Prince a random element at Prince parties

In a bid to try and draw the sting of disappointment when Prince fails to turn up to his own aftershow parties, his official website has clarified that he might not be there.

Which is fine, although when you're selling tickets as a lucrative way of topping up revenue from the gigs, perhaps the time to stress this is before you take people's cash rather than after.

To be fair, Ticketmaster did, in its cringe-encrusted promotional email for the events, try to point out Prince would only ever appear as an extra rather than a focus:

The agency's website promoted the "aftershow" as "the white hot place to hang for those still in need of some serious grooves".

Ticketmaster also stated: "Please be aware that Prince and the band are not guaranteed to perform, but as we all know with these cats - expect the unexpected."

But fans who forked out up to £75 have complained that the warning that you're more than likely to, uh, not see a grooving cat was buried. And "expect the unexpected" does sound like quite a big nudge-nudge, wink-wink that he'll be turning up more often than not.