My favourite Prince performance - The Brit Awards 2006

RandallFlagg

I remember watching the 2006 Brit Awards live, right here at home with my eldest Daughter and was blown away by this surprise performance by Prince, I think he opened the show with this 4 song medley and I was so excited to see that Wendy & Lisa were in the band along with Sheila E on drums/percussion.

He looks great, as do the whole band, he sings superbly and his guitar tones and playing are stunning with his original Hohner Telecaster through a Mesa Lonestar. I love how he switches on and off his Boss BF2 Flanger throughout just to add movement and colour to sustained single notes. What a player and performer, he had it all.

They blew away all other performers than night hands down and so clearly extremely well rehearsed, every little move, even down to Tamar's kiss on the cheek which you could tell ws pre-planned.

Note how Shiela E leaves the drums mid way through the ending of Purple Rain and makes way for Cora Coleman Dunham to sings off and play the next song!

• Te Amo Corazon
• Fury
• Purple Rain
• Let's Go Crazy

Oh and backing singer Tamar looks so sexy, she looks so happy to be Prince's latest protege...swoon! She didn't last much longer though as he moved on.

Treat yourself and watch this, this is how to perform as a true entertainer.

Stunning.

pmg

Saw him doing a greatest hits set at the o2 and then on the hit and run tour in Manchester a few years later.  Simply superb.

Grunfeld

Okay, that was really good!

Nice description @RandallFlagg -- you hooked me in.  (I'm so not a Prince fan.)  But that was really good.

RandallFlagg

pmg said:

Saw him doing a greatest hits set at the o2 and then on the hit and run tour in Manchester a few years later.  Simply superb.

We saw him on the 21 nights at the O2 as well, the next year, I bought my wife some of his 3121 fragrance, I loved the smell of that.

DrCornelius

Thanks for posting that , superb in a word

darthed1981

Amazing musician.

RandallFlagg

I remember reading at the time that Chris Evans who hosted the ceremony got the right arse because Prince refused to let anyone watch the rehearsals earlier in the day and even he go booted out of the hall.

mgaw

immense solo on purple rain....totally inspired me back in the day  fortunate to have seen him live

King85

I'd not seen that before but what a great little set, he  was an amazing musician.

EricTheWeary

Gawd knows last time I watched the Brits so I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. Great stuff. Shades of his hero Santana as well. 

RandallFlagg

EricTheWeary said:

Gawd knows last time I watched the Brits so I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. Great stuff. Shades of his hero Santana as well. 

And some Hendrix stage moves with his guitar here and there as well

MLten80

what a showman/leg-end 

rip
 
(vid has distracted me from shoddy TV offerings so ,cheers)

Moominpapa

What a presence - just coolly and effortlessly dominates  the stage. Great performer.

MLten80

^ exactly, it seemed effortless to him
 such pizzazz (no instaban for shit choice of buzz words please)

EricTheWeary

RandallFlagg said:

EricTheWeary said:

Gawd knows last time I watched the Brits so I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. Great stuff. Shades of his hero Santana as well. 

And some Hendrix stage moves with his guitar here and there as well

IIRC Prince called himself Santana before he was known as Prince ( if you follow). 
He was an interesting chap for sure. Apparently he recorded massive guitar jam versions of many of his songs that were never released, loved the guitar. Sadly missed. 

fretmeister

Amazing.

i saw him at the O2 in London too. Probably the best show I’ve ever seen by anyone.

JerkMoans

Epic

Saw him ? 8 years ago at Hop Farm. Incomparable.

gavin_axecaster

Prince always had great musicians in his band and they were always very well rehearsed. But they were also great at jamming too - many of the afterhsow small club gigs would have no structure and just be massive jams. Conversely some would have a theme - a jazzy show or a rock show. A few of the O2/Indigo aftershows rank as in the top 10 for me. My favourite aftershow is 95 at the Emporium. It was announced at the Wembley show and me and my mate shot over there on our motorcycles and got in with hardly any queuing. Prince didn't come on stage until 3 am then played an amazing almost 3 hour show - they literally had to cut the sound to get him to stop.

I saw around 15 performances of the 02 run I think - more aftershows than main shows. It was great and every aftershow was completely different.

This era 06/07 is I think the last time he used the Hohner as his main guitar. He started using modified Strats and for the last few years of his life a Vox was his main performing guitar.

Re the kiss - I think it's fan service as a nod to when he kisses Wendy on the cheek during Purple Rain in the film.

richardhomer

Yep - epic. The guy was a genius - unlike the idiot at work who tried to tell me Prince was over-rated....

MLten80

fire him immediately ^^

Philtre

Great guitar player, and a great performer.