So it was just after midnight as I walked out into the warm air of Greenwich…well the air felt warm, it may have just been me still on a high. Once again I had been lucky enough to spend a night with probably the major role model of my youth…Prince.

If you have not heard, he has set up shop in London’s O2 (formally The Millennium Dome) for 21 nights. His only European dates this year. In fact, he intends to take time off for “Bible Studies” once this is over. Though just what he considers time off is a whole other matter!

The concert kicked off around 2050 and was all done at around 2300. He provided the audience with a brief taste of almost 30 years of hits, with tunes from 1978 to 2007! This did feel like a “greatest hits” tour and for all of those in the crowd he delivered. Treating us to music the way it should be heard and presented. Again, for most he gave them the hits they wanted and a show only he could put on.

I liked it…maybe that is the problem…I just liked it. I knew what I was going to see, a chance to see all those tunes that I play over and over again, but live, by the artist himself. I was 9 when I got my first Prince album and never looked back…neither did he though. He made music on the cutting edge and was rewarded and suffered accordingly. Books have been written on this so I will not delve any deeper. At one stage he asked the audience would they like to hear something new or old? I was probably the only person to say new!

You see, walking away from that concert it really struck me how things have changed. Prince the pervert is gone, seemingly replaced by Prince the preacher! Gone is the rawness, hearing “TMBGITW” followed by “Pussy Control” and “Orgasm” while he changes suits! If the above means nothing to you then maybe you are the lucky ones. Instead you will maybe hear the clean version of “Days of Wild”, but maybe never realise the gritty original that spawned it. I knew the words to almost every song that was played…10 years ago that would not have happened!

If you get a chance to see this man live, GO! I insist, we all have memories associated with his tunes. The show is great, the band is perfect, the dancers sexy and singers superb! Prince…well, he is the Artist!

But spare a thought for those of us who come out and stand in the still night air, those words we are saying over and over again are not song lyrics, and our eyes are glazed over for good reason…

Prince is dead…Long Live Prince…

(All the above is thanks to time & effort of one very special person, she knows who she is!)