Vienna 29 May 1987 (am)

 

I have been meaning to listen to a Sign O The Times main show for a long time now, and this week was going to be the week. Unfortunately, I got sidetracked by today’s recording and never quite made it to a main show. This week I am listening to a real oddity from 1987. This recording comes from a charity show played by Madhouse, with a Prince set following. What draws me to it is the songs performed – The Ball and Adore in particular have me intrigued. The set is only short, clocking in just over an hour, and it is an audience recording, asides from that I think it looks good and worthy of a closer listen

29th May (am) 1987, U4 Vienna Austria

Things start very well, and the landscape for the recording is set. A loud boisterous crowd, a scratchy recording, and then some fantastic music. The venue sounds small, on the recording at least, and we have plenty of audience talk quite clearly and frustratingly on the recording. “Housequake” starts us off, with just the drumbeat for the first minute or so. It heightens the sense of anticipation, and I do like just hearing the beat run for some time. Prince teases the start a couple of times, but we never jump right into the song, instead, it’s a slow-burning groove. It’s played as a jam, rather than what we are accustomed to on record, and that works well for me, especially with the horns adding their weight to it. Later in the song is a highlight with the horns all sorts of interesting lines, and it’s probably a blessing that I can’t understand the audience chat so I can listen past it to the music.

 

  

The most interesting part of the show comes next as the band tackles the unreleased “The Ball.” It is such a delight to have a live recording of a rarity like this, and what makes it even better is the band jam it out for a good long while. For the first few minutes, we have a nice steady groove before Prince sings and engages the audience- primarily having them chant “ball”. Asides from the beautiful groove, the other thing I must mention is the horns which again are the heroes in the song. Prince's vocals sound strong, although slightly variable on the recording. The insistent beat carries us through to Shelia E rapping out “Holly Rock,” which sounds cool even as the tape fades in and out. The crowd feeds off the performance and the chat dies down with lots of singing and clapping.

At first, I hardly notice we had segued into something else until I recognize the bassline of “Girls And Boys.” This is pretty much all that remains of that song, as the band uses the bassline as a step-off point to go all sorts of places. Horns come and go, bass drops, guitars spring up, and it keeps evolving in weird and wonderful ways. It stays groovy and funk-filled the whole while, and I have to say I am captivated by it. The last few minutes almost have me in a trance, and by this stage, I have forgiven it for being an audience recording and I’m just so happy we get to hear it.

 

“Adore” is led by a heavy organ sound before the horns lighten the tone and usher in the song I know so well. The tape hiss is very noticeable at this stage, and that’s a shame as the song itself sounds gorgeous. It’s not as smooth as the record, and I like the fact that at one point you can hear Prince call the chord change. I am less happy about the audience chatter that reappears, but some wonderful delicate guitar work on stage makes up for it. Some soulful vocals from Boni Boyer seal the deal, and the song ends at an all-time high.

“I Got My Mind Made Up” is new to me, and I take an instant liking to it, especially the keyboard solo that plays for the first few minutes. Dr. Fink is doing his thing, and he’s doing it well. It’s got another one of those steady grooves that this band seems to specialize in, and this gives a solid foundation for everyone to play off. The bass is the next to come out at us, and it adds some bottom to a show that has so far been dominated by horns and keyboard.

If a song is called “Guitar Rock Jam,” I would expect it to be a guitar rock jam. The first minute is misleading and the band grooves on sans guitar, but then it does appear and Prince plays a snake charmer-sounding solo. It picks up from here, and as the band quickens so does the guitar and the flurry of notes. It’s heating up, and Prince's fingers are ablaze by midsong. The following few minutes are Prince at his very best on guitar, I forget the rest of the band even exists and listen purely to the guitar. To say it is stellar is an understatement – interstellar would be closer to the mark.

 

It’s a comedown to have the gentle start of “Purple Rain” follow on from this, but I soon warm to its charms. It feels out of place after the loose jams that have come before, but Prince still gives his all to it, and his vocals are delivered in full effect. I can’t shake the feeling of the songs that have come before, and the structure of it feels heavy after listening to them. The guitar solo starts well and is shaping up to be more interesting, which makes the fact that the recording ends just as the guitar solo is reaching its heights all the more frustrating.

This recording deserves more coverage than perhaps it already gets. It is flawed in many ways, it’s the quality of the material and the performance that carries the day. The band is loose and stretches out across some very interesting song selections, and this is what marks it as a great one for me. I am prepared to overlook the audience recording when what I can hear from Prince is at this level. You can safely add this one to the list marked “shows I want to hear in soundboard”. As for a main show from 1987, that’ll have to wait for another time.