Prince Breaks
Out Beatles, Rolling Stones at Oscar
Party
By Shirley Halperin as published
on RollingStone.com
February 23, 2009
Last night in L.A., after all the
Oscars were handed out, Prince
played host to several hundred diehard
fans — and a few famous names
— at his all-night afterparty.
The stars certainly had their pick
of flashy post-show parties Sunday
night — the Vanity Fair bash
at the Sunset Towers Hotel, Elton
John’s annual AIDS Foundation
soiree at the Pacific Design Center,
Madonna’s get-together at
Guy Oseary’s pad, Demi Moore’s
house party for her closest A-list
friends (check out photos from some
of the night’s bigger bashes)
— but those looking to get
their groove on until the wee hours
of the morning headed to L.A.’s
Avalon Ballroom, where Prince was
playing a solid mix of covers and
hits.
Unlike Prince’s past awards
show after-parties, typically held
at his Hollywood Hills home and
thrown under a strict by-invitation-only
policy, this one was open to the
plebes among us. At $100 per person
— first come, first serve
— the show doubled as a launch-pad
for his soon-to-debut Website Lotusflowe3r.com.
A few hundred hopefuls had lined
up on Hollywood and Vine hours in
advance, knowing full well that
it would be a very long wait. After
all, the Purple One was still sound-checking
at 11:30 p.m. and doors had yet
to open. Shortly after midnight
(and while Prince and select guests
were being entertained by an all-girl
jazz band upstairs at the Avalon’s
exclusive lounge Bardot), an orderly
crowd made its way inside filling
only half of the venue’s main
floor — not that the post-Oscar
folks (some still wearing gowns
and tuxedos) were complaining after
a full day of elbow rubbing.
Starting close 1:45, the nearly
two-hour set kicked off with a tease
— the opening progression
to “Purple Rain,” which
brought out the diminutive Prince,
strolling onto the stage carrying
a blinged-out baton. He soon traded
it in for a guitar and, backed by
a three-piece band (keyboardist
Morris Hayes, drummer
Cora Dunham and
bassist Joshua Dunham),
backup singers Shelby Johnson
and Olivia Warfield
and killer harmonica player Frédéric
Yonnet, Prince launched
into a string of covers, beginning
with The Cars’ “Let’s
Go” and segueing into “Crimson
and Clover” mashed with “Wild
Thing.” “I’m the
DJ tonight,” he boasted from
the stage shortly after dedicating
the night to Oscar winner Penélope
Cruz and giving a nod to
celebrities viewing from the VIP
area. Among them: Alicia
Keys, Queen Latifah,
Angie Harmon, Tyler
Perry, Maroon 5’s
Adam Levine and
Oscar nominee Taraji P.
Henson.
And while the bars had closed twenty
minutes into the performance, Prince’s
banter kept spirits high. Introducing
a bellowing rendition of The Beatles’
“Come Together,” he
asked his subjects: “I’m
here and you’re here, that’s
all we need to start a party, right?”
Indeed, as Prince launched into
The Rolling Stones’ “Honky
Tonk Woman” and then surprised
all with a true-to-the-original
take on Jimmy Eat World’s
“The Middle,” the dance
floor had filled considerably. By
the time “Jungle Love”
and “Play That Funky Music”
came around, the place, as they
say, was jumping. Prince closed
out the set by asking for volunteers
to join him on “The Glamorous
Life,” the song he wrote for
Sheila E., then proceeded to invite
audience members to the stage for
free-for-all, to which a couple
dozen brazen fans eagerly obliged.
“Turn those Blackberries off
and dance,” Prince chided
just after three in the morning,
his guitar hero energy not waning
in the slightest. The crowd’s
energy, however, was another story.
Still, diehards hoping to hear more
from the Prince hit list stuck around
until the bitter end, and weren’t
disappointed to get “I Feel
For You” as an encore (at
3:22 in the morning). But he never
did come back to “Purple Rain,”
and with awards season over, it
may be a while before we get another
chance.
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