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| Us - not with Prince |
Unless
you’ve been cowering in a trench for much of 2014 you’ll know that this year’s definitive
live music events have been Prince and his spate of ‘Hit and Run’ gigs.
Out of the
blue back in spring, surprise shows started to be announced by the purple one
and his band 3rd Eye Girl. The real lob on came from the gigs only being
unveiled the day before they were due to take place. Plus they weren’t in the
usual Tuborg-filled megadomes custom for artists of his (sales) stature.
Instead he’d opted for joints where you might be able to see the whites of his
eyes. Oooof. Such cavalier activity made Prince seem like a musical Scarlet
Pimpernel, suddenly appearing in random shoeboxes brandishing a killer set of tunes
before disappearing again in a puff of smoke.
Unfortunately,
despite the hype, we kept missing out on the wee man’s live outings. Indeed
we’d given up all hope of checking him until the other Monday when news of some
shows at London’s Roundhouse slipped out via Twitter. This time luck was on
our side and before we knew it, we were in, having baggsed a trio of tickets
after forking out almost 250 notes. It happened so quickly that the dosh had
gone out of my account before I’d even realised the golden tickets were ours. Eek and indeed ahrgh. Even more rapidly we found ourselves in a queue outside
London’s Roundhouse on a dank Wednesday night standing next to none other than top bird watcher
Bill Oddie. Who knew he loved Prince? Who knew he has to queue like every other
normal to get in? Who knew that he dresses like a birdwatcher even when there
aren’t any birds to be seen? But it was all true - there he was, standing in a
puddle with wet socks and sandals on his feet, even keen to have his photo
taken.
After
meeting Oddie, the evening was already pretty high up there on the top ten list
of ‘best evenings ever’ before Prince had even come on or played a note. But when he did, the roof of the
Roundhouse almost blew off such was the noise and drama he plugged into our
evening. This was the second set of the day for him and his band but they rattled
through the hits with huge amounts of feedback and gusto - Let’s Go Crazy, I Wanna Be Your
Love, Nothing Compares 2U, Purple Rain – the first 90 minutes were all about
the hits and the man himself, boogieing, soloing and flashing Zoolander-esque
Blue Steel looks across the crowd. The second half was more about Third Eye Girl and their
riffs but, despite the extended jam session that this part became, it was still up there with being the best gig ever. Motherfucking Prince in the room! Three encores
later, it all ground to a halt at 1am although it felt like Prince could have
kept at it, prancing, dancing and potentially romancing all night. He’s got stamina and hits. Bill Oddie must have loved it...
