ontheone

Interview with Marcus Anderson Marcus Anderson is in town again.  Over the past eighteen months we've seen him here with Prince, collaborating with Lianne La Havas on a live cover version of Lost & Found at some legendary shows at Kokos in Camden and performing at the iconic Ronnie Scotts in Soho on a version of Purple Rain with a sax solo in place of that famous guitar solo! 
More recently he was here with Liv Warfield on her Not Giving Up Tour, which by all accounts really blew people away that were lucky enough to be there. 
This time Marcus is back in Soho at one of the Capital's best jazz clubs which is celebrating its 50th year in 2015, The Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho.  He will be playing four shows this weekend, filling the early and late slots for both Friday and Saturday evening. Marcus took some time out to talk to us about Penny Loafers, musical vibrations, Prince's Vault, singers singing like sax players and sax players playing like singers......

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...

It started 4 days ago with a simple message on Prince's official twitter account @3rdeyegirl "Prince Now in London" Why would anyone think that a twitter account with this name would have any knowledge of the whereabouts of this notoriously secretive and prolific artist? Just hours earlier there were reports online about a listening party held in New York to promote the new single from Prince called Pretzelbodylogic.  Riding a crest of exposure following a well-received appearance, as himself, in a special Super Bowl edition of US comedy show "New Girl", Prince seemed ready to step back into mainstream consciousness again. One might expect a number of US TV appearances on popular entertainment shows to promote this new single and forthcoming album and tell the rest of the world about what he has been busy doing over the last couple of years.  However, being one to always do his own thing, Prince appeared to have flitted away to London in a mysterious ...

Prince & 3rdEyeGirl Live at Koko,  Camden, London, UK more coming soon