew at the front of the stage pulling laminated cards out of a record DJ flight case with lyrics and chords written on them. I don’t think the band had even learnt all the songs, it was all being done on the fly with hand signals and using the position of his guitar next to instruct the other two where middle 8’s and breaks were coming and it was the best gig I have ever seen. Hands. Down. Best. Ever. We stood 20 feet away from his purple badness and watched what was the greatest guitar display I’ve seen live or on video or online – or anywhere, before or since. It was just unbelievable. Maybe we were lucky. Most reviews say that was up there with the best after shows of that run, and it’s cited in live highlights of that period…and we saw him share/ show off that magic. My happiest gig moment for sure. It feels tragic that he won’t be able to bring that sort of happiness to people again.

Set List:

1. Thank You For Takin’ To Me Africa (instrumental)
2. Anotherloverholenyohead
3. Rock Lobster (instrumental)
4. Calhoun Square
5. Chaos And Disorder
6. I Like It There
7. All Shook Up
8. Empty Room
9. Spirituality
10. Johnny B. Goode
11.Elephants And Flowers
12. People Get Ready
13. When Will We Be Paid
14. Baby Love
15. Alphabet St.
16. Guitar