London 22 March 1995 (am)

 This week’s bootleg has a special place in my heart. It may not be the greatest bootleg of all time, but it is the one that I have listened to most. When I was younger I lived in London for a few years, about the same time I bought my first iPod, and the music I had on it was severely limited. Today’s recording was one of the few Prince shows I had with me, and I listened to it many times as I shuttled back and forth from work.  It was quite some time before I was able to put more music on my iPod, and over the year I listened to it countless times. The show itself comes from 1995,  a couple of weeks after the Wembley show, but a few days before the Paradiso show and the Dublin show with Bono. What I find so good about these shows is that they are all extremely different from each other, and stand up to repeated listens. It’s at this time that Prince released Exodus with the NPG, and this show is an interesting mix of songs from that album and some other odd songs from that era that never really found a home. It looks like an unusual mix, but they all work well together. 

22nd March (am), 1995, The Emporium London 

Given the lay of the land at that time, it’s no surprise that Prince begins the show by heavily promoting the Exodus album. He gives the crowd some titles and they respond with a supporting cheer to every title. Then we get into things with a chugging drum sound, some swirling organ, and the song “Big Fun.” It is cooler than cool, and although Prince does sing early on, it’s the sound of the organ and bass playing over the drums that carry the day. The looping roll of it is broken by Eric Leeds sax playing, and listening to it now it’s easy to get carried away by the snaking sound of it, my head nods involuntary to it as it flows on. This is the first live performance of “Big Fun,” and it is a tremendous debut, at almost 10 minutes of mostly Eric Leeds and Morris Hayes things couldn’t get much better. 

 

A sharp change in tempo moves the show along briskly, and its “Race” that next gets an airing. In a lot of ways, things are very similar to “Big Fun,” with the song being another chance for Morris Hayes to strut his stuff, the first few minutes being a nice showcase of his sound. Things become more balanced as Prince sings, but I find I am enjoying the band performance just as much as Prince. The jam feel resumes, and we have a nice “Controversy” riff played on the keyboard, which in this context sounds very cool to my ears. We also get a “the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire” chant, which has appeared in Prince concerts and shows many times over the years. Just like the “Controversy” riff, the appearance of a few lines of “Girls And Boys” reminds us that Prince isn’t quite dead, even if the setlist would have you believe otherwise. I do like the Goldaxxe and the solo played before they segue to the next song and it is worth a listen. 

I have always liked “Superhero,” and I especially like this version. It’s not a great recording, what makes it so good for me is the band, and the energy they infused it with, both at the chorus and the keyboard riff. It swings and has a funk to it that makes me move. It has an uplifting keyboard riff, with somewhat of a funky Commodores feel to it, and I can’t help but think of “Machine Gun” when I hear it. 

“Dark” by name, the song itself lightens the show, and with Eric Leeds again playing it continues to follow the brightened sound of “Superhero.” The horns have plenty of long swells, and with the keyboard playing similar long chords it is very warm sounding. I thought the first half of the song was good, the second half was even better as Eric Leeds takes over. He doesn’t push anything too hard, instead, he flows in and out beautifully. As always I find Eric’s contribution just as important as Prince’s. 

 

“Sweet Thing” is a firm favorite of Prince’s and mine. The cascading guitar is beautiful, and even with this average-sounding recording, it is still sharp and clear. Stacy Francis does all the singing, I’m not taken by her, although she does win me over as she gets deeper into the song. I think she would be better served on a higher-quality recording, but her vocal abilities are demonstrated here. For me, the high point is near the end of the song as the guitar echoes her vocals, a touching moment that works well despite the cracks in the recording. 

“I Got My Mind Made Up (You Can Get It Girl)” was first covered in Vienna in 1987, here it makes a reappearance.  The robotic, automatic funk of the guitar is killer, as is Prince's vocal delivery. This time it's Barbarella who gets a shout-out for a solo, but he is no more than starting when we swiftly transition into “Skin Tight.” 

This is a song I always get a lot of mileage out of, the guitar, bass, and keyboard interplay slays me every time, as do Prince's vocals. It is kept minimal at this show, barely a couple of minutes, however, that is a great two minutes and I can hear the band are doing their thing with style through and through. 

The funk doesn’t let up for an instant, with the next song performed being “Funky Stuff.” I know the chant right away, but in this case, resist the urge to sing along as Eric Leeds again plays up a storm. When we reach the breakdown things heat up, with Prince calling on Eric to school the audience. Prince preaches about real instruments and his words are reinforced by some great sax work that is matched by the guitar. There is also the classic moment when Prince calls for the band to give him 25, something they do very well. 

 

When one is tired of the “Santana medley,” then one is tired of life. This is the moment when Prince engages in some of his lead guitar fireworks. It is a fitting tribute to his hero, and I can only imagine how full-blooded this would have sounded at the show. Prince is a great one for sharing the spotlight, so we get a Michael B moment as well as a solo from Tommy Barbarella. Both are good in their way, but it’s Prince and his guitar skills that we want to hear in this song, and he delivers that in spades in the final few minutes. He switches from a buzzing guitar sound one moment to a razor-sharp sound the next, and it is right now that I am lost in the show and forget that this is an audience recording. 

Prince tells us that Mayte says they can’t leave until they do “Get Wild,” I don’t believe him but I am thrilled to hear it. This song is very much of the time, and to me sounds like the sort of funk jam that Prince would write with ease in the mid-1990s. As you might expect there is plenty of chanting and a casualness on stage as the music raises and lowers in intensity. Eric gets a moment as does Tommy Barbarella again, and mostly it is Prince toying with the audience and the band. I only wish I could see it, especially as Prince calls Mayte to shake her moneymaker. There is a camaraderie you can hear between Prince and the band and do sound like a good bunch of friends together on stage. This is a jam that sounds as if it might last all night, and they do throw everything bar the kitchen sink into the song, making it an epic 15 minutes. 

The chant of “Let's get satisfied’ takes us into the next song which is “Funky Design.” It still retains a shout of “Get Wild” for the first minute before some lead guitar takes us to a different place. When Prince starts chanting “Blow your mind, blow your mind”, that's when the song starts properly for me. The song is full of strut and swagger, and it's always empowering to hear Prince sing it. I would bust out a couple of verses myself, but it ends after a verse and chorus. 

Prince tells the crowd that they’ll be back the next night (next week's blog post) and a laid back dripping “Johnny” brings us towards the end of the show. It's an excuse to have the crowd chanting “NPG, in the M***f*** house, before we have some tasty keyboard playing. I was expecting this to be stretched out as well, although it stops abruptly with Prince calling “On the one” and the show is over. 

They say familiarity breeds contempt, but listening to this show again I find my feelings for it are just as warm as the day I first heard it. An audience recording, that’s true, but it covers a show from the most fascinating few months of Prince's career. There are other shows from 1995 that I enjoy more, but this has its place in the canon, and its part is an essential piece of the story. In my life, I have heard this recording hundred of times, and I think I’ll be giving it a few more listens in the future too.