The Princewatch

LONDON — I’m on Princewatch. Or more accurately, #princewatch, the Twitter thread trying to track down The Artist Currently Known As Prince as he makes his way through a series of secret gigs in small London clubs this month. Three sightings in two weeks — first playing in someone’s living room, then at Electric Ballroom in Camden for a one-hour set with current band 3rdEyeBlind; then a surprise two hours onstage at Shepherds Bush Empire with Funkadelic founder George Clinton a week later.

Yes, that’s right: a day before I arrived here.

I am here to cover a different kind of royalty, mingling with actors from the kingdoms of Westeros in a posh hotel given over to media sitdowns, but I keep checking Twitter during the day for updates. It’s my last night here and I am desperately seeking a unique live gig experience. Seeing Prince would definitely qualify.

You see, Prince is pretty awesome live. I’ve watched videos, and the guy is a relentless touring machine (hint: this is how musicians make money in the age of downloads and piracy). He has a vast repertoire that dips between funk, rock covers, R&B and jazz, and he plays a helluva lot of guitar. Basically stepping out as a playah long after people have forgotten Purple Rain.

That’s part of the tenor of some of the Twitter comments. Some tweet that the dude is a fossil from the ‘80s, and hasn’t had a hit since Get Off or, well, I can’t remember when. But hits are the old measure of success. Prince sold out the O2 stadium here for 20 nights in a row a few years back. He still has drawing power, especially here. And London is one place he seems to want to get cozy with fans for a little while. Thus the foreplay, the bait and tease, the secret gig rumors lighting up the cell phones.

It’s probably one of the few good uses for Twitter. Regular news, on a 24-hour cycle, can’t keep up, especially if the gig is a “secret.” But Twitter, for all of its nonstop blather stream, does occasionally offer useful info. All you can do is track the feeds, hope for a sign, a clue, a confirmation. It does show that Twitter is good for something — that and, well, live reporting on coups, government crackdowns, revolutions and such.

People are literally staring at their Twitter feeds for hours at night, like they’re waiting for the Bat Signal. (“I’ve kept my eyes open for 10 hours straight, I’ve used matchsticks.”) This goes on, most nights, until 11 p.m. or midnight when the likelihood of a Prince appearance dims dramatically. Yet the tweets keep coming:

“Woke up in need of another purple fix. Where’s it at? The hunt is on…”

“Watching Twitter feed with my coat on just in case…”

“Pretty sure Prince is scheduling shows for nights I can’t go…”

“I’ll settle for Prince busking right now…”

“Stalking, watching, waiting, anxiety. You bring out the worst in me, but I like it, bring it on…”

“My life is on hold for purple coloured news…”

“Now spending my days researching when venues DON’T have gigs…”

The twitterverse goes batsh*t crazy over this type of secret. Hashtags multiply, tracking leads, then die; others pick up the thread.

The winner in all this? Prince, of course. He has managed to get a certain percentage of London talking about where he will strike next. He’s the elusive PimperPrince: they seek him here, they seek him there. Will it be Ronnie Scott’s? Or the 100 Club? Some say they heard he’ll do summer gigs in Hyde Park, but that helps me not one bit.

The modus operandi seems to be: Prince spotted entering X club with his all-girl band 3rdEyeGirl around 9 p.m. or so. Twitter erupts. A long queue turns up, letting the word out. Another rumor spreads that tickets will be £70, which scares off non-diehard fans who quit the line; then tickets are actually sold for £10, and lucky Prince fans have a nirvanic experience which they then tweet about. Obsessively.

The cycle creates a certain anxiety among Twitter watchers. Some of the tweets talk of feeling “on edge,” wondering where and when the next gig will be. It’s probably the way Californians feel waiting for aftershocks. “I wake up anxious every morning,” says one tweeter. Another jokes that Prince showed up in his cupboard.

I personally checked various Twitter feeds until midnight, not wanting to miss out. I did this for two nights. Missing a gig THE DAY BEFORE I ARRIVED was massively vexing. Especially since the only other show in town was Taylor Swift.

But my brief visit to London eventually came to an end and, despite my massive focus on the Twitterverse, no Prince: the funky little shrimp chose not to play on the nights I was there.

But of course, he played two gigs the day I returned to Manila, on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day. Whatever.

Anyway, for those living in London with the stamina to stare at cell phone feeds for nights on end, the search goes on.

They seek him here, they seek him there…