Prince spotted in Berwick Street - Purple Rain superstar drops in to buy CDs and DVDs in Soho record shops

HE may be small but he’s not easily missed, and even the most hardened music fans were left speechless when Prince dropped into Soho for a spot of record shopping.

The purple one stunned staff at Sounds of the Universe in Broadwick Street as he walked down the stairs into the store on Monday afternoon.

Nicole McKenzie, who served the Purple Rain star, said: “I was a bit shocked. I thought he might be a lookalike and when he came towards me I saw it was Prince.

“He was very low key, just with another guy. He bought four DVDs, including The Gospel according to Al Green, Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions, and the night James Brown played Boston. They are quite hard to get in London.”

She added: “He didn’t really say much, he just wanted some concert CDs. He was just wearing black, very polite, looked nice, said please and thank you, I was just very pleased to see him.”

And just around the corner in Berwick Street, Prince took his time browsing the collection at Sister Ray.

Owner Phil Barton said: “He bought Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone and a bunch of funk albums. His limo was outside. He was in the shop for about 20 or 30 minutes and everyone gave him his space. 

“He slipped out of the shop and one of his people came back in and bought them.”

And Prince was not the only superstar to have popped in recently. 

Mr Barton added: “Charlie Watts from the Rolling Stones came in on Sunday and bought a £90 jazz album.”

PUBLISHED: 08 July 2011
by ROISIN GADELRAB