Published: 5 February, 2014
By PAVAN AMARA

HUNDREDS of people are queuing in the cold and rain this afternoon (Wednesday) in the hope of getting a ticket to see Prince play an exclusive gig in Camden Town.

Some admitted “faked ill” to skive off work and stand in the queue, others said they had taken taxis to get to the front of the queue due to the tube strike and and one woman even cancelled her holiday to stand in the pouring rain.

None of them knew if Prince would actually turn up, after hearing a rumour that tickets would be given away on social networking website Twitter.

The singer is expected to play a gig tonight at the Electric Ballroom in Camden High Street. He was at the same venue last night playing an hour long set to industry insiders.

Today's queue started forming at lunchtime, and is winding its way down Buck Street and way up along Kentish Town Road.

A man who said his name was John Smith, 32, said: “I work in Putney, but I heard about the tickets on Prince.org this morning and I thought 'I have to get there.' So I suddenly came down with a headache, I faked ill basically. I think it was convincing but maybe my boss didn't think so. He had to let me go. The only thing on my mind was getting to Camden Town, but tomorrow I'll have to face him hungover. I'm assuming I'll get in.”

Ruth Newcombe, 38, cancelled a holiday to Turkey to stand in the rain on Buck Street.

“I was meant to go on Friday but then someone text me and said there was a rumour he might be in town today,” she said.

“So I cancelled the holiday. I was going to visit a close friend and I had to tell her 'Please understand'. She did understand because she knows I love Prince. I've seen him over 25 times, and every show is different. He'll always do something unpredictable. Even this queue is very Prince – no one knows if he'll really turn up or not, but we're waiting here anyway. I have done this before and he hasn't even turned up.”

Elaine Murphy, 31, got a taxi from south London with two other colleagues.

“We heard about it, and the quickest way to get here was taxi,” she said.

“I'm thinking of it like a very long lunch break, I might be here all afternoon but I got a lot of work done this morning. We split the cost of the taxi, but getting one was difficult – they were all booked up because of the tube strike. I don't think we'll get tickets, they'll never be able to let this many people in, but we're here now so we might as well stay.”