The Prince, me and about twenty thousand other people.

Around mid June my sister comes squealing up to me waving a newspaper clipping in the air. 'Prince is playing in Greenwich. You want to come?' Now personally I've never been a huge Prince fan nor do I dislike him. I think he's an excellent song writer and musician, a bit of a whack job and really really short. But having no plans whatsoever and the remnants of my social life clinging to the heels of my far too expensive Jimmy Choos, I agreed to go.

A few months pass by (the concert was in September) and my sister and I make our way to the O2 arena, a place I haven't set foot in since it was the Millenium Dome and it freaked me out with that really weird body exhibit where in order to leave it you had to be reborn down a giant fluffy tube. So anyway, thinking we were late we rush in only to find that 8pm was not when the concert was due to start, just when the doors were due to open thus dooming us to an hour and a half wait and paying almost a tenner for a minuscule pizza that could rival my school dinners in its crappy cardboardiness. We people watched for while, which included a hilarious moment where we watched from the gallery and made up our own dialogue, as some woman in a neon pocahontas outfit had an argument with security. We figure it was because of their militant 'No camera's' policy one that they were almost Gestapo-like in enforcing. Eventually we filed our way into the huge (freezing cold) arena and took our (hard plastic) seats. The stage was awesome, really awesome. I managed to take some sneaky pictures despite the security staff prowling the aisles and hoisting anyone so much as lifting a rectangular object out of the arena.

Finally after listening to the 'Memoirs of a Geisha' soundtrack for about 25 minutes the concert started. Flashing lights and glittery dancers heralded Prince's arrival to the stage and there he was, colourful in all his diminutive glory and looking really good for his age. The stage lit up and the music surrounded the crowd. The acoustics in the arena were so good that it was almost like every unoccupied bit of space was filled with music. The live band were brilliant, the twins (Prince's dancers, of which I wish I was one) were amazing, split kicking and spinning their hair for all they were worth.

I was up and dancing with everybody else. There were a couple of guys a few rows in front of us really going for it with ass wiggling and the finger pointing. Even the stiffest of audience members mangaged a two step. There was no way you couldn't, the atmosphere and the music was so entrancing. One of the highlights for me was the ballad section wherein all the lights went down, Prince hit the keyboard and everyone swayed in unison waving lighters, glowsticks and singing along to a very soulful rendition of 'Little Red Corvette.'

Even though I am still not a huge Prince fan and still think he is a very nutty, very short, very very good musician. He puts on a damn fine show.