Saturday September 22nd: And that's that. I could have filed last night but I wanted to savour the occasion. To mull it over in the confines of my own brain before sharing it with you. Wouldn't want to get anything wrong now, would I?
Gordon will be going into the Labour Party Conference with his opinion poll lead intact, according to The Press Association, which is to say that when it comes down to him the country would rather be led by him than grinning oaf, Dave.
The Prime Minister has also made headlines in the past 24 hours for refusing to attend an EU summit if Zimbabwe's President Mugabe is present. Now, I'm not sure where I stand on this. With Gordon (along with French President, Nicolas Sarkozy), appointing himself a saviour of the African continent, wouldn't it beneft him to actually sit down and talk to Mugabe? Zimbabwe has problems whichever way you want to look at it, and while Mr. Mugabe is, shall we say, not a fan of the West, he could probably show Gordon a couple of things about the continent as a whole which aren't in any MI5 or MI6 dossier. Just a thought.
The Independent reports that Zimbabwe's UN ambassador, Boniface Chidyausiku, said Mr Brown had "no right to dictate" who should be at the summit. He told the BBC's Newsnight programme that Mr Mugabe "has a sovereign right" to attend the summit. He said: "He is part of Africa. Gordon Brown has no right to dictate who should come to Lisbon."
I don't buy the whole 'It's because he's a dictator who steals from people what rightfully belongs to them' bit coming from Gordon, because, as we all know, he hangs around with George.
The Tanzanian president of the Pan-African Parliament, Gertrude Mongella, went as far as accusing Gordon of trying to "manipulate" Africa. He's been doing the whole 'puppet-master' thing quite a lot recently. Ask Thatcher The Everliving - and seems to be quite adept at it. Definitely not one of the traits that I would have attributed to Gordon on the evening of July 31st. It's amazing how much you can learn about a person when you watch their every move for a month and a half.
Tonight, the entire world was put on alert. Around mid-morning it was announced that Sky News would be broadcasting two songs from tonight's show, live. So everyone gets to feel the love - providing they kneel before Rupert Murdoch.
This evening was a mad scramble across London. I esacaped the Exclusion Zone, only to get stuck in traffic at the infamous A3 bottle neck in Tolworth. Anyone who has driven with me - will be able to tell you that I take tailbacks as a personal affront. If I'd been late, there would have been hell to pay. After a quick stop in Clapham, it was full speed ahead to Greenwich. Upon arriving in Greenwich, one of the capital's finest Hackney Carriages conveyed us with all speed to The O2 and after collecting that manilla envelope from the good people at the desk, it was off to the seats. For the other two shows (August 1st and August 24th), I was on the 3rd floor, behind the loop of the symbol. Tonight, the delightful Stephanie hooked us up (By the way, Ms. Jones - Going to see Prince 3 times is an extravagance. Seeing him 15 times is truly next level. Prime Minister Vs. Prince salutes you). Second floor suite. Right at the pointy, business end of the stage. I was just getting round to breaking my fast for the day (All my people going through, Ramadan - I see you) when the lights went out and the screaming started. Ms. Duck and I ran to the box seats to witness what will, I'm sure be ingrained permanently into the memory of everyone who was present tonight. A sea of purple glow-sticks. No video montage tonight. Just the sound of thunder rolling around the arena, before Prince emerged from the centre of the stage, surrounded by dry ice and tore into a bruising rendition I Feel 4 U. He wasn't playing around tonight. Controversy followed as 20,000 shards of purple light waved in time to the beat.
Damn! That man is so funky, music dances to him.
After a brief break to let the band get settled in, Prince returned to the stage and hit us with some joints. Musicology. Nothing Compares 2 U (which still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up) and a heartbreakingly beautiful rendition of Somewhere On Earth, Kiss, Let's Go Crazy, When U Were Mine, Sometimesitsnowsinapril were all present and accounted for. Tonight - more than ever, Prince treats the crowd like an extra band member, letting them carry the weight and sing his own words back to him. You get the feeling that this is the performance that will stick with him for the longest. The closing night of a great run.
As ever, Prince's rapport with the crowd was on some sort of telepathic level. "This is confusing, London," he said at one point. "The quicker I get through theses hits, the quicker I'll be gone." Teasing again. He knew as well as we did that he could probably do this for three nights a week for a good while yet.
Tonight however, was all about the double keyboard set. Sign O The Times knocked as hard as ever. We got Little Red Corvette, The Beautiful Ones, Diamonds and Pearls, Alphabet Street Delirious and When Doves Cry pretty much in full, too. No point in teasing them tonight - Mr. Nelson was there to get his thang off. He started Purple Rain at the keyboard before being presented with his symbol shaped guitar and delivering a solo that shredded the venue to pieces before rebuilt it in his own image.
The man thinks nothing of playing hide and seek with his audience. We waited for half an hour after he appeared to have left the stage for the final time, only for him to be wheeled back into the arena in a flight case, with both of the Twinz sitting on top of it. After that, he came back one more time with the number '21' spray painted on the back of his jacket, and wilfully almost caused a riot by flinging his white derby hat into the crowd. Once again seated at the keyboard he flirted with Darling Nikki, the song that changed the course of popular music with it's 'adventurous' lyrics, for a few bars before deciding "I can't play that..."
What struck me the most about the whole thing was the fact that - he doesn't play that song anymore since he handed in his gun-shaped microphone and turned in his 'Freak' badge, but he had it loaded on the keyboard anyway. The question I had to ask is - exactly what does he have stored on there, in that case? I'm pretty sure, he could have played an entire set by himself looping up the drums, and driving the crowd a little wilder with each song, but that's been the beauty of the residency. He wanted to share the virtuosity of some of the planet's finest musicians with the crowd.
The Telegraph enlisted Matt Thorne, a novelist writing a book about Prince, to review the last night. Mr. Thorne estimates that 504 songs were played over the course of the tour, to half a million people. If that doesn't touch a nation's collective psyche, nothing will.
I'm sorry I can't be anymore precise than that. The night became a rum soaked blur after a while and doing The Wop non-stop for two and a half hours makes it a little hard to take notes.
Musical redemption finally came for Amy Winehouse, who managed to put the woes of the past month and a half behind her to open the Aftershow party with Love Is A Losing Game. 3121.com reports the embattled chanteuse drove the crowd quite nuts and moved Prince to tears in the process. Beverley Knight, who must be one of Mr. Nelson's all time favourite artists also came back for one more jam,
I honestly feel for every act who will play there in years to come as the residency will undoubtedly be the barometer by which they are measured. Just looking through internet forums, I get the feeling that despite the £7 hot dogs, the playing of 'half songs' expensive beer and according to some people, poor sound quality, absolutely no-one could fault him Prince as a showman or a musician. He is the last of a rare breed and no matter how much he infuriates his fans, they know as well as he does that they'll always love him.
We, the people, have been starved of footage and photos since August 1st. Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my pleasure to present to you - courtesy of 3121.com....
Joy In Repetition (Live):
I Feel 4 U & Controversy (Live)
I also met England football manager Steve McLaren, tonight. He's a miserable bastard. Perhaps he could smell my indifference to his sleep inducing style of coaching. I was having too good a night to start up a chant of 'Jose's gonna get your job (If the FA have any sense)', so he got off light. Any other time or place; it would have been on.
My life is my own again. I can go out and get blind drunk without journalistic responsibilty hanging over me like The Sword of Damocles. So what will become of this blog now? Will it be retired - like an hall of famer's basketball vest - taking it's place proudly alongside the other greats in the rafters? Or will my digital message in a bottle end up drifting into the shipping lane disappearing without a trace? All that wit, insight, sensitivity and raw charisma lost, forever. To everyone who told a friend to tell a friend; I hope the higher power that you look up to treats you kindly for the rest of your days.
So who won our epic bout? You know what? I don't think I'm going to tell you. In fact, why don't you tell me. I have my own idea, but I've been refereeing. I've been to close to the action for the past 52 days and nights. I never promised an answer to all the world's ills - kids shooting kids, racism, disappearing children, Blair - none of that. But I hope you might have worried about them less while reading this blog.
As of this morning, Gordon has a country to run and Prince is off to study The Bible.
What am I gonna do now that the run is finished?
I'm going to Disneyland.
Thanks to Dame Lucy Ellison, Baronness Stephanie Jones, Corrinne Bailey Rae & her sister, Jimmy @ Reverend Media, Brad @ FMTV and family, Ms. Natalie Duck, Diet Blair, DJ Merkin, Mickey @ The O2, Common & Band, Chuck Gabrielson, The O2 staff, the support acts I didn't get to see, Thatcher The Everliving, Full Fat Blair, George, Mrs. Annobil, Gordon Brown, Prince and the NPG,everyone who read the blog, everyone who left a comment on the blog, all the unborn babies who were conceived after one of the 21 shows, every single daily newspaper circulated in this country and last but not least the concert going public and Electorate for giving me something to write about everyday.
Take care of each other, ya hear?
Bless,
Kobi
Kobi
*Descends through the stage in a cloud of dry ice*
Quotes: "Next year we will have a stronger Labour party. But even more important, we will have a stronger, more united country too." - Prime Minister
"If Eye imagined perfection, If Eye imagined Paradise...It would be being here with U, London, for 21 nights" - Prince
P.S. There's a rumour (and I stress the word "rumour") that we might not be done here yet...
