Concert Dates, Concert Tour News, Artist Information

Prince provides a hit to Stan Walker

Down under, Stan Walker is the latest pop prince to be crowned after winning big on the Australian version of American Idol, Australian Idol. According to MTV Australia, he’s only 18 years of age but has had a lot to overcome in his life, including drug addiction, but says his active spiritual life helped him to overcome much of it. It’s great to see the lad rising to the stars on a show like Idol.

And he couldn’t really have done it without Prince. His cover of “Purple Rain” helped him score big with the judges, and it will be appearing on Walker’s first record, which is also going to feature Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah.” Sooner or later, you can bet that this talented young star will be touring the country, and may even end up touring in America.

While that remains to be seen once can’t help but wonder if he’ll ever get to meet his idol. Prince is notoriously reclusive, but it would be nice to know he could meet some of these people who have been so inspired by his music. If you’re looking for Prince tickets, get them at StubHub.

A Prince for all Fridays

Today’s post is going to be a general round-up of princely news. Unfortunately, we can’t find much going on with the Purple One, so we’re going to be bringing you a list of other princes who you should be aware of, and on a scale of 1-10, arbitrarily rate how cool they are in relation to Prince Rogers Nelson (who is a 10).

Prince Harry: The big news with youngest member of the British royal family is that he loves beer—so much so that he’s willing to love a man for it. The tabloids are having a field day with the news that Harry kissed a lad for lager (on the cheek) while out with a few friends at a pub.

Prince Jackson: Apparently the children of Prince’s longtime rival, Michael Jackson, are doing well and having some fun with a skydiving simulator.

Fresh Prince: Known throughout West Philly, this member of urban royalty got into one little fight and his parents got scared, told ‘im “You’re moving in with your auntie in Bel Aire.”

Still looking for Prince tickets? Get them at StubHub.

City Pages highlights the Found Footage Festival

Twin Cities’ City Pages has an interesting Q&A with the organizers of the Found Footage Festival, an event that collects bizarre, tacky and hysterical VHS tapes (usually from the ‘80s) and revels in their cheesiness in a theater. Cheesy ‘80s/‘90s VHS footage has actually become quite a hip thing to jeer at, with sites like Everything Is Terrible and TV Carnage exploiting Christian children’s programs and dating help guides for a long time. But City Pages focuses on the Found Footage Festival’s music portion, talking to them about the bands that they found.

There are a lot of terrible music videos that are included in the festival, and naturally, the site had to ask whether the FFF has every found some tapes from Twin Cities icons like Prince back in the early days. They admitted that they hadn’t so far, and if they had, they wouldn’t show it—they want to stick with bands no one has ever heard of: “If we had, that’d be kind of cool, and then we probably wouldn’t be interested in it. (laughs) If it actually has some merit or some underground value, I don’t know if it’d make the cut.”

Look for Prince tickets at StubHub.

The Sunday Paper asks: Michael or Prince?

The battle between fans of Michael Jackson and Prince rages on. In the Sunday Times, an article written by a former metalhead talks about remembering the ‘80s and how, even for someone who had no investment in pop music whatsoever, the struggle between the King of Pop and the Purple Prince was perceptible. Unfortunately, this individual comes down on the side of Michael.

But there are pretty good reasons to believe he’s right, of course. He argues that in all of Michael Jackson’s major music videos, there is more energy and excitement to be found than in all of Purple Rain. He also mentions how conflicted pop fans could feel back in the ‘80s: “At the height of ‘Thriller’ mania in the early ’80s, I worked at a Wendy’s restaurant after school with a kid named Larry Perkins. Larry so loved both Jackson and Prince, he came to work more than once demanding to be referred to as Prince, yet wearing one sequined glove, like Michael did. He couldn’t figure out which star he idolized more. To me, a white suburban metalhead, his dilemma was baffling. Even I knew: There was no contest.”

Well, we think there might be a contest. Get Prince tickets at StubHub.

Prince’s housequake meant a lot to poor families

Prince held a housequake several weeks back, opening his home up to fans in the Twin Cities area to come and check out a late night party where he performed dozens of his hits for hours on end. It was a spectacular show, and everyone seems to recall the event with glowing fondness. But besides entertaining his fans, Prince was doing a good deed, as well.

According to Tonic, the Purple One was asking guests to bring goods for poor families in the Twin Cities who would be served by his charity, Love 4 One Another: “It was held over the weekend at Paisley Park, his home and recording studio. Even better, it cost neither an arm, nor a leg. The concert also served as a fundraiser for Prince’s charity, Love 4 One Another. He asked fans to bring new and gently-used coats and winter clothing, canned and boxed foods and bottled water, which will be distributed to those in need in the Twin Cities.”

That’s a great idea, and it’s nice to think it helped out a lot of people, too. In the future, get Prince tickets at StubHub.

Popeye Jones turns down Prince (madness)

Here’s a hypothetical scenario: You’re asleep in a hotel. Late at night, someone slides a CD under your door. There’s an invitation in it to go see Prince perform—at 3 a.m. Do you go?

Of course you do! Who wouldn’t go see Prince perform live, especially if it’s a private show? Well, Popeye Jones would turn down the Man in Purple. Jones, who participated in the 1994 All-Star Rookie game, said this is what happened when the game was held in the Twin Cities area. The Star-Telegram reprinted the details: “But mostly, Jones remembers his appearance in the 1994 All-Star Weekend rookie game for the pink compact disk that was slid under his hotel room door. ‘Prince put a CD under your door in a pink case inviting us to a party at Paisley Park that started at 3 a.m.’ Jones says. ‘And the invitation said: Don’t bring any cameras.’ Popeye didn’t make that party. He was fast asleep before the bash began. It was one of the many memories Jones has of his first and only appearance at the All-Star festivities.”

Maybe Jones didn’t go just because he couldn’t bring a camera. Next time you see Prince tickets at StubHub—or get a private invitation—pounce on that opportunity.

British pop star admits to sneaking into Prince’s house

The newest pop starlet to come out of the U.K. is Ke$ha, who seems to have borrowed a little bit of influence from Prince by incorporating a symbol into her name. Now 22, she recently copped to being a Prince fanatic—and, in fact, to being so fanatical that she actually broke into his house, according to Digital Spy.

Well, maybe not “broke in.”

“I didn’t break in so much as sneak in under the fence. Memo to Prince: Lock your doors! I got into the house, up the elevator and into a huge ballroom where he was playing guitar. It was f**king awesome.” It sounds pretty awesome—for a hardcore fan with no scruples about trespassing, anyway. For Prince, it was rather upsetting. He was apparently busy rehearsing, and she watched him for about 45 minutes before being noticed and then being hauled out of the house.

“It was like a private concert! His house is amazing and, yeah, everything was purple. He was amazing too - small and amazing.”

Well, she was certainly impressed. You can’t get a private concert, but check for Prince tickets on StubHub, and you can see him live.

The ultimate ‘80s battle: Prince versus Micheal

Everyone loves a good fight. Maybe that was what drove the media rivalry between Micheal Jackson and Prince during the ‘80s. They didn’t seem that concerned with facing off that publicly, though there were certainly some jabs here and there. But fans are going to endlessly argue over which one was better, and the Plain Dealer seems to have found the perfect venue for that.

The Cleveland Heights B Side Liquor Lounge is hosting a special night where the DJ will be playing nothing but Micheal Jackson and Prince, with an emphasis on obscure tracks, remixes and of course, the hits. That should give people plenty of fodder for discussion as they try and settle for good who the finest R&B singer of the ‘80s was. If you’re reading this blog, we can probably guess which side you’re going to be rooting for.

It’s really a shame that the two of them never could put their differences aside and became musical partners. It seems like it would have been a great rock moment had they been able to. But at least you can still see one of them live: Get Prince tickets next time they are available on StubHub.

Who’s the fairest online radio station of them all? Let’s find out with Prince.

Static Blog is all about technology, which is a subject everyone has a shred of interest in these days. More and more people are taking on iPhones, and with that, more and more are looking for reviews of apps (short for “applications,” or in other words, programs you can download).

Recently, the Static Blog decided to investigate which online radio station has the best apps—Pandora or Last.FM. If you’ve never used either, feel free to give them a shot. They both let you program a “radio station” for an artist, and then matches licensed songs and music for said artist to the station. Sometimes you’ll get similar artists, sometimes you’ll get similar songs. But in programming a Prince station, the reviewer found that far and away, the best programming came from Last.FM, which simply offered up more Prince (even if a lot of it came from his New Power Generation days).

Pandora delivered on a lot of similar artists, but there were fewer entries from Prince himself. Which is kind of all the whole point of the exercise.

Make of that what you will, and next time you see the artist on tour, get Prince tickets at StubHub.

X Factor star does stands in the Purple Rain

Britain’s X Factor is the American equivalent of American Idol, so as you can imagine, it’s an extremely popular show. And just as the music scene in the U.K. has it’s own trends, heroes and wild children, there are figures in X Factor that inspire a lot of gossip and debate online.

One of them happens to be Danyl Johnson, a singer who decided to perform “Purple Rain” the other night when he was on. According to the Mirror, Johnson has been chastised recently for his haircut. He apparently wanted to cut it short, and the rather brash Simon Cowell forbade him from doing so.

But he decided to do it anyway, showing up to this “Purple Rain” performance with his head shorn. He even rubbed it in a little, asking the judges what they thought of his haircut. It’s kind of appropriate that he would make a bold (bald?) fashion statement to Prince’s greatest song. After all, Prince was all about bold fashion statements—though he always held on to an immaculately designed coif.

In any case, if you hear he’s on tour, make sure you get your Prince tickets at StubHub.