Purple Reign
Want to know what the biggest news is in London town this summer? New Prime Minister? Nope. Biblical floods bringing chaos and destruction? Nada. Spiralling gun and knife crime? Uh-uh. The worst British summer time weather since the ice-age? Puh-lease, get with the programme. Because the biggest thing happening in the city that never sleeps (unless, of course, it is past 2 am and then we all try to get our regular 8 hours shut-eye) is more significant than all of these put together. That's right, it is the 21 night residency of the funkiest and purplest man in pop, Mr Rogers Nelson, Symbol/Squiggle, Sl4ve, Artist-Formerly-Known-Now-Known-Again-As-Prince.
You heard it right, I said Prince. And if you're sitting there thinking, "yeah, yeah but what good has he done since Lovesexy", and are determined to be a hater of quite simply the most talented musician of our generation, then there is good news even for you my friend. Because this is a no-holds-barred, foot-stomping, rump-shaking Greatest Hits tour the likes of which I never dreamed I would see. Following on from his stateside Las Vegas residency, the Purple One appeared on these shores to announce that he and his band had 150 songs rehearsed and ready to roll, and that the London shows would be the last time he would rinse out the hits. All.
Of. The. Hits. No two nights the same. Secret aftershows. Ridiculous acoustic encores when half the crowd have left the venue. Maceo Parker on horn for goodness sakes! You don't need me to tell you how massive that is, right? Set list for when I saw the show: 1999, Let's Go Crazy, 7, Take Me With U, Musicology, Alphabet Street, Cream, Purple Rain, Nothing Compares 2U, Forever In My Life, I Feel For You, Controversy, HouseQuake, If I Was Your Girlfriend.
Others have reported complete sections of Parade, a medley of I Wanna Be Your Lover, Poplife, Sign O The Times, a version of Erotic City goddammit! The man is a music machine, and whether his output now reaches the peaks of the past is irrelevant, because the peaks are so far above the norm. Believe the hype. London is purple this summer.
You heard it right, I said Prince. And if you're sitting there thinking, "yeah, yeah but what good has he done since Lovesexy", and are determined to be a hater of quite simply the most talented musician of our generation, then there is good news even for you my friend. Because this is a no-holds-barred, foot-stomping, rump-shaking Greatest Hits tour the likes of which I never dreamed I would see. Following on from his stateside Las Vegas residency, the Purple One appeared on these shores to announce that he and his band had 150 songs rehearsed and ready to roll, and that the London shows would be the last time he would rinse out the hits. All.
Of. The. Hits. No two nights the same. Secret aftershows. Ridiculous acoustic encores when half the crowd have left the venue. Maceo Parker on horn for goodness sakes! You don't need me to tell you how massive that is, right? Set list for when I saw the show: 1999, Let's Go Crazy, 7, Take Me With U, Musicology, Alphabet Street, Cream, Purple Rain, Nothing Compares 2U, Forever In My Life, I Feel For You, Controversy, HouseQuake, If I Was Your Girlfriend.
Others have reported complete sections of Parade, a medley of I Wanna Be Your Lover, Poplife, Sign O The Times, a version of Erotic City goddammit! The man is a music machine, and whether his output now reaches the peaks of the past is irrelevant, because the peaks are so far above the norm. Believe the hype. London is purple this summer.
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