Prince\u2019s (late) arrival was preceded by a mass of video footage telling us how wonderful he is (any classical musician who did that would be deemed a right poseur). The man is a consummate performer\u2026 he even managed to escape the tyranny of the beat when, sitting alone and playing very good keyboard, he reeled off a string of what are evidently his hits. Prince somehow reminds me of a latter-day Cliff Richard \u2013 a great entertainer, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with that.<\/p>\n
August 31Mick Brown, Telegraph features writer<\/p>\n
\u201cForeplay\u201d, announced Prince, wagging a finger, \u201cstarts in the mind\u2019\u2019 \u2013 the first sermon in a \u201crules of love\u2019\u2019 routine that was one of the highlights of this performance. Rule number two was, \u201cI may be small, but so is dynamite.\u2019\u2019 That this tiny, effete and highly manicured presence should have convinced so many women that he is a love god is one the abiding mysteries, and triumphs, of his career. But he has always known that pop music is, first and foremost, about sex.<\/p>\n
September 1Jo Brand, comedian<\/p>\n
I was never a fan of \u201cthe King\u2019\u2019 and have harboured equally unsavoury attitudes towards Prince. So, you might ask, why did I drag my unwilling self to this feast of funk at the great big dutch cap in Greenwich? Reader, I was looking for conversion, having been lectured by many on the putative tallness of his talent. On arrival, I felt like a BNP member at the unveiling of Nelson Mandela\u2019s statue in Parliament Square.<\/p>\n
We awaited Prince\u2019s entrance with baited breath and eventually the little red devil appeared on stage in a burst of light and sound, accompanied by his brilliant band and two of the most energetic dancers since St Vitas taught those medieval types to boogie on down.<\/p>\n
The show was amazing, Prince himself an impressive multitasker and the experience something that will sit in my deteriorating memory for some time to come. I still don\u2019t like him, though.<\/p>\n
September 6Beverley Knight, singer<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a life-long fan, and having supported and jammed with him twice. Effortlessly cool, relaxed and in serious vocal form, Prince and his band, the NPG, ripped the stage from the glorious openers, Let\u2019s Go Crazy and 1999, to the nu-school funk of Musicology, which turned into an almighty jam. \u201cTwenty-one nights? We\u2019re going to have to make it 52 nights!\u2019\u2019 he teased.<\/p>\n
September 9Charles Spencer, former Telegraph theatre critic<\/p>\n
How Prince loves to tease and provoke. But what he needs, yet is never likely to accept, is a firm and disciplined director. This brave man would tell him that his fans deserve to hear the hits, properly played, that less time should be spent doodling away solo at an electronic keyboard, and that the performance should be compressed and refined so that it builds on its climaxes rather than repeatedly dissipating the energy level.<\/p>\n
September 12Bryony Gordon, author and journalist<\/p>\n
The ability to make a vast arena feel like an intimate venue is something few artists can manage, but Prince nailed it. It\u2019s a testament to him that, so long into this stretch, he\u2019s performing with the freshness and vibrancy of a man half his age. I love him. I would very much like to marry him.<\/p>\n
September 13Katherine Jenkins, singer<\/p>\n
I wasn\u2019t a huge Prince fan when I was growing up: I didn\u2019t listen to much pop music at all. Prince took the whole performance to another level. I was surprised by how many men were in the audience, dancing and really letting go. He started to play Elton John\u2019s Your Song and suddenly, a camera picked up Elton in the audience and flashed him on to the big screen, singing along. The next thing, he got up on stage with Prince and they played The Long and Winding Road. I couldn\u2019t quite believe it; watching these two legends on stage together.<\/p>\n
September 16Augusto Koschak<\/p>\n
I\u2019m 10, and I hadn\u2019t been to a rock concert before. When it started, there was a girl singing, and that was a waste of time. But, when Prince came on, it was like a miracle \u2013 like an angel coming down from the heavens. It was explosive.<\/p>\n
September 20Ali Smith, novelist<\/p>\n
It was another good night with sweet Prince, whose stage, the Symbol \u2013 part male, part female, part trumpet, part orgasm \u2013 glows and pulses at the centre of the stadium like a body lit up by joy, or like a landing strip for a whole new country. It\u2019s the ideal theatre for the funkiest Priapus alive, glinting his guitar at the tip of his own arrow.<\/p>\n
September 21Graham Boynton, journalist<\/p>\n
It\u2019s over. Purple towels are being neatly folded in a launderette in Greenwich; bins outside the Dome are filled to the brim with purple glow sticks. Those who were there are struggling to adjust to life without Prince.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prince\u2019s (late) arrival was preceded by a mass of video footage telling us how wonderful he is (any…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[3561,956,2112,27,674,8519,8518,330,1797,333],"class_list":{"0":"post-18558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-concerts","9":"tag-culture","10":"tag-culture-editors-choice","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-o2-arena","14":"tag-prince-musician","15":"tag-standard","16":"tag-top-story","17":"tag-us-content"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116442240368822054","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}