Diehard Prince fans camp out for tickets

A pair of Prince fans have been queuing outside the Vector Arena box office since yesterday afternoon for tickets to his show, which go on sale at midday.

Despite the tickets being available online via Ticketmaster, Georgia Duder-Wood and Jennifer Butcher were at the venue this morning, with chairs, electronics, food and water, having camped overnight.

The pair were the only fans lining up. They played tambourine and listened to Prince songs on their iPod.

"Since we've been here since 3pm we've been hanging out ... jamming to Prince," Ms Butcher said.

"We had a discussion about a 'desert island' single, if you could only take one song, then if you could only take one album, and finally the top 10 songs. That kept us occupied until about 1am."

Ms Duder-Wood shared a memory of being at a previous Prince concert when she got close to the stage.

"He didn't look me in the eye, and he said, 'Don't come any closer'. I just said, 'Namaste brother, I'm not coming any closer'. But I got to dance with him and he was jamming to Dance Music Sex Romance. Prince fans will know that track."

Prince, 57, will play two shows at Auckland's ASB Theatre in the Aotea Centre on February 24 - the first at 6pm, the second at 10pm.

Prices, revealed earlier this week, come in three tiers: $389.90, $219.90 and $99.90.

To avoid scalpers, promoters say tickets for the show will be limited to two per person and no tickets will be distributed.

Ticket buyers will have to produce photo ID when they pick up their tickets from the venue from noon on the day of the show.

Prince will also perform four shows at Melbourne State Theatre on February 16 and 17, two shows at the Sydney Opera House on February 20 and two shows at Sydney State Theatre on February 21.

Prince, known for hits such as Kiss, When Doves Cry and Let's Go Crazy is performing his Piano and a Microphone tour, a solo show he had planned to take around Europe late last year but cancelled after the Paris terror attacks

.As the tour name suggests, Prince will perform alone on stage at the piano.

- nzherald.co.nz