ontheone

 Shhhhhh! There are a number of people in #purplelondon who are feeling incredible blessed, shell shocked, funked and rolled! Once again we found ourselves in London awaiting an audience with Prince in the freezing cold (OK, not Minneapolis cold).  In many ways it was a reunion for all the great friends that met during the Hit and Run Tour last year.  There streets of Camden were overflowing with the joy of reunion.  The lead up to this gig was very different to previous gigs.  The gig was a private event for the charity Autism Rocks and attendance was by invitation only.  The great thing about this event was that, unlike other private charity gigs which are typically complelety closed, the charity have built up contacts with fans of live music from previous live music events and the tickets are priced, such that the place can be filled with people that love the music, just like a regular gig and the money raised goes to help fun Autism Research. ...

Prince Army - Rosie Gaines Needs You! *** Updated - Direct Donation details below *** I remember the first time I saw Prince live.  It was the Diamonds & Pearls tour and one of the many striking things from that performance was the incredible performance of Rosie Gaines.  She's an incredible talent with such a powerful voice and unique style that included an incredible synthesis of a horn section! The Electronic Urban Report published details on the 10th January 2015 that Rosie has unfortuantely been suffering from medical problems resulting in large medical bills.  On hearing the news Prince and Sheila E have already offered and provided some support - but we can show our love and help as well; "*On Saturday, January 31, entertainers from the Bay Area in California and beyond will be  uniting to help one of their own in a fundraiser for former Prince protégé Rosie Gaines . Gaines’ daughter, Latoya Gaines , revealed in a press relea...

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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 ...

I'm setting out on what a lot of Prince fans might consider the journey of a lifetime.  Certainly for me it's been a dream for a very long time.  I remember hearing about the celebrations at Paisley Park many years ago, when Prince through the gates of The Park open to fans for days on end with a festival of gigs by Prince and artists that he'd worked with or admired.  I wished I could've been there and looked back thinking - how did I miss that?? This year has been a great year to be a Prince fan in London.  We've been treated to two tours - one in small venues with all of the excitement of last minute announcements and then a stadium tour.  Two new albums and a glimpse of even more exciting music yet to come from NPG Quartet and other Prince and 3rd Eye Girl projects. Its easy to let the idea of a trip like this stay a dream.  I'm writing this as a kind of diary but also to share my experiences and maybe as you read this you might be moved to make you...

Website "Spin" has posted the new Prince single U Know, from one of the two the forthcoming Prince albums.  Both albums are due to drop on the 29th September. The track is a slow burner, featuring a laid back rap and Prince's signature falsetto over some moody beats. U Know is the second track previewed from the new albums following Clouds being previewed last week. Listen to U Know  here Liston to Clouds here