Another Chance Book I of III

Book III-Chapter 112, For My Homies, Happy New Year

Princes POV

When they arrived at the venue, they saw the Bus parked in the VIP area of the underground garage, but the band was not in it. They had obviously gotten there early and had taken the instruments in to set them up. When the 4 entered The Chicago Club, they could not help being impressed with the interior. The lobby was more like that of a Broadway Theater than a night club. It had beautifully carpeted floors and awesome wood work on the walls and some wood pillars with pewter light sconces on them. The Frank Lloyd Wright Influence was clear to see. They moved through the lobby and were told by Frank to wait until he and Larry checked the performance area and dressing rooms. Ray, Ross and Melvin remained with the 4 while the Security Drill took place. Larry returned and walked the 4 through the rear of the performance space close to the stage toward the dressing rooms. Sidney playfully executed a series of runs on the keyboard and then the band members said "Hi Boss Man" and cracked up! Prince smiled and shook his head. They were in high spirits tonight and it was going to be a great show! They were playing for their hometown and wanted to not only show them what they were made of musically, but also wanted to make them proud! Bella and Elaine hit the dressing room, changed into their practice outfits and then Ross and Ray walked them back up onto the stage. They began their warm up stretches as Prince started testing the tuning of the instruments by playing chords on the piano. All of the instruments were in-tune . He then gave the cue for Strollin' and they quickly ran through the piece. But rather than move to the planned second piece, he played the intro to a song they had rehearsed but had not played live in a long time. You need Another Lover Like You Need A Hole In Your Head. They tore it up and the band members themselves knew it, as did their bandleader. It was going to be some night! The band ran through the rest of the program and some additional songs taking only one break. Royal and the World Changers would give their hometown the show of their lives tonight. They would sing songs that the audience was not expecting. Yes they would focus on the Album, but they would also play some of his music just because they felt like it and Chicago would love to hear it and they would continue it at the after party. They were ready to give all they had to the City of Chicago and give they would. At the end of the sound check, the band and the 4 gathered into a circle and offered a prayer of Thanksgiving to the Creator asking only that their music and their performance be pleasing to Him. They then went to the dressing rooms where they re-hydrated, showered and ate some light snacks provided by the venue and prepared to bring it to Chicago! As he liked to do, Prince peaked out from behind the curtain about 10 minutes before the show was about to start. He and Carlos had come up from their dressing room and were wired with performance energy and wanted to get a feel for the energy of the audience . They saw Royal Sr. and Savannah and next to them, Torrey and Derrick, Alejandro and Nita and sitting next to them was Maria Elena and Greg Landers. Prince grinned when he saw his sister Torrey and her husband. Between caring for their two little ones and Derrick's mom who had severe Arthritis, he saw her far less than he would like to and was really glad she had come tonight. They also saw Greg and Carlos' sister Maria as she whispered something in his ear and Greg's smile could have lit up the entire auditorium. Prince smiled too, as did Carlos. Both men were happy that these too seemed happy together.  Just as they were about to move to their performance positions, they saw Christian and his wife being escorted to two seats next to Greg and Maria Elena. "I didn't know Christian was coming", Carlos said.  Prince answered "neither did I".  They stepped back, letting go of the curtain. Bella and Elaine came up behind Prince and he turned around to greet them. He pulled his Bella to him and said, "let's give these people a show they will never forget". Smiling she kissed him on the tip of his nose and gave him a thumbs up! They would run the first songs as normal for the sake of minimizing costume changes...but then they would groove just for fun! Carlos and Prince fist bumped and Prince said "let's do it for the Homies". "For the Homies", Carlos echoed. They took their places, the houselights went down and curtain came up and Prince walked from the back of the stage to the chords of Strollin' under a hot white spotlight. As the audience saw him moving toward the front of the stage they went nuts! The show had started.