You may have missed out on tickets to the Purple One’s Australian tour after they were snapped up in a matter of minutes, but for a few lucky fans in Melbourne tonight could be a once in a lifetime experience.

Prince has a long recorded history of playing small secret club shows while he is on tour, and over the weekend played a show at exclusive nightspot The Ivy, where Seal and Flavor Flav joined the enigmatic singer/songwriter on stage.

Now Melbourne is set to get a piece of the action according to Herald Sun music reporter Nui Te Koha, who has confirmed that the afterparty secret show will in fact take place tonight at Club 23 in the Crown Casino.

The choice of venue is sure to raise a few eyebrows, last time Prince was here he chose the intimate Bennets lane, a small live music venue down one of Melbourne’s famous laneways.

Nui broke the news on Twitter just moments ago writing:

Prince’s highly anticipated tour marks only the third time Prince has visited Australia in his long career, and marks nine years since he last visited.

According to The Herald Sun, several promoters had been in negotiations with the Purple Rain pop superstar to present his upcoming Australian concerts.

Big Day Out were part of that bidding process, according to promoter Ken West, who explained back in 2011 as his festival suffered backlash from an underwhelming lineup that “We got asked over a year ago by Prince’s representation to say, ‘We really want to do the Big Day Out’.”

“At the same time we had Blink 182 chasing us for a year, saying, this’ll get Travis (Barker) on a plane. Neither happened. It just kept going to the end of the line and nobody ever really said, ‘No’.”

It’s unclear at this time if tonight’s afterparty event will be ticketed or first come first serve. Either way the show is sure to be a once in a lifetime opportunity that Prince fans will not want to miss. We’ll keep you updated if we hear more.

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine