USA Today: New Prince Albums in due March 09

Prince and friends party like it's 2009

Prince, shown here at the 2008 Grammys, threw a party/performance Saturday night in Beverly Hills to celebrate the upcoming release of three new albums.

By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY

BEVERLY HILLS — To celebrate his cyberspace return and three upcoming albums, Prince threw a house party Saturday night for 30 guests who got a large-screen tour of his elaborate website lotusflow3r.com followed by a rowdy two-hour concert.

The Purple One, who vanished from the Web after shutting down his groundbreaking NPG Music Club in 2006, is ramping up the new membership site in time to deliver MPLSound, Lotusflow3r and Elixir, the debut by protégée Bria Valente. He's planning a simultaneous late-March release. Site designers unveiled a dizzying interactive universe, including a sphere of photos and performance clips.

Guests, including Anita Baker, assembled downstairs for a raucous dance bash, featuring Prince and a rocking soul band serving up mostly heated covers, including The Cars' Let's Go, The Rolling Stones' Miss You, the Jackson 5's I Want You Back, and Sly & the Family Stone's Stand and I Want to Take You Higher. After a long jam inspired a full-house Electric Slide, Prince quipped: "Y'all done tore up my carpet. I'm never inviting y'all back."