His name is Prince. And he was funky.

We met up with Mel & Josh. Josh got to take the photo.
Because we have the best families in the entire world, who gave up their Saturday night to baby sit our kids, we were able to sneak away to Brisbane for a Prince concert.
And what a concert! That man knows how to party. I even busted out a few moves (it was dark, no one saw).Having dumped the kids and run away, we ended up having dinner in a fantastic little sushi train at Carseldine. What I love about sushi is it’s basically Japanese tapas. I could have gone home then, it was that good. But the best was still to come.

Because we know what we’re like with time management, Tracey and I planned to arrive at the Boondall Entertainment Centre about an hour before the concert. Thank goodness, because we needed it. When we arrived we quickly parked and joined a growing line of punters near the steps.

“This is new,” I mumbled. An overhead voice boomed we were about to be searched for guns, knives, chains and cameras. Presumably they’d also have balked at knuckle-busters and nun-chucks.

“No worries,” I thought to myself. “After the kerfuffle at the Dolly concert we’re not making that mistake again.” Who gets kicked out of a Dolly concert? My wife does.  For filming the event. But she’d promised me she wouldn’t bring a camera to this one.

“Uh-oh,” said Tracey when we were about five meters from the front of the line. She pulled the kids’ camera out of her bag. “I forgot about this.”

So we got to line up over at the cloak room tent as well where, by listening in to other people’s conversations with the security staff, we learned two things. Firstly, they weren’t really worried about weapons, but more the cameras. Apparently, Prince didn’t appreciate everyone filming him the previous week. Dolly has the same issues. Secondly, after the show the line at the cloak tent would be HUGE, so we’d be better served racing back to our car with the camera.

I looked in the tent. There were six bags lined up to one side. But then we were very early. For us.

While Tracey went forward to collect our tickets I returned to the car. “Meet you in the lobby!” I called back to her, which she heard as, “Meet you at the bar!” Easy mistake. Could happen to any old soak.

Later, after a second turn in the ‘search’ line, we were having drinks with friends, Josh & Mel, when I noticed they had binoculars. I looked at Tracey.

“Uh-oh,” she said. “We left them in the car.”

Prince was just walking onto the stage as I arrived back at the lobby. Fortunately the ‘search’ line was much shorter the third time I went through it, probably because everyone was inside at their seats.

Next time we’re arriving an hour and half before the concert.

Not that we’ll be needing to run back to the car quite as often – after the concert the line to the cloak tent was a whole two people deep. I’ve a hunch the security guard had a date after work.

A wonderful date night, and one I hope we repeat soon. I’ve heard George Michael is coming at the end of the year. Who’d have ever thought the eighties would be cool again 🙂

When not typing away over here and checking his stats every two minutes,

Bruce Devereaux hangs out at his ‘BIG FAMILY little income’  Facebook Page.

 ’raising a family on little more than laughs’

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