As a taster for his 21 dates at the O2 arena in August, Prince played a two-hour, late-night secret show at the 1,500-capacity Koko in London last night.

Superbly backed by a new line-up for the New Power Generation, which included two Beyoncés-lookalike dancing twins, singer Shelby Johnson and a horn section featuring Maceo Parker, it was a performance few of the people lucky enough to squeeze into the Camden venue will forget.

Coming on stage at midnight, he teased us with "So many hits, so little time". Punctuated by solo turns by Parker and Johnson, the 20-number set included Kiss, Nothing Compares to U, Girls and Boys, Musicology, and ripped-up versions of U Got the Look and the Hendrix-inspired Let's Go Crazy. As well as a broad sweep of his back catalogue, including tracks from last year's 3121 album, there were covers of Play that Funky Music, Amy Winehouse's Love is a Losin' Game and Gnarls Barkley's Crazy.

During one extended jam, Prince disappeared from view and emerged in the middle of the audience on the first floor balcony, grabbing a handful of fans to join him on stage. It all proved too much for one girl, who leapt on the singer and attempted to straddle him as he lay on the stage before being hauled away by security.

Doubtless she was carried away by the sheer hedonistic euphoria, generated not only by the man himself, who even at the age of 48 did nothing to belie his status as music's supreme performer, but also by an ecstatic audience.

"You give me the energy to do this", he told us. "At the O2 we're gonna turn that thang out. They're gonna be the best shows you've ever seen." You better believe it.

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