Photo: Press
"We're gunna play 14 hits in a row," purrs a resplendent Prince. "Then if you're still standing, we'll play some more". A year since His Royal Badness last held London at his mercy, Prince's endurance test of a carnival is the only show you need to see for a lesson in longevity.
Arriving promptly for stage time backed by the force of nature that is 3RDEYEGIRL, Prince is always on form. We've come to expect hours of freeform funk-jamming from The Purple One, every moment a joy, but tonight the order of the day is hits - and the sheer calibre and volume of them this evening is quite frankly breathtaking. The casual nature in which they're reeled out is just testament to his lasting brilliance.
With the sprawling 'Purple Rain' into a rocked-up version of 'Let's Go Crazy' into 'Take Me With U' and the shimmering romp of 'U Got The Look', this is a set that would largely compile the greatest hits of the 20th century, let alone the work of one artist. But tonight is not just rooted in the past.
"How many of y'all remember the 80s?" he smirks, before bursting into 'Controversy'. True, the old classics invite the warmest welcome, but newer numbers like 'FUNKNROLL' and 'PLECTRUMELECTRUM' reveal an artist living very much in the present. Not only does he have the elastic, feline dance moves that made him in icon decades ago, but it's his fluid sense of fluid musicianship that gives him to compulsion to never stop. 3RDEYEGIRL only give an added an extra dimension to tracks old and new, giving them a widescreen bite that begs to headline festivals.
From the lesser-known rocker of 'Guitar' into a closing cover of Michael Jackson's 'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough', Prince and 3RDEYEGIRL bleed music. If they could do that at Glastonbury or, hell, anywhere else on Earth this summer, it would go down in history as one for all time. This was an endurance test only as proof that Prince isn't going anywhere.
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Prince played:
Purple Rain
Let's Go Crazy (Reloaded)
Take Me With U
U Got The Look
FUNKNROLL
Controversy
1999
Little Red Corvette
Nothing Compares 2 U
U Got The Look
Kiss
Only Love Can Hurt Like This (w/ Liv Warfield)
- - - - SAMPLE SET - - - -
When Doves Cry
Sign O' The Times
Hot Thing
A Love Bizarre
Intro Darling Nikki
Pop Life
I Would Die 4 U
- - - - END SAMPLE SET - - - -
Forever In My Life
- - - - SAMPLE SET - - - -
Housequake
U KNOW (intro)
THE GOLD STANDARD (snippet)
If I Was Your Girlfriend (intro)
- - - - END SAMPLE SET - - - -
Guitar
PLECTRUMELECTRUM
THE BREAKDOWN
What's My Name
Stratus
Sometimes It Snows In April (Tease)
Dreamer
Let's Work
COOL / Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough (w/ Liv Warfield)
