London 8 September 1993 (am)

 After recently taking in two shows of the 1993 Act II tour, I would be amiss if I didn’t address the final aftershow of the tour, the well-known concert performed just hours after the Wembley finale. The performance is of course familiar to many having been widely released on VHS, but this video release doesn’t tell the whole story. As is his way, it is a cut and paste of the actual concert, songs appear out of order, and it only shows us half the songs performed. There is an audience recording that rectifies this, and this will be the recording I will listen to today. I have repeatedly pointed to the Act II concerts as a heavy indication of what comes next in Prince’s career, and this final aftershow of the tour in my mind is already the next phase. This is a setlist I could easily imagine appearing anywhere in 1994/1995, and many of the staples of the coming years get an airing here. Prince may have finally laid his earlier incarnation to rest at the Wembley show, and here at Bagley’s Warehouse he is reborn, a new performer ready to storm through the second half of the 90s. 

  

 8 September 1993, Bagley’s Warehouse, London 

  

The first song of the night, both on the official release and the bootleg, is “The Ride.” The video has the added advantage of the visuals and a soundboard recording, but the audience recording is surprisingly bright and stands up well next to it.  Where the video excels is in building up to the moment. To see Prince emerge from the car, surrounded by minders, photographers, hangers-on, and fans is a reminder of just how grueling his daily life could be. There are parallels to Micheal Jordan, both men were unable to appear easily in public, the only time both were truly free and able to express themselves was when they were on court/stage. This was their domain and the place where there was a sense of calm and control. And calm and control is at the heart of “The Ride” as Prince steadily guides the groove, raising and lowering the intensity at will with his guitar controlling the inner heat of the song. It’s a slow burn, a song that needs repeated listening to truly unlock the secrets Prince is scattering through his guitar breaks, tiny signs that hint at things unknown. The bootleg is already sounding better than I imagined and compares well to the video. 

 

It’s a shame that “Poorgoo” didn’t make it to the official release, it reeks of the symbol era, and in my mind is absolutely essential to this time period. It never got played as much as it should have, perhaps because Prince already had too many of these guitar jams in his back pocket. The recording brings Prince’s guitar to us with a crispy crunchy sound, just as it should, and the playful rhythm that carries the second part of the song shines brightly on this bootleg. 

 

“Honky Tonk Women” is as ragged as Keith Richard looks, and rapidly abandoned as a far heavier, and all the more satisfying “Bambi” emerges from this guitar springboard. With revving thrusts the song becomes pure guitar strut as Prince picks up the strident sound with an aching plea bursting forth from his instrument. Time may age me, but there will always be room in my heart for a solo that plays with an electric fury such as this. 

“Jailhouse Rock” to my ears is a hollow gesture, Prince sounds as if he is playing to neither himself nor his audience. Its nagging hook and nuanced guitar lines have me briefly interested, but at the end of the day, I still can’t decide how it ended up on the setlist. 

 

With Mavis Staples's album “The Voice” released only two weeks previous, her appearance here to sing “The Undertaker” is most timely. There are three key elements at play as the song bubbles up from the depths, Mavis leads us through the darkness with her vocals (one can easily understand why her album is called “The Voice), her voice bringing light while the drama-filled bass stretches out ahead as the dark path we are walking down. The third key element is the horns, all of them lifting the song from a two-dimensional bristle to a titanic struggle between good and evil.  Again, the recording matches the moment, making for a sophisticated soulful howl that grips me at the heart. 

 

There is the inevitable come down, in this case, “I’ll Take You There” can’t match the sonic power of “The Undertaker”, both in performance and on the recording. The recording remains very good, but the mix does become uneven and some instruments appear from nowhere, making for an uneven listen. The debris of the previous song still litters my brain, and it does make it difficult to focus on this part of the concert. 

 

“Calling You” and “Well Done” are commendable, but there is very little Prince to be heard as The Steeles take control of the stage. On another day I would happily listen to them for hours, but in this case, it derails the momentum of the show. I do find a certain peace in their music, their vocal arrangement a soothing balm, but I know I’m not alone in waiting patiently for Prince to again storm the front of the stage. 

 

The Steeles stay at the center of things with “Heart In My Hand,” a song familiar to anyone who is au fait with the VHS release. The recording changes at this point, it feels a little more live, perhaps the taper changed position, I don’t know, but the sound does change even if the quality doesn’t. This makes for a spontaneous feel, and there is a joyfulness that springs out of the recording for “Soldier In The Army Of The Lord” and “Love (Got A Hold On Me).” The Steeles certainly end their set in style, and although it has been a detour from the main event, it has been a pleasant one. 

  

This concert sees the final live appearance of “Deuce & A Quarter,” and just as I was beginning to warm to it. It is interesting to note here the difference between the bootleg and the released version. On the bootleg, we hear the entire song played, whereas on the video it is edited down to barely a minute to serve as the introduction to “Call The Law.” I prefer the bootleg, but only after seeing the video and realizing Tony M was an integral part of the band and hyping the crowd. It doesn’t always come across well on bootlegs, but on live video, one can see just how much of a positive reaction he gets from the crowd and how it lifts the energy levels of the shows. “Call The Law” is cut from the same cloth, Tony M lifting the crowd to new heights as Prince adds some submerged guitar to the song, behind a veil of call and response. The guitar emerges from its hide to ambush the song after the infectious chorus, cutting through the hype and giving it a bare-knuckle punch that was previously lacking. Tony M becomes a little rough and ragged by the end of it, but it matters little as the music drives far beyond the confines of the song. 

 

The concert continues to swing upwards with another appearance of Mavis Staples for “House In Order.” Another song that appears in the video, here it appears in its correct position – near the end of the concert rather than earlier as we see in the video. This gives another chance for the horns to glisten as they add their driving stabs to Mavis’s full-throttle sound. It is the longest song of the bootleg as Mavis and the N.P.G. pull the song into an infectious jam that sweeps the audience into a fervor as the chorus swings around and around, pivoting on Mavis’s vocals and Prince’s subtle, yet essential, spindly guitar. 

 

The next two songs have a long and torturous journey to release and are both essential in the coming years. “Come” was recorded in early 1993, and would go through several re-recordings before its release in late 1994. The version we have here is heavy on the beat and lacks some of the finesse of the released version. Infused with some of Prince’s deeper guitar playing, it becomes a muscular low-rider, sleek and speedy under the radar, never quite raising its head to the sun. 

 

“Endorphinmachine” had an even more eventful journey, initially recorded on the same day as “Come” in early 1993, it first saw release on the Interactive CD Rom of 1994, before finally appearing on an album (albeit in a much tamer form) in 1995. The version we have here in 1993 is untamed and wild, the guitar shooting off in several directions at once, Prince’s initial big bang giving way to hundreds of other explosions, each opening up its own small universe. It’s live, it’s raw, it’s a thrilling ride that dismantles the carefully crafted tension of earlier in the concert and replaces it with a bare-knuckled ride expressed through Prince’s guitar licks. It may not be the best-sounding version in circulation, but it is an explosive shift in sound that cannons Prince and the N.P.G. into the future. 

  

An abrasive guitar shriek and the briefest of guitar noodles lays the stage for the final barrage which is “Peach.”  Once it begins properly it is unrelenting in its ferocious sound, an electrifying wall of sound that is just as dense on the bootleg as it is on the official release. The song wore out its welcome in later years, but at this moment it is at its zenith, and it lights up the bootleg as it blazes across the final minutes. It’s hard not to go back and look at the video after this, the performance is so compelling, that it needs to be seen as well as heard, and the image of Prince throwing his guitar to the ground puts an emphatic full stop to the concert, to the tour, and to the past. This is the end. This is the beginning. This is the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end. This is everything. 

 

Most bootlegs stand on their own and can be enjoyed without appreciation for the context in which they appear. That is not the case with this recording, it is already widely heard in its Frankenstein form, and is too an important document of an explosive point of Prince’s career to be viewed alone. This recording and concert are the culmination of a tumultuous year that saw Prince change his name and begin the process of turning his back on his former name and catalog. This concert is a defiant statement as he plunges deep into his new self and music. Some people were disappointed at the time of the official release that Prince didn’t feature more prominently, but this is the new Prince, and these are his new rules. Prince killed himself off at the last concert of the tour, and at this aftershow the future is revealed. New, bold, exciting, this bootleg captures it all just as the world was turning in a new direction.