Review: Prince Live at Manchester Academy 21/2/14

Prince & 3RDEYEGIRL took their ‘Hit and Run’ tour out of London for the first time last night when they took over the Manchester Academy. Some questioned why the show cost £77 per ticket when some London shows were a tenner but once inside it was worth every penny. There was ahem controversy later though when a planned second show was cancelled..

Prince arriving at the Academy

On a wet and cold night Prince and the band turned the Academy into a furnace, creating a steamy atmosphere that started with a fifteen minute version of ‘Funk N Roll’, complete with lucky members of the crowd being pulled on stage to dance, and ran through without let up until the show finished after its fourth encore two and a half hours later!  My mate put it bluntly: "I think Prince got Manchester pregnant tonight!"


Underlining that no two performances on the ‘Hit and Run’ tour have been the same, Prince and the band changed gears again from their midweek fusion jazz set at the legendary Ronnie Scotts to send the Manchester audience wild with an explosive set of heavy rock and funk that included brand new tracks from the forthcoming 3RDEYEGIRL album ‘PLECTRUMELECTRUM’.



During the set the band performed a mix of catalogue classics and surprises that included ‘She’s Always In My Hair’, ‘A Love Bizarre’ and ‘I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man’.  Moving effortlessly from guitar to bass to keys, Prince threw down magical versions of rarely performed songs including ‘Sign of the Times’ and a full-length 'When Doves Cry' before encoring with a spine-chilling rendition of ‘Purple Rain’. Truly, many in the audience were overcome by tears.  

The show was the latest in Prince and 3RDEYEGIRL’s spontaneous ‘Hit and Run’ tour following history making performances at the Electric Ballroom, Shepherds Bush Empire, Kings Place, Koko and Ronnie Scotts. 

The band were due to play a second show immediately after this one, it was confirmed on twitter by the bands management but it was thought only 150 people turned up..at a reduced price of £35

Later, Martin Laws, commercial operations director, told us that Prince had had a 'change of heart' and decided to play for longer instead of playing a second show when only 150 people turned up for it.

The price had been dropped from £70 to £35 to reflect that, he added - but the reason for the reduction was not communicated to fans, who had waited for more than an hour in the rain.

"Not long after the announcement of the second show tonight they had a change of heart and another tweet went out saying they would be playing for longer and that anybody who was here inside the show already or who was in the queue was welcome," he said.

"That's why the second show was reduced to £35 and not £70.

"We have since agreed with them, immediately after the event, that it was only fair and proper that all the customers who had bought those 150 tickets and are able to produce them would be able to come in free on Saturday.


"Anybody who wishes to contact us and attend tomorrow can do so and they will get the full show."

The ‘Hit and Run’ Tour continues tonight, Saturday 22nd February with a further show at the Manchester Academy. As we went to press we heard rumours that a £1 per tickets show will happen either in the early hours of Sunday or on Sunday evening.