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Review by Rob.

Battle of the solo artists .

So one is a bona fide solo star, having performed for over 30 years at the top, under more guises and aliases than anyone cares to remember. The other was at the helm of one of the most groundbreaking US alternative rock bands of recent times, and has just set foot on a serious solo career after 20 years of making music. At first glance Prince and Chris Cornell have little in common. However dig a little deeper and lots of similarities emerge, the main one of which is that I saw both artists in the space of 5 days. Which one would prove his worth in the field of striking out alone in the live arena?

Firstly there is little to compare in the way of the respective venues. Prince was roughly halfway through a 21 night residency (solo artists love that word) at the O2 Arena Greenwich, London - or the Millennium Dome to you and me. The central hall has been converted into a 20000 capacity music venue a bit similar to the MEN in Manchester but without the intimacy. All around are bars shops and restaurants occupying what is left of the various display halls as well as fast food stalls serving child's portions of fish and chips (£8). Well they have to recoup the money from the disaster of the previous incarnation. I'm not going to waste any more space on it simply to say it is Crap and all the things you can imagine it is. For more details see the venue guide coming to this site early in 2008. Nottingham Rock City is the polar opposite. Dingy, small, not enough toilets, no food, but great stage, great acoustics, good bars and great atmosphere. I know where I would rather be.

Saturday night in London and an early start is called for as rumours had the purple one playing for anything up to 3 hours. On arriving at the venue at the ungodly hour of 7.00 we were informed on asking the friendly (no really they were!) stewards who told us he had only recently being doing 2 hours and he had Beverley Knight as a support act. So we had an hour or so to kill and have a wander around to see more of the soulless hole that was the dome. Luckily we had eaten in central London so were not tempted by the ambitiously priced tuna panini (£6). I did have a couple of small bottles of lager though (£3 each). God knows how but time passed fairly quickly and at 8.30 the lights dimmed and the familiar riff to '1999' filled the hall. Despite my fears the sound quality was pretty good as was the atmosphere and most people around us got to their feet and bopped along. This does not usually happen at arenas, so was nice.

The stage was set up in the centre of the arena shaped like the logo Prince once changed his name to. At first there was only his backing band to admire, a professional looking bunch comprising drums, bass, some strings and keyboards. They were billed as the New Power Generation, and good the stuff is from this era (Diamonds and Pearls, etc.) I would have preferred to have seen the Revolution as they are much more rocky. These thoughts were broken off as a trap door opened and his royalness emerged on a lift complete with thingy shaped guitar. Even though we were high up near the back it was a decent view, though as usual the most boring part of the crowd were right at the front of the stage in the 'VIP' seats. The start is frenetic and not a little brilliant, second song is from purple rain and then its new single 'Guitar' which sounds uncannily like U2's 'I will Follow'. Then we get a bit of the band showing off and Prince teasing the audience with an extended rant about women or something, then another bit of the band showing off again. And so it continues in this vein for a while, a couple of songs, a solo and a bit of a parley from the main man. Of course while the soloing is going on we get costume changes though nothing too amazing, it has to be said that Prince is one stylish guy. So is set the scene for the show.

Meanwhile over in Nottingham Chris Cornell's entrance couldn't be more different. He does enjoy the honour of having his band take to the stage first and then make a grandish entrance after they start playing though. This gives a bit of comedy value because as he has no support act some of the audience think this is indeed the warm up band and when Cornell suddenly bounds onto the stage looking thin, tanned and way to healthy they get a double shock. The first song is from new album 'Carry on' and his voice is faultless, one of the best in the business. Then he announces there will be a lot of songs tonight from history and we get Soundgarden classic 'Outshined', the best song Black Sabbath never wrote. For the uninitiated, Soundgarden emerged from Seattle around the time of the Nirvana fronted Grunge scene, though their stuff was much more heavy then others of that ilk. They were very underrated yet produced two classic albums, Badmotorfinger and Superunknown. Buy them. The theme from Casino Royale 'You know my name' follows and it is interesting that judging by reactions the vast majority of the audience is as keen on the old stuff as the new. Then we get an Audioslave tune, 'Be Yourself', followed by 'Say hello to Heaven' a song by the late great Temple of the Dog who I had completely forgotten about and it was a brilliant surprise. Throughout the show he is chatty and relaxed and speaks with genuine enthusiasm about his past days in Nottingham. Simple stuff but the audience warm to him straight away and it adds to the night. The set carries on going right through Cornell's career with a shit load of great tunes.

London is lapping up all Prince can throw at them. 'Kiss' is great, as is 'U got the look' but far too many great tunes are tossed away in 1 minute snippets, a tease of the worst kind. Look at the songs he could have played in full instead of pratted about, 'When doves cry', 'Little red corvette', 'Alphabet Street', 'Sign o the times', 'Raspberry Beret'. Prince just sits alone at his piano and trots the bits and pieces out. To be fair he is brilliant musically, and plays all the piano and guitar himself, he is one of the worlds great yet somehow underrated guitarists. Listen to 1999 and Purple Rain if you don't agree. When he gets it all together for the climax it is stunning, 'Purple Rain' and 'Lets go crazy' are as good as anything I have ever seen live, and worth the money (a commendable £32) alone. The encore is a mess however, with more twatting around and he's been off so many times, that when the end does come the audience stays seated for ages unsure of whether any more is in the offing. At a shade under 2 hours it was less than I had been led to believe.

Like Prince, Cornell also plays a long set. I clocked the whole shebang at 2 hours 20 minutes. This is nearly all songs, the only fooling around bits are a couple of drum solos, a guitar solo from each six stringer, (The band are all excellent), and an acoustic spot from Cornell alone, the highlight being a dirge version of Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean'. His show climaxes with 3 great songs Audioslave's 'Cochise' and the 'Garden's best tune, 'Black hole Sun', finishing off the main set with the full on menace of 'Jesus Christ Pose'. Of course we get a long encore, the highlight of which is 'Seasons' a forgotten classic from the Singles soundtrack and a tune which reveals Cornells leanings towards Led Zep (which was at odds with the rest of Soundgarden apparently). The show ends with a 10 minute version of Badmotorfinger track 'Slaves and Bulldozers' which metamorphoses into 'Whole lotta love'. Then is over, no fanfare, no trapdoor but an elated and lengthy ovation from the audience, a shoe in for gig of the year by a mile.

So at the end of the day these two have their similarities. Both have been in the business for ages, both have nothing to prove, they have great musical talent backing them, great distinctive vocals and both even have film music scores to their credit. However where one is veering towards the glitzy full on show on a grand scale that may one day end in a residency in Vegas, the other is touring the pits of the world knocking out some of the fines rock tunes ever written. Though to be fair both shows give value for money and entertainment, I know which one I will be shelling out for next time around.

Prince's set included:-
1999
I would die for U
Guitar
U got the look
Controversy
Kiss
Musicology
Nothing compares to U
Purple Rain
Let's go crazy
I feel for you
Cream

Chris Cornell's set included:-
Outshined
Rusty Cage
Be Yourself
You know my name
Seasons
Billie Jean
Doesn't remind me
Cochise
Black Hole Sun
Jesus Christ Pose
Slaves and Bulldozers

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