Prince Massey Hall surprise show cancelled

Photo taken of Massey Hall stage set up by @stazie_15 at 10:41 AM Nov. 4, 2014

At 8:30 AM Prince's current backing band's Twitter account @3rd Eye Girl posted a cryptic tweet:

4th day of November, we need a purple high: OTNOROT CALLING…

Although the tweet was quickly deleted it was quickly retweeted and a cue formed around Massey Hall.  Further uncomfirmed details came out over the course of the day as a cue of acolytes, hard-core fans, scalpers and ticket brokers continued to surge.  Reports ranged from a rumoured ticket price ($10) to only the first 200 people being given wristbands.  But this wasn't just a loose rumour.  Metal barricades were delivered to Massey Hall and people in the line described a strong odour of 'incense and breakfast sandwiches' from the load in area.

By 10:41 every imaginable print and radio outlet in the city had picked up some version of the story with Global Television going so far as saying that wristbands would be handed out at 6:00 and the show would start at 8:00.  With Massey Hall being a union house known for its acoustics and a hard 11:00 close all of those facts lined up.  Further a Prince fan twitter feed @PrinceMuseum which was posting reliable updates and photos of the swelling line announced that this was the first of two shows (confirmed by a personality on Talk 1010 @MooreintheAM stating "Confirmed. Not one but two shows by Prince in TO.")  Then word began to get out that people were being turned away without either tickets or wristbands and Live Nation had to begin the mea culpa's first from their Live Nation Ontario account:

In response to inquiries, we can confirm that Prince will not be performing at @masseyhall tonight.

And then from the Live Nation account:

@karen_bliss Hey! Sorry, Prince will not be performing tonight or tomorrow night

Bliss, a quick internet search reveals, while she seems to be employed by Live Nation works as a journalist and has written for Rolling Stone and Billboard (reporting on Live Nation no less).  But most importantly she's way Christian which might give her some insight or more likely access into the mind of Prince.  Being Christian and having Christian values (particularly those aligned with Jehovah's Witness) is a pre-cursor for any professional involvement with Prince these days.

It's not as if his multitude of fan's went off half-cocked though.  Even Ticketmaster had the show listed as happening today and then the listing also disappeared.  Further, serious fans know that Prince is close with Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino and included a Thunder Bay date, Rapino's hometown, on his Welcome 2 Canada tour having "PROMISED 2 COME 2 HIS HOMETOWN 2 DO SOMETHING HISTORIC."  Given that Prince did play that town with a population of 120,000 it didn't seem like such a stretch that a few days after his whirlwind SNL appearance that he would play a surprise date in his former hometown after all.  As we know no concert can happen in North America without the explicit go ahead from Live Nation and/or Ticketmaster how did everyone have it wrong?

Prince fans know he does and has done these sort of secret or surprise shows for years.  The immediate precedent is that he did two back to back shows at Camden (home of vocalist Lianne La Havas) at the Electric Ballroom for 300 fans on Feb. 5 and 6th of this year to promote the same albums (Art Official Age and Plectrum Electrum) he's actively promoting as recent as his jawdropping 8 minute SNL appearance this past Saturday (November 1).  La Havas who appeared in the SNL set though not a member of 3rd Eye Girl figures prominently on Art Official Age.  It's more than likely that the show had it proceeded it would have been a show of this nature- for a very small audience irrespective of the venue capacity and not a 3 hour sweat drenched run through of the catalogue.  Why you ask?  For one thing 3rd Eye Girl, with Toronto's Donna Grantis on lead guitar, does not seem like the kind of group that could hold down a three hour set with Prince (the Electric Ballroom setlists bear this out).  His collaboration and album with them - Plectrum Electrum - seems to be an extension of his Sly and the Family Stone inspired desire to have multi-racial gender diverse bands as well as a desire to record a certain 'dirty' if you like rock & roll sound live off the recording studio floor.  Basically the other side of the EDM coin that he flipped on Age.  With all due respect to the Girl's they are not the sort of touring band that Prince has used for ages - with stalwarts like Renato Neto (keys) or John Williams (drums) or Maceo Parker and Candy Dulfer (saxes).

What it seems happened, and uncomfirmed sources have conveyed similar versions, was that Prince clearly had some sort of performance and marketing stunt planned for Plectrum Electrum.  Art Official Age is a solo album Prince's first since 2010 (although sadly with help from a Deadmau5 affiliate Chris James or Joshua A.M. who is married to 3rd Eye drummer Hannah Ford Welton).  Prince also likes to keep it in the family.   Let's not forget either that Prince lived for a period in Toronto in the luxury neighborhood the Bridle Path while married to Toronto native and former Paisley Park employee Manuela Testolini.  The Bridle Path is also referenced lyrically on his last memorable release Musicology. So Prince's ties to Toronto run pretty deep.

Apparently what was supposed to take place was a soundcheck/ rehearsal.  Bands (like the Rolling Stones and comedians like Dave Chappelle recently) like to use Toronto as a staging ground for their extensive preparations for tours, either through a connection to a mega-promoter like Rapino or in the Stones case Michael Cohl or simply because it's a small market where they can make mistakes without too much notice.  When Chappelle played a similar, hotly anticipated and hype-swirled, set at the Winter Garden Theatre it was also a let down as he was clearly working up material (for a much cleaner airing at his Carnegie Hall shows).  Sadly all the people in line who were fans went through the ringer today, even those who weren't in line did.  On the upside a bunch of scalpers had their whole day wasted in the cold November rain no less.  Not purple, but maybe just a little bittersweet.