Review - Prince at the 02 Arena, London, Sat 11 Aug 07

[Jaime]

Like many others I was excited to simply be in the same building as the legend formerly known as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince but now simply called Prince. Mrs Jaime, myself and four friends had been eagerly awaiting this gig since waking up to the fact that we had actually been able to get tickets for what promised to be Prince's historic, month long residency at the 02; the venue formerly known as The Millennium Dome.

The lights went down just as we were taking our seats – front row in the upper tier – and we had a fantastic view right on top of the stage, which was laid out in the round and shaped in the form of the wee man’s squiggle insignia. To be fair there is probably not a bad seat in the house.

As the opening bars of Purple Rain rang out the 20,000 fans literally screamed in delight and it was hard not to imagine that I had been transported back to the days of Beatlemania. At the end of that opening track and a faultless guitar solo the crowd was mesmerised. A surprising choice for the opening song we all thought – surely that would be his finale as it had been at The Superbowl - but truly breathtaking nevertheless.

As the evening went on though, I realised that Purple Rain must actually have been the encore from the previous show because I then endured (and I mean endured) the most tiresome couple of hours for many a year. I use the word tiresome deliberately because Mrs Jaime had to be prodded awake not once but twice during the show. Despite the quality of the seating and the scale of the arena, one crucial aspect of the 02 lets it down - the acoustics. They were so bad at the upper levels that it was almost impossible to discern what was being played as drum and base drowned everything, including the purple pixie’s singing. Even when Prince tried to communicate with his public, his yelps, like the music, were deconstructed into a sequence of unintelligible echoes that boomed around the venue. It reminded me of being in a bad 1980’s disco or possibly gave an insight into how it must feel if locked inside the boot of a chav's Vauxhall Corsa with sound system on at full blast. Absolutely shocking and for such a boldly heralded event, completely unforgivable. This is something that Prince’s people and the 02 need to address and quickly.

Having said that, those down in the pit seemed to be having the party of their lives and checking out some bloggers’ reviews it seems that it is only 50% of the audience that are unable to discern anything. Only 10,000 people a night then. Then again, some of the dedicated Prince sycophants would have clapped and cheered “genius” if Prince had come on stage and crapped into a bucket.

Although Prince gyrated energetically throughout and the set was a good couple of hours long, the cacophony of noise – including a number of self indulgent ‘instrumental’ interludes – rendered the whole experience as completely tedious. His reluctance to simply play what the (paying) people want to hear leaves me thinking that Prince treats his audience with contempt and he clearly believes his own hype.

In the couple of days since the concert I have wondered whether it was just me and the people I was with. Maybe we just didn’t get it. Then I remember the boos that rang around the arena at the end of the gig when Prince teasingly played a 30 second medley of some of his more popular 80’s hits before announcing that he didn’t want to play that stuff anymore and I realise that we were right the first time – it really was shite. I just can’t put it any more eloquently than that.

Prince may be rock royalty but this was The Emperor’s New Clothes.
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"The man who never made a mistake never did bugger all" - Old Welsh proverb

"Why limit yourself to the death of a crummy celery stalk when you can eat a giraffe?" - PWEETA

[Norseman]

Maybe that is why he just give away for free his records.
Nobody want to buy?
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I intend to live forever -- so far, so good.

[PAINTER01]

I went to see Prince when he was in the UK last time around about 5 years i think. The venue didn't help for sure, but even so I thought he was c...p
After 2 or 3 songs I spent the night up the bar!!

This got me thinking, regardless of reputation what are the worse bands.
you've seen
Mine would be
Whitney Houston ( went to the bar)
Prince Ditto
Al Green Spent the gig promoting love amongst the female audience giving out roses. I waited for the encore there wasn't one and I missed the train home!
Michael Jackson At the back at Wembley Stadium say no more
Liberty X left early and went for a Chinese meal instead
My best would be
David Gray
Beverly Knight
George Michale
Brian McFadden

There was also one band who was the support act talk about 4 sullen miserable gits playing funeral music, it was all could do not to slash my wrists in the toilets.

Painter