Really, it was only because I left it too late to sell the tickets and I wouldn't have been able to sleep for seven nights if that money had gone to waste because I'm craaazzzzzzzzy brass these days.
We got there at 6pm, the time published on the tickets, but nothing happened for a good couple of hours which meant that everyone ended up buying food and drinks and shit to kill time. Not that I ever needed an excuse to get tipsy.
The venue is pretty cool; if you visited when it was the Millenium Dome, you might be surprised to see how many shops they've crammed in. It looks like a mall or something. With a beach, of course. Every mall has to have a beach.
Our seats were in the upper tier...in case you're wondering how high up that is, I'll tell you that they have added a new disclaimer to the O2 tickets site which states that you shouldn't buy upper tier tickets if you're scared of heights. Yikes.
From our seats, Prince looked about an inch tall. Of course, he was only three inches tall to begin with so we didn't mind.
I'm not going to write some wanky broadsheet type review of the performance (mainly because I can't resist using the word 'cunt' which I don't think is a word that The Observer would include in their house vocab)...and there are plenty of reviews elsewhere, but I will say that I did enjoy it in the end. Loads. Okay? Happy now?
Of course, I had a pretty good lead into the event from my shenanigans the night before. I'd been to see funk band Cymande at the Jazz Cafe. Any crate-diggers in the house will probably be familiar with their classic b-boy anthems such as 'Bra' and 'Brothers on the Slide'. I didn't even know they were British until a couple of months ago.
They were amazing...I've been to a million and one gigs at Jazz Cafe but I have to say that was my absolute favourite. And the crowd were proper clued up too. The band finished with 'Brothers on the Slide' and had the crowd going crazy singing the line "We knoooow...which way we're going!" over and over again. The band packed up and left the stage and the crowd were still singing. The band walked upstairs and chilled for a bit and the crowd were still singing. Then the band came back down and picked up the track again with the crowd still singing on top. It was amazing. It was like being at the best carnival in the world.
And some genius managed to capture it on film too:
Some pics I took:
And how else can you top that but with a DJ set by the mighty Jah Shaka? Okay, so there was no sound system and no dizzying weed vapours but his heavyweight dub selection is enough to make me high any day of the week. Check out this classic Jah Shaka clip - one of my favourite clips off YouTube EVER!!!
A weekend like this makes me realise how much I love living in London...it's like a music lover's paradise. So many acts that have come over here, especially old school funk/soul/reggae bands, say that no-one really gives them much time in their own territories but they always get love in the LDN. So it looks like there is an upside to living in one of the most expensive cities on the planet after all.
Josephine x
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