Prints

A few weeks ago I bought tickets to the third-and-final Prince concert, held last night at Sydney Olympic Park. After missing out on the cheapest ($100) tickets for the original run of two concerts, I found out about this quite by chance. From the humble cubicle in my shared office, the Kyle & Jackie-O Show is an everyday listening party courtesy of my lovely colleagues. About fifteen minutes before 9am there was an announcement that a new Prince show was about to go on sale due to popular demand. Thanking the stars, I sneaked my way onto Ticketek.com.au and successfully remembered my login details enough to purchase two tickets. They arrived via post and sat on my desk at home as a daily reminder that I was going to a Prince concert.

Last night while driving through remarkably good Sydney traffic, I wondered what Prince was doing and had been doing on his trip to Australia. He is not the kind of guy who soaks up a game of cricket at the MCG and is spotted out and about at high-flying Sydney nightspots. Prince is the kind of guy who nobody knows what on earth he does with his spare time. He will turn up unannounced at the Superbowl Finals to play Purple Rain with the Foo Fighters and then disappear in a high security mansion for five years and write dozens of albums that nobody will ever get to hear, because he not only played all the instruments but also engineered, produced and mastered them all. He will paint grand murals of himself flirting with his 'Love Symbol' and erect beautiful sculptures of graceful animals.

So when Prince is being driven along the dirty mid-section of Parramatta Road of a Tuesday afternoon on his way to a third-and-final concert, what is he thinking about the guy next to him at the red traffic light in the utility vehicle with ladder on top snorting cigarettes and glaring about menacingly? How does Prince cope with that, and what do you do when you see Prince stuck in a jam on the M2?

Such distracting thoughts distracted me from the fact I had indeed arrived at Sydney Olympic Park, parked the car, entered the arena and bought some drinks.

One thing I enjoy about these kinds of events is the utter lack of pretence. Nobody shows up to such a massive crowd trying to impress anybody. There are no big groups of single men and women causing trouble and clogging up the drinks line. There are respectable couples, families, and even the elderly. It is the kind of crowd you might expect at a large circus or the biggest restaurant in the universe. A great mix of society where you know everybody is alright because really what else would they be doing at a Prince concert?

Here is a list of some songs he played:

• Purple Rain
• She's Got the Look
• Kiss
• Let's Go Crazy
• When Doves Cry
• Cream
• Raspberry Beret
• Sign of the Times
• Nothing Compares 2 U

Of course there were more, but you can't have all the hits - despite his insistence that "I've got so many hits, we are going to be here all night", which I believe was a serious cooment. To illustrate the point, here is an alphabetical listing of all known Prince songs (including different versions of the same songs and spelling errors) according to a website that appeared during a recent Google search. Microsoft Excel has calculated the "Count" as 256 while the "Average" is 1003. There is also a bonus photo afterwards that I took with my iPhone.

• 1+1+1 Is 3
• 17 Days
• 1999
• 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton
• 200 Balloons
• 2045: Radical Man
• 4 The Tears In Your Eyes
• 4ever
• 5 Women
• 7
• 77 Beverly Park
• A Million Days
• Act Of God
• Adore
• Alexa De Paris (Extended Version)
• All The Critics Love U In New York
• All The Midnights In The World
• Alphabet St.
• Anna Stesia
• Annie Christian
• Another Lonely Christmas
• Automatic
• Baby
• ...Back 2 The Lotus
• Batdance
• Beautiful, Loved And Blessed
• Beginning Endlessly
• Better With Time
• Black Sweat
• Boom
• Brand New Orleans (Instrumental Jam)
• Brother With A Purpose
• Call My Name
• Chelsea Rodgers
• Chocolate Box
• Cinnamon Girl
• Colonized Mind
• Come
• Compassion
• Controversy
• Crazy You
• Cream
• Crimson And Clover
• D.M.S.R.
• Dance 4 Me
• Dance On
• Deconstruction
• Delerious
• Delirious
• Diamonds And Pearls
• Digital Garden
• Dirty Mind
• Do It All Night
• Do Me, Baby
• Dreamer
• East
• Electric Chair
• Erotic City
• Escape
• Everybody Loves Me
• Everywhere
• Extraordinary
• Eye No
• F.U.N.K.
• Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful
• Feel U Up
• For You
• Free
• From The Lotus...
• Fury
• Future Baby Mama
• Future Soul Song
• Gamillah
• Get Off
• Get On The Boat
• Get On The Bus
• Gett Off
• GettOff
• Girl
• Girls And Boys
• Glam Slam
• God
• Golden Parachute
• Gotta Broken Heart Again
• Gotta Stop (Messin' About)
• Guitar
• Head
• Hello
• Here
• High
• Horny Toad
• How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore
• Hypnoparadise
• I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
• I Feel For You
• I Hate You
• I Love U In Me
• I'm Yours
• I Wanna Be Your Lover
• I Want To Be Your Lover (Extended Edit)
• I Want To Be Your Lover (Original)
• I Wish U Heaven
• I Would Die 4 U
• I Would Die For You
• If I Was Your Girlfriend
• Illusion, Coma, Pimp & Circumstance
• In Love
• Incense And Candles
• International Lover
• Irresistible Bitch
• It
• It's About That Walk
• It's Gonna Be Lonely
• Jack U Off
• Judas Smile
• Just As Long As We're Together
• Kirk J's B Sides Remix
• Kiss
• La, La, La, He, He, Hee
• Lady Cab Driver
• Last December
• Lavaux
• Laydown
• Lemon Crush
• Let It Go
• Letitgo
• Let's Go Crazy
• Let's Pretend We're Married
• Life 'O' The Party
• Lion Of Judah
• Little Red Corvette
• Lolita
• Love
• Love Like Jazz
• Loveleft, Loveright
• Lovesexy
• Mellow
• Money Don't Matter 2 Night
• Money Don't Matter 2 Nite
• Mountains
• Mr. Goodnight
• Muse 2 The Pharaoh
• My Little Pill
• My Love Is Forever
• N. P. G. (Funky Weapon Remix)
• New Mix
• No More Candy 4 U
• North
• Northside
• Nothing Compares 2 U
• Ol' Skool Company
• Old Friends 4 Sale
• On The Couch
• Orgasm
• Papa
• Partyman
• Partyup
• Peace
• Peach
• Pink Cashmere
• Planet Earth
• Pop Life
• Pope
• Positivity
• Power Fantastic
• Private Joy
• Props 'N' Pounds
• Purple Medley
• Purple Rain
• Rainbow Children
• Rapberry Beret
• Raspberry Beret
• Reflection
• Release It
• Resolution
• Rock Hard In A Funky Place
• Ronnie, Talk To Russia
• S & M Groove
• S.S.T.
• Sarah
• Scandalous
• Scarlet Pussy
• Sea Of Everything
• Sex
• Sex Me? Sex Me Not
• Sexuality
• Sexy Dancer
• Sexy M.F.
• She Loves Me 4 Me
• She Spoke 2 Me (Extended Remix)
• She's Always In My Hair
• Shockadelica
• Sign "O" The Times
• Sign "?" The Times
• Silicon
• Sister
• So Blue
• Soft And Wet
• Solo
• Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)
• Somewhere Here On Earth
• South
• Sticky Like Glue
• Still Waiting
• Supercute
• T.C.'s Rap
• Te Amo Corazon
• The Arms Of Orion
• The Arms Of Orions
• The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
• The Daisy Chain
• The Dance
• The Future
• The Latest Fashion
• The Lubricated Lady
• The Marrying Kind
• The Most Beautiful Girl In The World
• The One U Wanna C
• The Rest Of My Life
• The Scandalous Sex Suit: The Crime
• The Scandalous Sex Suit: The Passion
• The Scandalous Sex Suit: The Rapture
• The Sensual Everafter
• The Word
• The Work Pt. 1
• There Is Lonely
• (There'll Never B) Another Like Me
• Thieves In The Temple
• Tick, Tick, Bang
• Trust
• U Got The Look
• U Make My Sun Shine
• Ultimix
• Underneath The Cream
• United States Of Division
• Uptown
• Valentina
• Vavoom
• Vicki Waiting
• Video
• Walk In Sand
• Wall Of Berlin
• Wanna Be Your Lover
• Wedding Feast
• West
• What Do U Want Me 2 Do?
• When 2 R In Love
• When Doves Cry
• When Eye Lay My Hands On U
• When The Lights Go Down
• When We're Dancing Close And Slow
• When Will We B Paid?
• When You Were Mine
• Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?
• With You
• Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This?

What is your favourite song? Do you have a special Prince moment?