Utrecht 20 June 1987

 

I used to drive my mother crazy at Christmas. I’m not known for my patience, as a child I would often be loitering near the tree leading up to the event, touching and shaking every gift I could get my hands on. I just couldn’t wait until Christmas day to unwrap my gifts, I wanted to know what they were then and there. Once again I am that child as the countdown to the Sign O The Times super deluxe set is upon us. I want to hear those unreleased tracks now, I want to hear the concert now. As luck would have it we have heard some of those tracks, and we have heard the Utrecht concert before, albeit from an audience recording. And once again, instead of waiting until Christmas, I’m going to shake my gifts now. I have queued up a long-circulating audience recording of the soon to be officially released pristine quality concert, and any second now I’m about to hit play. Merry Christmas Prince fans!

 

20th June 1987, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Prince’s guitar briefly flickers before flaming into the opening of “Sign O’ The Times.” The machine sound of the drums grounds the song in brutal reality, the cold concrete and steel that Prince’s guitar work burns against. Lyrics become secondary in the live performance of the song. It is the angst-ridden guitar that carries the despair and fury of Prince’s world-weary eye, and as the song progresses the lyrics continue to lose ground to the guitar work until they are no more and there is only the electric scar of the music.

Color floods the recording with “Play In The Sunshine” bursting through the clouds with its musical rush and bright horn work. It’s a pall-mall, tumbling performance, the guitar, horns, drums, and singers all jumping over each other sonically to be a the front of the listener. It’s no contest as once again Prince’s guitar continues to be the brightest star, and even Sheila E gives way to its impulse drive.

 

The concert melts as “Little Red Corvette” slides into view. It has moved on from its sexy sports car pop origins and now stands as a tender moment in a concert that is otherwise overwhelmingly fast and funky.

Fast and funky is certainly fitting for “Housequake.” It is refreshing to hear it once again as its fully formed self after listening to a string of concerts from later in his career when the song is little more than a hollowed shell and a chant. A lot of sounds vie for attention, but it is the rhythm section that holds me enthralled, only relinquishing their grip as Eric Leeds sets upon the song with his sax.

“Girls and Boys” was only from the previous year, yet hearing it here is like welcoming an old friend from the past as its familiarity and Eric Leeds horn once again fills the speakers. Prince’s guttural call of “girls and boys” bodes well for the performance that follows, and paired with Eric’s horn it makes for a dense introduction. This is not a bare-boned band performance as the audience joins the chorus to fill out the sound with their own choir. Against this Sheila E’s vocals temporarily sound thin. However with Eric putting his mark over the song the vocals are of little importance. The song is stolen from Prince, in this performance it belongs to Eric and the audience.

Prince provided plenty of lust-driven ballads earlier in his career. “Slow Love” is titled in a similar vein but it is caramelized in love, making for a sweet sticky sound rather than a libido fueled pick up. The horns give the song a curvaceous shape, Prince’s lyrics softened by their timelessness. Like the previous “Girls and Boys” the horns dominate and stamp out a new sound for Prince, again demonstrating the importance of Eric Leeds and Atlanta Bliss to Prince’s ever-evolving sound.

 

The guitar makes a triumphant return for “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man.” It is ushered in by the horns and the all too familiar introduction. The tension builds with each note before Sheilia E unleashes the song behind her powerful drum beat. It becomes a musical celebration with the band falling in behind the groove and Prince taking his rightful place at the center of the stage. The guitar remains deep in the music at first, Prince letting the band build the music into a kaleidoscope of sound balanced carefully atop Sheila E’s drum. It is only with a cry of “turn me up” does he finally release the tension, the guitar searing through the song as the music folds back under its relentless sound, before finally conceding in the breakdown. It is wonderfully paced. Prince picks the quietest moments to pull back the stings and release darts of guitar shards into the night. The guitar burns brighter in the stillness, each riff blazing in the darkness as Prince toys with his instrument. It is undoubtedly a highlight, and as Prince returns the song to the pedestal after pulling it apart the crowd is in raptures.

“Hot Thing” is a complete contrast. The organic and thrilling celebratory sound of “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man,” is replaced with the cold electronic beat built on the back of the modernistic synth riff. With the barest of funk guitar underneath it sees Prince turn his back on the bright lights of rock for the darkened alleys of funk. It is worth the diversion as both Sheila E and Eric Leeds bring their combined forces to bear on the genre, and the next five minutes is a pure study of Prince’s brand of funk. Deceptively simple, there is plenty to pick out of the bones of the song and it stands up to repeated listens.

A Madhouse song is thrown into the mix – “Four.” It’s not unusual, but as they were the opening act one wonders why Prince didn’t run with another song for the instrumental break. A quick check of other concerts reveals he alternated between this and Charlie Parker’s “Now’s The Time,” and both would serve equally well for their place in the setlist through the tour.

As much as I enjoy Sheila E’s drum solo I can’t help but think that I’ve heard it all before. Given how heavily bootlegged Prince was, that is probably the case. It still raises a smile, and the final flourishes bring this Princeless part of the concert to a close.

The smoothness of the studio version of “If I Was Girlfriend” is rinsed away in the live setting. What replaces it is a rawness that cuts to the heart of the lyrical content. Prince no longer sings the lyrics, he emotes them, each line a flush of emotion across a barren soundscape. It is music in its purest form. Not an exercise in technical musical prowess, but instead the song is a vehicle for carrying what we all hold in our hearts. The only disappointment in the song is the ending. It is overworked and provides an unsatisfactory close. Sonically it ends with a whimper rather than the anticipated orgasmic release, the song collapsing inwards rather than bursting forth just one last time.

 

The concert accelerates through the Purple Rain section. “Let’s Go Crazy” is an untamed bundle of noise, all hurly-burly and with little direction. “When Dove’s Cry” comes heavily abridged and only the opening riff and a solitary verse-chorus survive the cull. The most satisfying part of the Purple Rain trilogy is the rendition of “Purple Rain” that comes at a faster pace than normal yet retains its regal status. It is the guitar solo that catches the ear most, Prince weaving the opening melancholy into a six-string celebration, the solo spiraling ever upwards as the crowd’s contribution lifts it to the heavens. It is pitched on just the right side of sentimental, plucking at the heartstrings without becoming entangled in the emotion it elicits.

The teflon coated “1999” that follows barely registers in a concert so deeply rooted in the organic feel of the band. Its sleekness is to be admired, yet out of place. It is a throwback from the past, and to my ears doesn’t quite fit. One can see why it is in the setlist and positioned at the end of the main part of the show it does serve the purpose of closing the set with a party atmosphere. However it doesn’t gel with the surrounding material, a point further highlighted by the acoustic “Forever In My Life” that comes as the first encore.

“Forever In My Life” begins with bright and easy acoustic guitar, a deceiving beginning for what follows. The first minutes see the guitar sparkle and fade, the audience falling in line with their rhythmic accompaniment. As Prince works his way through the vocals it becomes apparent that what is heard on the record is merely a sketch, and what we are about to hear is the real deal. Prince increases the pressure, the guitar working its way back and forth, but always increasing in intensity. From the mix Boni Boyer rises up, storming the song with her powerful contribution. It sounds full and soulful, yet is soon banished from memory as Prince continues his guitar assault. It becomes relentless a medieval battering ram on the doors of the technological music Prince has previously produced, this primitive weapon becoming all-powerful in the hands of Prince. Finally, the pressure is released, a keyboard bringing the song back to a current sound, even if it itself plays from another era. Prince dominates the song, yet gives the final minute to Sheila E for both drums and vocals. It neatly brings equilibrium to the concert and we end on a plateau, far above where we started.

After such a song, “Kiss” comes as a jab to the face. It has a sharpness to it and comes quickly through the speakers. Like most of the non-Sign O’ The Times songs in the set it belongs to the crowd more than to Prince, and one can hear them gleefully singing along for most of the song, bringing the music back to the masses.

People often compare Prince concerts to a religious experience, revelations cloaked in heavenly music. With that in mind, it is no surprise that “The Cross” takes center stage as the major set-piece of the production. Like a preacher Prince builds steadily into his work, the opening lines laying out the premise of his song before he begins the slow journey to his final rapture. The ascent is steady, Sheila joining on the drums as the guitar continues its rhythmic build to the final divine affirmation. The final blazing guitar sees Prince carving his belief in stone, the guitar no longer a musical instrument, but instead an instrument of Prince’s spiritual beliefs, a celebration of his God. The concert is awash with religious fervor, Prince willing the venue into a church of his own design.

The ultimate celebration of Prince and his music however comes in the next song. “It’s Gonna Be a Beautiful Night.” is crammed full of contributions from the band and the party begins here. It skims across multiple genres and era’s as Prince pushes the accelerator to the floor for this final hurrah. Sheila E has been heard throughout this concert on drums, here it is her vocals that take center stage. They are lost in the mix of what I am listening to and this only heightens my desire to hear the officially released recordings. I am like a man reduced to looking through the windows of a house, and I can’t wait for that moment when we can enter through the front door and indulge ourselves in Prince’s aural world. Prince’s vocals become just as rhythmic as any other instrument on stage, and it is Eric Leeds that provides an intricate and wild solo that becomes increasingly dizzy to follow. It is yet another timely reminder of the contribution Eric made to the band. He is massive in this song and throughout the concert.

 

Listening to this concert has not satiated my appetite for the Sign O’ The Times set and this particular concert. In fact, it has done quite the opposite. I am just as hungry as ever to get it in my hands and hear this concert in its full unfettered glory. It is said, “patience is its own reward.” In this case, the reward will be far greater. The release of the Sign O’ The Times deluxe will add another concert to the pantheon of Prince greats, and deservedly so. This might not be one of the great concerts of the tour, but any concert from this tour can be held up to greatness and found to process all the qualities required. With the band released to fully realize the songs Prince created in the studio, we are presented with renditions that come to life and sprawl across the stage in a ragged glory. Unfortunately, it won’t be the general public buying the Sign O’ The Times superdeluxe, priced as it is beyond many casual fans. That is a shame as the concerts from the tour deserve a wider audience. I for one will be playing this one for as many I can. All I have to do is wait just a couple more months…

Paris 17 June 1987

 This week's blog has taken much longer than usual to write. Not because I couldn’t find anything to say about this show, but rather that this show is just so good I listened to it several times before I could sit down and write a single word. I have listened to it four times in the last two days, each time playing air guitar along with it, and drumming on my desk as it played. The music is so lively and infectious, it’s been a struggle to get myself to sit still and listen, this is music that you feel as much as you hear and I have spent several good hours dancing around the room as it plays. The show itself is one of the most well-known and much-loved bootlegs in circulation, a magnificent soundboard recording from Paris during the Sign O The Times Tour. For many years I haven’t felt the need to listen to shows from this tour, after wearing out the VHS of the Sign O The Times movie when I was younger. Aftershows from this era I gave plenty of attention to without ever dipping deeper into the main shows themselves. This is generally hailed as one of his greatest tours, and listening now I can see why, everything about this show is fantastic, the music, the performance, costumes, and the songs themselves. There is not a single weak point in the whole show. And this bootleg is the best bootleg of the tour, ranking it as one of the best of the best.

17th June 1987, Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, Paris

There is no better sound in the world than the throaty, guttural sound of Prince’s guitar opening to “Sign O The Times.” It completely changes the sound of the song from the record. Sure, the cold electronic beat is there, as is Prince’s headlining lyrics, but the guitar adds a new dynamic, giving a passionate response to those cold soundbites. It howls in anger, weeps with sadness, and gives a human reply to the chilling news Prince recites. Whatever I feel about those lyrics, Prince manages to capture with his guitar playing, and I spend most of the song playing air guitar before I add some air drumming to the mix as the band drums themselves in at the end of the song.

 

The band is all on-board and to the front, as we next hear “Play In The Sunshine.” The recording is beautiful, and it sounds as if the band is right here in the room with me. It’s a beautiful wall of sound, and my head spins listening to it all. Things are still coming thick and fast as Prince plays his guitar break, and listening to it thirty years on I am amazed at how tight this band is, and how well this recording has aged. There is some sax in the left speaker that is so crystal clear, that I could swear Eric Leeds is right in my ear.

We slow and I come back into the moment with “Little Red Corvette.” The band and vocals sound good, but it’s the piano sound that is unique this time, and that is what I cling to as it plays. It’s an early carrot for those that have come to hear the hits, but Prince pulls the curtain on it with a sharp “Shut up already, damn!”

“Housequake” has been heard in many forms over the years, they are all good but nothing comes close to the original arrangement such as we have here. The song is great, the band is on fire, and the recording does it all justice. I want to sit and listen, I just can’t – the song is too good, and it’s all I can do to resist the urge to get up and dance again. Eric Leeds has never sounded so good, and again the sound in the left speaker is fantastic- this time a guitar is coming in crystal clear.

Eric Leeds is all over “Girls and Boys.” After the foreplay of a couple of verses and chorus, he gets his big moment and as a funky guitar plays, Eric plays a delightful solo that has me smiling every time I think about it. One of my favorite Prince songs, and in this live setting and with Eric on top of his game it’s a thing of beauty.

 

After Eric, it’s Atlanta’s turn as his trumpet croons us into “Slow Love.” Prince may be the center of attention, but it’s the little things and the rest of the band that make this song what it is, be it Atlanta Bliss and his trumpet, the drums of Shelia that seem to accent every point, or the divine vocal of the girls in the band that provide fullness to Prince's vocal performance. It all comes together in a way that feels so natural and as if everything has its place and is as it should be. Prince’s vocals alone are worth the price of admission and feel as warm and inviting as a soft pillow.

“I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man” is so familiar, and yet I do still get that thrill of excitement when we hear the longer intro as played on the Sign O The Times tour. That talk, a twinkling of the piano, the horns all building to that moment when Shelia drives us forward into the song, and the band is unleashed.  I am sure most people have like me seen this hundreds of times on the Sign O The Times movie, and it’s hard not to sing along with it as it plays. It’s story-telling in a song at its best, and the drama of the song unfolds with the music as well as the lyrics, culminating at that moment when words can no longer express and Prince resorts to some of his most inspired and uplifting guitar playing. He swoops, he soars, and he turns the solo into a celebration. Am I playing air guitar right now? Yes, I am. The music pulls back and Prince plays some mournful guitar that has me furrowing my brow trying to listen to it and not miss a single note. As the band comes back and drives us to the finish it feels like the song was barely a couple of minutes long, when in fact it was closer to ten.

 

I do so love the organ at the beginning of “Hot Thing.” And it just gets better from there, with firstly Levi and Prince doing their spoken interplay which sounds fun without being distracting. I must admit that having played the movie to death, it is great to hear a different variation of this chat. The mix on the song is also very good, the guitar is more forward, and I love the robotic funk of it. The song becomes fuller late in the piece when again the horn lines lift it beyond this cold, electronic sound and takes it to another level altogether.

The band comes into their own with “Now’s The Time.” At this stage, we can see this band is its own animal, and what they are capable of it. Every band member contributes something, and all of them hold down their corner well. I couldn’t say if one is better than the other, although I will say I enjoyed Levi immensely in the brief bass solo he gives us. We close out the song with several minutes of Shelia playing a solo. It gathers momentum, much as any drum solo should, and at the end, I give up my air-drumming along with it and cheer just as much as anyone else on the recording.

I should be tired of “Let’s Go Crazy,” the keyboard swell that signals the opening to it gives it a new feel, and the rest of the performance is equally uplifting and it never once feels stale. The guitar sound is neutered, with this band and this show it doesn’t matter at all, this is a different band with their own sound and they make “Let’s Go Crazy” fit with their unique personality. I could take or leave the outro with Prince and the crowd exchanging “let's go, go, go” but that’s a minor quibble that fades into memory as Prince’s last searing guitar notes are heard.

 

I have mixed emotions about “When Doves Cry.” I am glad to hear it, and I do like the arrangement. My only issue it is only a couple of minutes, and the song doesn’t have a chance to breathe and be itself. The lead line still gets my heart jump-started, and I do love the way Prince intones the lyrics, and then it's gone, just as I was beginning to feel it.

“Purple Rain” seems to be early in the setlist, and it highlights that this isn’t the full show, we are missing several songs, and the recording itself only just runs over an hour. Prince doesn’t play around with it, he heads straight for the solo after a verse and chorus. The solo is lively and energetic without ever offering up anything new. I still like it of course, and it’s the cue for me to engage in more air-guitar.

It’s always a surprise to hear “1999” after “Purple Rain,” just as I am coming down it raises me back up. Like everything at this show, it’s more horn-infused and much more colorful sounding. There is a lot more sound crammed into the song, and I can hear most of the band having some input. True to form it ends this part of the show on a high, and signals the first break before the encore.

And what an encore we get, with “The Cross” taking the concert and recording to yet another high. The comparisons between “The Cross” and Lou Reeds ‘Heroin’ are valid, but by the time “The Cross” reaches its zenith all comparisons are moot. I don’t know which is stronger, Prince’s vocals or his feverish guitar playing. He may be singing about god, but he plays guitar like a demon, and the final couple of minutes are electrifying. The way the guitar quiver and shakes and sounds in a frenzy against the more measured sound of the horns and the band, it doesn’t get any better than this.

 

With a simple call of “Encore”, we fly into “It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night.” This show just gets better and better, and the band chews up “It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night.” I listened to this with headphones, and then without, and the recording is sublime. There are some fantastic noises and sounds that I pick up that I had never noticed before. The wondrous thing about Prince, in his live shows and his recordings, is he gives you so much that even after all these years I am still hearing new things hidden away in the songs. Prince name-checks Jill Jones with “The Jill Jones crawl” which I find pretty cool, asides that it’s the music itself that I immerse myself in, it is funky, thick with sound, and has me dancing where I am, I cannot help myself. The song is in full bloom, as the show is finishing at an all-time high that even I couldn’t have predicted. There is even a chant of “I can’t get enough, of that funky stuff” and I couldn’t agree more. I am going to go out on a limb and say this is the best version of “It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night” that I have ever heard, and I’ve heard a lot.

What a way to finish the show, I am breathless as it finishes, and I find it takes me a couple of minutes to cool off after, I was right into it. This recording is much revered in the Prince community, and I can well see why. Although incomplete, it still delivers a knockout, the performance is unbelievable, the recording is sublime, and it is truly one of the great bootlegs and worthy of all the love and praise that it gets. I know I am preaching to the converted, but this is one that every Prince fan has to have, it’s magnificent.

Phew, I am going for a lie down

Stockholm 8 May 1987

 

I have recently been enjoying the latest release from Eye records that covers a couple of well-known concerts of 1987 that have been circulating for some time. It did, however, make me think that I, like many others, only listen to a small selection of shows from the Sign O The Times era. Everyone listens to “For Those of U On Valium,” the Paris concert from June of that year, and a handful of aftershow concerts. I rarely hear of anyone talking about other concerts of this tour, perhaps because with several quality soundboard recordings circulating there is little need to dig further. This week I will plunge deeper (but not too deep) and take a listen to an audience recording from the first night of the tour. It promises little, and indeed delivers little, but as a diversion from the more well-known concerts, I welcome the change.

 

May 8th 1987, Isstadion, Stockholm, Sweden

The setlist is standard as heard through the Sign O The Times tour, and the only surprise in the opening “Sign O The Times,” is the jaunty pace it comes at. It undoes the serious tone somewhat, but on this average recording there is no real depth anyway, and one doubts that even at a different pace it would sound any different on this tape. The burning fury of Prince’s guitar work also suffers from this lack of depth, the recording is just not good enough to catch the intensity of the flames that Prince is playing. As is the case of so many of these recordings, it is up to the listener to mentally fill the sound out from the memory of other concerts.

“Play In The Sunshine” also comes at a fast rate, leaving me to assume that the tape is running at the wrong speed. As a performance it is fun and colorful, as a bootleg it is average, touching on less than average as some extra sound bleeds through the right speaker. On the positive side, there is no distortion, the bane of my existence on so many of these recordings, and one can discern the music and nuances, even if it does sound two-dimensional.

 

I do like the cameo role that “Little Red Corvette” plays at these concerts, and here is no different as the concert is briefly bathed in a nostalgic glow while Prince nods to his back catalog, the song from only five years ago suddenly sounding alien among Prince’s more eclectic work. Prince pitches it just right, not dwelling on the moment, and quickly bring us to the present with a heady rush through “Housequake.”

This is one song on the recording that could do with added the depth, the distinctive beat, in this case, is flattened against the other music, everything is present as it should be, but crushed together there is little room for the song to properly breathe on the tape and again I mentally remix it in my mind as it plays.

The fanboy in me temporarily lets go of any thoughts on the quality of the recording as I wallow in, and indeed sing lustily along with, “Girls And Boys.” My singing is much louder than the recording, unfortunately, but it is a reminder of how much the listener is invested in the performance. It may be Prince singing on a thirty-year recording, but it draws from my well of inner youth, and as it plays the years fall away, and suddenly the recording sounds better on the back of my nostalgic recollections.

 

I am sure we could point to any number of recordings of “Slow Love” from this tour that sounds better than what is heard here, but it has a warmth throughout this track that I can’t help but fall for. I didn’t think I was in a romantic mood, but by the time this song finishes I certainly am, and I guess for a slow jam there is no higher recommendation. Next time I will have to make sure I listen to a better quality version.

When I first heard ” I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man,” on Sign O The Times, I took it as a light pop/rock song. In these live performances, Prince turns it into a whole lot more, injecting it with the sense of drama and pathos that the lyrics allude to. Bestowing it with a drawn-out introduction heightens the sense of anticipation and gives the feeling that what will follow will mean something more than we would otherwise expect. When the song is finally unfurled in all its glory Prince takes the lyrics and turns them into an onstage melodrama that the bootleg has no chance of ever truly capturing. One can hear it however in Prince’s pleading lyrics as he plays out both parts, both the object of affection and the spurned lover dismissed with the line “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man.” This all boils over in the final volcanic eruption of a guitar solo that unleashes all the frustrations, the sense of hope and despair, in a minute that rips the song in half. The breakdown and subsequent dark cries of Prince’s instrument hint at a Hendrix sound that Prince is so often lumbered with, and here he wallows in the sound, the stripped-back band leaving Prince alone out front of the recording in a moment where we can reflect on this one man's brilliance. Immensely enjoyable, it only fuels my desire to dig out a soundboard of this tour and truly wallow in its sound.

 

Pleasingly “Hot Thing” maintains this intensity, albeit in a more funky form. Prince’s vocals sit under the music due to the quality of the recording, but for me the highlight of the song is the final few minutes as the lyrics disappear, giving way to a flurry of saxophone and horns. Futuristic yet drawing from the past, this song sees Prince tying together several strands of his musical repertoire into a four-minute funk song, no mean feat.

 

The horns remain at the forefront of my mind, and the recording, as they spin out the opening of “Now’s The Time.” I am pleasantly surprised by the recording at this stage, it sounds better here than perhaps at any other moment of the concert, and Sheila E. gets plenty of shine for her rattle around the drum kit. It is a satisfying portion of the concert, without being too demanding, and the recording reflects this nicely.

Sad to say “If I Was Your Girlfriend” sounds nowhere near as good on this recording. It is distant and hollow sounding, the song never once given the chance to breathe as the recording suffocates it in its solid block sound. There is little more to say apart from the bitter disappointment of almost having to skip one of my favorite songs.

The punch of “Let’s Go Crazy” fares better, but not a lot. Its saving grace is the crackle and fizz of the guitar which stands starker against the blandness of the recording, giving the bootleg a sliver of light with the grey. Turning it up loudly helped, and no doubt my neighbors appreciated the gesture.

“When Doves Cry” is heavily truncated, but the minute of “La, La, La, He, He, Hee” tacked on the end is a rare treat on an otherwise basic show. Not everyone would enjoy hearing it in this quality, but it does give the bootleg an added point of interest and makes it worth listening to up to this point.

Before I know it, “Purple Rain” has come and gone, with little fanfare. There is a scant introduction to the song, the verses are heavily pruned back, and the final guitar break is kept tightly in the pocket. The fact it only runs for three minutes tells you everything you need to know, Prince isn’t interested in revisiting his most purple of eras, and he glosses over the moment as the concert continues to rumble on.

 

There is far more love for “1999” from Prince than the preceding song, and one can hear the crowd indulging in plenty of fun and chanting as they blitz through one of his earlier bona fide classics. It’s a romp, but not a great one, again the recording renders even the best moments average at best.

What follows is a great version of “Forever In My Life,” the simplicity of the song matching the shortcomings of the recording. Prince’s acoustic guitar work is mesmerizing as he delivers a sack full of rhythm from his six strings. Boni Boyer is in fine fettle, and although she doesn’t bring the house down as she does on other recordings, she does add a lot of soul to what could easily be a light moment of the show. The final minute is stolen by the crowd and as they sing the song briefly becomes theirs before Prince serves up a fast-paced “Kiss”

This is how “Kiss” should sound, fast, light, and funky. The band doesn’t overwork it, they throw it out there and let the natural funk of the song do its thing. You can sing to it, you can dance to it, what more do you want? Nobody is ever going to dig out this bootleg to hear “Kiss,” but it is on here and it sparkles while it plays, and I temporarily forget where I am.

There is a deceiving start to “The Cross,” but soon enough it settles into its familiar sound. It builds to its predictable climax, and a swirl of guitar punctuated by the pound of Sheila E. cutting through the sonic storm with her heavy rhythm. On another recording it would be magnificent, on this recording, it is stripped of its sonic power by the quality and limitations of the taper. It doesn’t matter to me, I am more than happy to let the sound of Prince and his guitar wash over me, but for the more discerning listener, it may all be a little two-dimensional.

 

It is a furious “Its Gonna Be A Beautiful Night” that closes out the recording, the band well and truly warmed up and on top of their game for this final knockout punch. There is energy abound, and the music comes at a gallop, never once letting up or giving the listener a chance to draw a breath. Sheila’s rap is indistinctive from the chaos and cacophony of sound on stage, but she is undeniable there as the music briefly swirls around her. “Six” raises its head from the music, bringing a brief smile to my face before it is steamrollered by the rest of the music and becomes little more than a footnote. I can think of no more fitting way to end these Sign O The Times concerts than with the sprawling wonder of “It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night” and although this bootleg isn’t one of the greats, there is no denying the quality of the music and performance.

A recording I shan’t be returning to, nevertheless, I did enjoy the energy and sheer fun generated by Prince and the band. Far from perfect, this recording does ignite an interest in other concerts circulating of the era and again demonstrates the power and beauty that this band can conjure. 1987 was a stellar year for Prince, and I find any recording from the year worthwhile in its own right. I could never recommend this recording to anyone, but it is another piece of the tapestry of 1987, and will firmly remain part of my collection.