ontheone

Photo by Sara Savoy So - a bit like Inception or Pulp Fiction or one of those films that goes out of sequence - I'm going to have to skip ahead a little bit in the story of my visit to Minneapolis, because something amazing just happened.... I just had the most incredible afternoon and evening for lots of reasons..  I was planning an easy day of relaxing and writing when I got an invite from Sara to join her on a trip to her sister's place and we would take in the spot where Take Me With You was filmed and try and find "the lake" where Prince convinced Apollonia to purify herself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka. I drove up to Sara's place about midday where I was greeted by her enthusiastic dogs and I had a good old look through Sara's amazing vinyl collection while she got ready.  We were a little on edge that something might happen that night but nothing had been announced so it was seeming less and less likely. Photo by Sara Savoy Photo...

Minneapolis from the sky  On my 9 hour flight to Minneapolis from London, I sat next to a lady who was born and raised in Minnesota.  We got chatting about why we were travelling, she told me she had just been over to Ireland to visit family and it was a bitter sweet experience as her grandmother was quite old now.  When I told her that I was making my journey in the hope of seeing Prince she laughed. Lake Calhoun from the sky A peer of Prince (she was around the same age) and a teacher in North Minneapolis most of her life, she had the view that Prince thought a lot of himself and mentioned the whole name changing thing and that he should do more for charity, especially to help the schools of North Minneapolis, which she was very passionate about and said need a lot of help.  Her school had been doing really well in a deprived area and the school had been shutdown because the local council wanted the land to build new offices.  We talked a lot about ...

Last night was the first of what appears to be 2 listening parties held at Paisley park this weekend. From the sounds of it there were at least 2 groups that were select by the girls in the group. They were led into Studio B, the same place that the last listening party took place.  Apparently there were 6 tracks played. Here is an incomplete list of the tracks played via @Baron3121 One of those tracks featuring Hannah on vocals may be the song "White Caps" which was previously described as a duet with Joshua Welton. Its difficult to piece together exactly what went down from all the tweets that came out.  Separating the true funk soldiers from the fantasists :P  U know who U are ;)  Thanks to @PrinceWatchUK for helping to filter.  There were mentions of Lianne La Havas possibly being attendance.  Update - confirmed by retweet by @3RDEYEGIRL.  Below are some quotes of the most vivid descriptions of what went down last night. Tra...

Report on the Roundhouse show 2 is on its way!  In the meantime..... The aim of this post is to be an uncharacteristically quick description of events last night... Heard about the private show happening (for those attending the UK premier of the movie Belle) at the Hippodrome, Leicester Square.  Site of one of my all time favourite aftershows by the way.... Went down there, thinking - meet up with friends, have a drink, probably no chance of getting in - but would be good to talk outside of zooming around to fan invented aftershow party venues / home after the Roundhouse gig. Found a small gathering of purple people outside Hippodrome, hoping to somehow get in or see what was happening. Went for a meal - completely chilled about what was / wasn't going to happen. The Hippodrome is now a casino.  Like all casinos, security is extremely tight because of the money going around etc.  As me and Rob walked around the place after our meal - I felt sure tha...

Imagine you are walking past the back door of your favourite local grimy dive where THE best up and coming bands play.  The door has been left ajar and you hear the crashes of drums, strains of hard rocking guitars loosely colliding building an electric tension.  You don't know who is about to hit the stage, but there is a palpable tension in the air created just by the sound of this band slinging a guitar strap over their shoulders, stretching their fingers and warming up the drums.  This is what the beginning of the album "Suites" by the Donna Grantis Electric Band sounds like. You run around to get into the venue and as they hit the stage and the band launches into a hard rocking instrumental, reminiscent of some of the greatest moments of Led Zeppelin.  A driving rhythm section and wailing guitar that at times soars away, taking your mind with it.  This track sounds very familiar to you - is it Prince? You may have heard this track in a short vi...

Here's an insight into what went down in the run up to the Cafe de Paris gig.  Thanks to Rob Staples for this report. Café De Paris – 20 th May 2014 Seeing as Marcus has so expertly captured the gig itself, let me share a bit of my experience about the run up to Tuesday night.... it was just as exciting as the twitterstorm of Hit & Run I and had a clutch of hardened Prince fans on edge for a whole week!! I first heard the remote rumour of a secret gig about a week before on Wednesday 14th May - a link to a website had been circulated briefly and then disappeared. The public website was www.autismrocks.com and had a simple info flash: Any Prince fan worth their salt sees the words ‘Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’ and immediately makes a connection with Prince, with him receiving this legendary title back in 2004. Fans in the know also understand that Prince’s agent, Kiran Sharma, is a leading light within the British Asian community and that she is hi...

I was dreaming when I wrote this, forgive me if it goes astray.... Last night Prince & 3rdEyeGirl performed a benefit gig at the intimate Cafe de Paris in London for a new charity called Autism Rocks, established by Sanjay Shah this year.  Some of you may be familiar with this venue as Prince played a gig here back in 1998 with Chaka Khan, which was broadcast on UK television. DJ Trevor Nelson was warming up the crowd with some slamming tunes as a small number of fans partied in the standing section on the floor and celebrities partied in the discreet balcony area. Everyone was dressed to impress and in party spirits, as Prince and 3rdEyeGirl took the stage.  The venue was so small that there was not enough room on stage for the whole band!  Prince, Donna, Hanna and Ida took the stage on the floor and the keys were setup above them in the balcony for Joshua and Cassie. Prince came out wearing shades and kicked off with Let's Go Crazy and the crowd really d...

As we approach what appears to be the end of the Hit and Run part II tour of the UK, reports from fans who are seeing Prince for the first time on this tour are still raving that these are the best shows they have ever seen.  Reports from fans that have been to multiple gigs at this point are pointing out what was better on this, that or the other date - maybe too much of a good thing for some maybe? Here is a fan report from last night's gig. It was an unusual move for Prince to have a support act.  I don't remember him ever having an opening act in the UK, unless they were one of his side projects (like the NPG during the act II tour).  Laura Mvula seemed to be fairly unknown to most fans, but she soon one the audience over with her incredible voice and smile.  She had a compliment of strings with her including 2 harps, violin, cello.  Her material is very original went down really well.  A lot of people were surprised by her.  Prince came ou...

By all accounts the shows are heating up, from the first gig in Birmingham which featured a rare performance of Electric Intercourse to the latest two shows in Manchester, which have the whole arena rocking. Here's fan report from Rob, who has been to every show to date.... Here's my thoughts and hopefully this will inspire those of u umming & aaahing to GET A TICKET!! Basically, These 3EG gigs are getting better and BETTER....!! I was front row BHM, and it was amazing but I'll be honest and tell you there were parts of that gig that weren't flowing and I could see directly that Prince wasn't happy at certain points. It felt like the guys were just settling in to the arena experience and the crowd were feeling that. The place woke up properly for 1999 tho...! Ok, next I was seated on Friday night and I got a real good sense of the whole arena.... Right off the bat, everyone was FUNKY IN MANCHESTER! Sorry BHM but it's true! Whole venue, partying wh...

Following rave reviews of a string of small and last-minute gigs. Prince returns to the UK with 3rdEyeGirl to play to a wider audience at some of the UK's biggest arenas. Here we have a fan's report of his experience of the first night in Birmingham. Not sure how much has been written about yesterday's gig so will just post my little description/review. I traveled from Essex and so did not get to Birmingham until after 2pm, at which point I had to go and check into my hotel before I could head to the arena. Got to the arena at roughly 3.15pm. My friend and I were numbers 86 and 87 in the queue. Within about an hour of arriving, security told everyone already in the queue they would be given their wristbands early and be allowed into the arena early to use the toilet, get food/drink, buy merch, etc, then be allowed priority access to the actual auditorium in the order they queued up. Literally. They got everybody in, in the exact order they arrived in (save for the ...