Live coverage: Prince found dead in liftRaunchy Prince was a conservative ChristianOminous comment at final showSales soar after Prince diesPrince, a full life
It was midnight on a Sunday in 2003 when a diminutive American turned up at the Melbourne laneway jazz club, inquiring if he might be able to score a gig. The staff member on duty sent upstairs for the owner to make this decision: could Bennett's Lane make space for Prince?
Michael Tortoni, of course, said "Yes", and a love affair was born between the iconic venue and the legendary artist, who would make a return appearance on a later tour that cemented a connection now sealed by his death. 
"Disbelief," says resident Bennetts Lane manager Meg Evans of Prince's unexpected passing. "Absolutely disbelief. I found out through a few friends sending text messages and then looked up to find out what was going on - I couldn't believe it."
Evans had met Prince when he played at the club in 2003 and 2012, the first gig a warm-up for his concert at Rod Laver Arena the following night and the second a pre-dawn, post-Laver appearance that has assumed legendary status among local fans and musicians.
Of the 2003 gig, Evans recalls: "He came in the night before and asked for a gig. The person who was here at the time called the boss upstairs and he came down. He was really personable and he said, 'Can I have a gig here tomorrow night?'.
"We had the [Alan Browne Trio] performing, he was going to be on Monday night, and so he performed after Alan Browne's concert. He came with his whole band and they came through the LaTrobe Street entrance, we had so many people in the lane and then the lane behind but luckily ??? we had a clear side to the stage from Latrobe Street for his entourage and stuff. He also had his partner out here at the time.
"He seemed so at home here. He just came in and complimented us on the club and he chose to play the small room - the vibe was definitely in the small room.
"It was absolutely electric. Everyone was holding their breath when he played the first night but at the second one he just came up to the bar and asked very modestly, 'Can I have a drink please?'. He was very personable. We think of the icon but he was a very personable man.
"I wouldn't use the Australian word 'bloke'. He was a gentleman. He was confident but without airs."
In 2012, when Prince took to the Bennetts Lane stage in the wee hours after a raucous sell-out show at Rod Laver Arena, Evans had a more personal encounter with the superstar. Her son Melmo was just five months old and Prince took an close interest in the new arrival.
"He asked me about my son's name and we didn't have a middle name for him yet ??? he started rattling off about 10 or 15 names that we should put in there. He'd obviously put a lot of thought into it ," Evans recalls.
"He performed in the big room that night. We'd had some recitals on and they were in the small room. It was really modest, the people that were there stayed and a few extra people came."
On his most recent Australian visit in   February 2016, anticipation was high that Prince would make a return appearance at Bennetts Lane - especially after he sent out an all-caps tweet just before his arrival: "ONLY TALKS PRINCE IS IN: WHERE 2 HAVE THE AFTERPARTY IN MELBOURNE ON THE 17TH? THOUGHTS?"
"We had this incredible night - a couple nights really - of people waiting for him, the anticipation that Prince was coming.That was astonishing, people being able to share their desire for Prince."
Alas - perhaps exhausted after doing four shows in two days on his solo Piano and Microphone tour - there was no encore.
"We were so sorry that he didn't come," Evans says.
"Musically he was a genius. Someone who commands the kind of ability to speak through so many spaces of music. He can play jazz, he can play pop, he can write for anybody. His musical mind was without borders, without gender, it was never inhibited in whatever he wanted to say.
"A lot of musicians that came and were able to see him here were touched. I'm getting a lot of messages today from musicians saying, 'Thank you for hosting him'.
"There'll be a big black silence in the world today but at the same time??? sometimes in our grief we get to see the beauty of how we love."
Bennetts Lane is likely to hold a musical tribute to its most famous past performer in coming days.
"We're going to have to do something pretty soon," Evans says. "I would like to talk to some of the musicians about how we make the space available to it."