Friday August 24th: The murder of 11 year old Rhys Jones in Croxteth, Liverpool has dominated the news today. Shot while he was playing football in a pub car park, this is the latest in a long line of senseless deaths that have been reported since the beginning of the year. Gordon's got an uphill task facing him, if he's going to make any sort of impact on this issue. Gangs existed way before the media interest in them flared up and they'll be around after the interest fades.
The Evening Standard felt it necessary to name "all of London's 257 gangs" - Forgetting the ever growning contigent from East Europe and Asia that have found a foothold in the capital's criminal underworld. I can't deny, I'm really unsure of the logic behind this story. Is the plan to inform commuters of who could be mugging them? I can already see a balding gentleman in a raincoat, on a desserted Tube platform, tussling with a hooded youth over a Ferragamo attache case...
"STOP! LET GO OF MY BAG! I KNOW WHO YOU ARE! YOU'RE ONE OF THE WESTBOURNE PARK MAN DEM!!"
Diet Blair added his tuppence worth blaming "rap music bosses, lad mags, feckless fathers and the video game industry" for the actions of today's youth. All valid points, in some way, but Dave is starting to remind me of a wasp trapped in a bottle. He'll get as angry as hell, but he can't do anyone any harm, and his oxygen will soon run out. Sure enough, when you come down in the morning, he'll be dead - trapped in the syrupy dregs of Coca Cola like a mosquito encsased in amber.
He's also not going to Carnival. Despite the fact he lives in Notting Hill.
Chicken.
On a positive note - I was glad to see Jesse Jackson is over here and speaking some sense. For all the anger that was directed towards the Black community's elder figureheads such as Al Sharpton and Oprah and Mr. Jackson in the States after they criticised the hip-hop community, you've got to realise what they've went through to get to where they are. Jesse Jackson was on the balcony with Martin Luther King Jnr. when he got shot. They were involved in some real 'Ride Or Die' business, back in the day. Don't forget that.
And on with the evening's proceedings...Common's support set, two weeks after he had gone to the top of the charts with Finding Forever in The US was full of energy. He kicked off while people were still filing into the arena and the screams from various sections of the auditorium as he approached the mic stand proved that he was a crowd puller in his own right. The set was mainly based around cuts from his last four albums and the sound was nicely fleshed out by a live band with Philly neo-soul legend James Poyser on the keys. My personal favourite from the album, Black Maybe, swirled around the arena sounding every bit as vibrant as it does on record. Common went on to bring the (melo)drama with his spoken word interlude during Testify and had the crowd singing along to the chorus on The Light before breaking out to enthusiastic applause.
Once again, I was camped out in what one fellow spectator christened "The Media-Whore Box". Everyone was in a good mood ahead of the three day weekend and I got talking to Chuck Gabrielson, a USA Today reporter who had flown into London to see family. He said he's also planning to take in Notting Hill Carnival while he's over here - this weekend should provide him a decent sized photo album of memories. The bottles of Becks kept on coming, and, knowing that I'd left the car at home this evening, I kept on taking them. I had an 'I'm sure I know you' moment, when two girls walked in just as the house lights went down - it took me a minute to realise that it was Corinne Bailey Rae and her sister perched a couple of rows down from me. Despite her own superstar status, she was definitely there as a fan (and journalist), singing along to all the jams while scribbling her own notes throughout the show.
Could I ever get bored of hearing the crowd pop, when the lights go out Prince ascends through the trap door in the middle of the stage? Emphatically, no. I don't think he could either. Tonight, 1999 was first on the set list and it charged out of the gate like a bull on steroids. He's not carrying the indulgent, majestic swagger of the first night anymore - he doesn't need to. Not to say that the flamboyance and showmanship wasn't still there in abundance. Let's just say he was operating at an 8 tonight. He's got his game face on now and he looks like he came out tonight with the express purpose of challenging the late great James Brown for that 'Hardest Working Man in Showbiz' mantle. On top of that he's obviously aware of the fact it's a Bank Holiday weekend because he's really going for it this evening. They can have a lie in Monday morning.
Prince appears to be feeling at home in London right now "The Rolling Stones might have let you do what you want," he crooned during Satisfied. "But there's rules in my house!"
Tonight's highlight came during his solo keyboard set. Little Red Corvette morphed into Raspberry Beret before taking brief detours into Diamonds And Pearls and When Doves Cry before a monster rendition of Pop Life. The biggest response of the evening came when the electro-bump of Sign O' The Times shook the building. Lyrics written about gang violence and hurricanes in 1987 took on a new relevance after this week's events.
Common also returned to freestyle during Play That Funky Music. Was that a reference to Oscar-winning Brit-Flick The Queen, I heard?
Tonight, you don't just have to take my word for it. Ms. Bailey Rae, the floor is yours...
"The gig was amazing. An amzing response to what people want. It was a completely ego-less performance - he just kept on saying 'What do you wanna hear?' and playing riffs from all his songs and whatever gets the biggest roar is the one he does next. It must be amazing to have this canon of popular music to pull from and everyone, even guys in short sleeve shirts with tattoos and skinheads are gonna know all the songs he played in that set."
Corinne doesn't buy the rumour that this will be the last time he plays his most famous hits, though: "I think that...it's probably not the truth. I'm sure we'll hear them again..."
PS
And an impartial audience member told me that Prince own3d the Stones with his performance tonight.
Quotes:
"This is a heinous crime that shocked the whole of the country." -Prime Minister
"Their idea of fun, is being in a gang called The Disciples, high on crack, toting a machine gun" - Prince
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