10 Greatest Secret Music Concerts Of All Time
3. Prince
WHERE: A whole bunch of venues around London
WHEN: February 2014
Take a trip down Camden High Street and you'll often see a queue forming at the Electric Ballroom, one of the cities finest rock clubs. You don't often see them forming at aroun 11pm on a Wednesday night. You especially don't often see them forming then on the offchance that an artists "might" be playing there.
But then, most artists aren't Prince.
The last time he'd played in London, he sold out a 21-night residency at the O2 arena, selling a cool 351,527 tickets in the process. To promote his upcoming his (then) upcoming albums Plectrumelectrum and Art Official Age, he decided on a slightly more... guerrilla approach.
First was the aforementioned Electric Ballroom show. Taking the stage at half past midnight, he and his backing band 3RDEYEGIRL (spacing is for cowards, apparently), a 30 minute set more funky, rocking and sensual than most bands make in a whole damn career.
These continued with longer shows at Shepherd's Bush Empire, a stripped down piano concert at King's Place (on Valentine's Day, natch), a return to Camden, this time at the Koko, followed by a final night at Soho's Ronnie Scott's. All within the space of a fortnight.
These shows sum up the power of a secret gig. Once in a lifetime experiences, made on a whim, never forgotten by those who experienced it. Or in this writer's case, missed out on each of them!