Wow. It was fantastic - I am so glad I went. Now having said that - the show was not without its flaws. First, the choice of venue was poor. The Great Western Forum is really a sporting events center and not designed for optimal concert enjoyment, so the sound (which is very important to me) was boomy and horrid. Also, I waited in a line outside freezing for a half hour before we were told it was for the VIPs and we regular ticket holders could go right in the arena any time. Once I was in, I bought a program and climbed down to the floor seating and discovered I had a perfect spot. Section B Row 5 seat 11. Right dead center. Section A was to my left and section C was to the right so I was in prime position for the show to start at 7:30. By 8pm however I realized the whole front section was still missing, all first four rows in each section; which meant all the VIP ticket holders were still doing their meet n greet thing and the show was going to be very late. Looking around the arena I was very disappointed to see that it was not even a third full and I found out later that they sold less than 3,000 tickets out of a possible 7,000. That made me a little sad, until I realized that meant that would make it a more intimate show for us.

The stage was all set up prior to the show, with two three-tiered risers split into a 'V' with every instrument ready to go. Brilliant move considering the amount of break down and set up that they'd have to do for each act. They had every single thing up there already! The one thing I wasn't thrilled about was that they had a 'house band' that backed up every act. These were musicians Sheila knew. Two keyboardists, Two background singers, one drummer and a bass player and three piece horn section. Kat Dyson played guitar as well. They stayed up in the back line throughout the entire show. The problem is mixing all those instruments with each acts' own instruments creates a wall of sound that makes the Forum acoustics even less appealing.

Lights went down a little after 8 and our hostess Carmen was introduced and she was very vivacious and very appreciative of us all and looked really hot. All her introductions were very well written and she made the whole thing very exciting. The crowd (small as it was) roared and stood as our first act was introduced:

JILL JONES
Wow. Was I impressed with her! I knew the 'singers' would only get one song each, but I have to say she did enough with this one song to compete with all the band acts! She did MIA BOCA with the house band and just WORKED the crowd with it. She wore a perfect simple short black dress and her hair is jet black and straight and she just knows how to slink and pout and made the whole tune just electric! Great execution and hit every vocal nuance form the recording. I never knew Jill was such a dynamic performer, in fact I don't remember her ever doing a show, but man she's cool. She left me with the impression that she is one of the protégé’s that 'gets it': she doesn't take it all too seriously, sort of winks at us as if to say, 'yea this material is kitschy, but I'm still a pro and I know it means a lot to you guys'. I applauded so loud for her.

APOLLONIA
Next up, in complete contrast, was Apollonia. This was horrendous. She tottered out in this weird sparkly red halter top and disco silver miniskirt combo that a woman her age has no business getting into. Her face is still beautiful, but man that skirt was so tightly wrapped around her huge thighs and pulled down so low that you could see a roll of flab like a little belt around the top - really grossed me out. She looked so ghetto. And of course she was never really a singer and performed TAKE ME WITH U with the house band letting the background singers take most of the performance. She even forgot the second verse, but by that time the audience had taken over the song anyway. I just barely suffered through that one. It was like Karaoke.

MADHOUSE
Finally some musicians! Another performance that just knocked me out. Carmen introduced the members as each one strode onto the stage: Matt (Doctor) Fink, Eric Leeds and Sheila E – just the three of them! The bass player from the house band came down to complete the line up. They plowed right in to TEN and just blew every one away! Maybe the tunes are much simpler than I realize but I couldn't believe they could remember those arrangements after all this time! Fink's keyboard was a bit buried at points, but his solos cut through and garnered much applause. Eric was brilliant as ever and Sheila - wow. They did THIRTEEN next and that was cut off by SIX which just made the place erupt! Sheila took a drum solo in this that was epic. She beat the fuck out of those skins, man! I've never seen it's equal. Lost sticks too. I tell ya - I think she was trying to show up John Blackwell who was in the audience. I forgot to mention Roy Bennett, Prince's tour lighting guy for years, did the lights and his colored strobe effect during her solo made it so much more intense, we were stunned! They closed their set with SIXTEEN and just cooked it so tight we all leaped up and cheered.

CHAKA KAHN
I think it was at this point that Carmen introduced Chaka to do I FEEL 4 U, but it could have been after. Anyway, nothing very impressive. Another Karaoke performance, to the house band, even worse than Apollonia's. I've heard that Chaka suffers from a horrible stage fright these days and maybe that explains it, but she seemed to let the audience sing the tune while she wailed her usual screams out. The band was adequate, but I've decided I don't like Chaka; I think she's full of it and a little too much diva attention has allowed her to 'get fat'. Literally.

THE FAMILY
This introduction got the biggest rise out of the crowd yet. Carmen introduced them as 'truly a band of number ones' (one album, one concert, one video), she read off each name and the members all strolled out from the middle of the stage (from under a black curtain) and just took over! It was so heart-warming to see them all together again, since they had rehearsed for six long months to play just one gig back in '85 and then split up. They were so good! St Paul looks younger now than he did back then! He has a cool trendy shag hair cut and wore none of the New Wave make up, very simply dressed in jeans. Susannah looked wonderful with the short curly blond hair she's had recently and wearing a short green mini skirt and a light robe - sort of 'implying' the look they had back then (no silk PJs though). Jerome came out in a felt blue suit looking all dap and was workin the crowd in his usual Jerome fashion, Jellybean set up in his drum set and Miko in a very cool velvet patchwork outfit and fop cap, played his chicken grease funk stage left. Eric took his place next to Paul. I couldn't believe they were all there and what a show! They launched right into RIVER RUN DRY just like at the First Avenue show they did all those years ago. Hit the vocals perfectly and even did some of the moves from the original performance. I was very surprised at how good Paul's voice is and how strong Susannah projects. They were really enjoying each other and everyone had little moments to connect. They followed that with SCREAMS OF PASSION which got a raving crowd response and they all did the little shoulder move thing during the turnaround parts. So endearing. At one point Paul was working the crowd stage left and Susannah was dancing around and backed up into Jerome who reached his arm around her and just held her, dancing as she turned her face up to him and smiled. Little moments like that are the reason I went. NOTHING COMPARES 2 U was electric and so sweet to see Paula and Susannah act out their parts. Eric up front at the keys. Jerome did the James Brown ‘shoulder cover gag’ with a silk PJ robe to St Paul that he wore the rest of the set. Perfect versions of HIGH FASHION and MUTINY followed and the roof was tore off! At one point Jerome came down through the crowd and circled our floor seats. They left the stage to huge applause and I seriously think they had the most fun of all the bands there. Just to see these people interact with each other again was such a treat. I would like to see them do more gigs, there's so much potential there.

I forgot to say that each band gathered its members for stage bows after their sets and that was a nice little closing moment for each performance, to see the camraderie and joy on each of their faces.

PATTI LABELLE
This was cute. She came out to perform YO MISTER and just totally rocked. She’s good at performing even the most awkward material and making it work, but what was funny is that by the second verse she had no idea what the lyrics were and had her eyes glued to the floor where it became obvious a lyric sheet was taped. Eventually she got fed up with it and knelt down to scoop up the sheets and proceeded to sing right off the papers, like it was rehearsal! Handled like a pro I say! Afterwards she said, “That was a song Prince wrote for me a thousand years ago – I didn’t know the lyrics then, and I still don’t know them now – that‘s why Miss Patti had to bend down and pick the damn paper up to sing the damn song!” Cracked us all up. She did her wailing routine a bit which can be annoying, but she’s another one who ’gets it’ - in a different way - but she just ‘gets it’.

SHEILA E.
Sheila’s father came out to introduce her and broke us all up with the comment “I taught her everything I know. No REALLY – I did!” That was sweet. He seems like a cool Dad. They introduced each band member – all musicians from the Purple Rain tour during the recording of Romance 1600, so their faces were familiar from the album, but I had certainly never seen these people play before, and there they were hitting every note as if they were still touring on Purple Rain! They’re really good but the arrangements were a little stretched out from the original recordings so when they started OLIVER’S HOUSE (after the SISTER FATE intro) with Sheila mumbling the lyrics (I think she forgot them in the excitement) no one knew what it was until the chorus hit. They followed with great versions of THE BELLE OF ST MARK and A LOVE BIZARRE which included a little jazzy section with a ‘guest appearance’ from Lyn Mabry (Sheila pretended to drag her on) singing lines from ONE NATION UNDER A GROOVE. HOLLY ROCK was a nice surprise and Sheila went off on the timbales during that one. Next up was 17DAYS which the crowd went nuts for. As a matter of fact – we sang so loud Sheila just held up the mike to the audience and let us go at it! At one point it was really funny, she thought we were singing the wrong lyrics and she said so into the mike and then the next line made her realize we were dead on it! Don’t underestimate the Prince fans, Sheila! That segued into ALPHABET STREET, which was serviceable. Crowd went nuts again, the band was really into it and the guitarist Stef Burns in particular kept a great big hunky Brooklyn grin on his face the whole set. I was really digging his amiable energy. Miko was funking it up but not a lot of interaction with him from Sheila who was right next to him on stage, which makes me wonder a bit about the state of their relationship. They did a showbiz move with Sheila saying ‘goodnight’ and Juan Escovedo taking the mike saying – “I want to stay - can I stay?” Sheila shaking her head – crowd goes nuts - Sheila’s hand to her ear – crowd gets louder – Sheila nods “OK”. Tedious when you’ve seen this kind of thing over and over again. That’s showbiz. A textbook THE GLAMOROUS LIFE closed their set and rocked my world. My favorite song - something I consider the most perfect pop song ever put together.

One thing I want to mention about Sheila that has been annoying me the last few times I’ve seen her live is that she does that act where she pretends the crowd isn’t giving her enough and then says something like “Y’all ain’t ready” and then gets us to yell louder and then still acts unsatisfied and expects a louder yell and never seems to let us know when she IS satisfied. She’s done this bit at the last three gigs I‘ve seen her at and it leaves me with the impression that nothing would ever satisfy her and just kinda leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Like we don’t ever show enough love. I know it’s just a showbizzy thing, but it’ SO contrived and unnecessary. She can leave that out of the show.

THE TIME
There was a longer break here and then the next bit was really kind of cute and pointed at the same time. Carmen announced the members of THE TIME: Jellybean, Jerome, St Paul and ‘special guest’, which turned out to be Sheila dressed as Morris Day in a shiny gold suit with a moustache and doo rag and they proceeded to knock out a great and very funny version of JUNGLE LOVE, with Sheila changing up the lyrics to say things like “I don’t have TIME for this – I gots to gets me some more money. I got a gold rolls Royce let me show ya - show ya” She even did the funky TIME dance with Jerome (you know the one - where they grab their stuff and turn?) Later I overheard that Morris wouldn’t perform without being paid so it became apparent that this was Sheila’s revenge. Such a cool chick; she did the best Morris I’ve ever seen. She had all the pimp daddy moves and some new ones added! Saint Paul was in the backline at the keys doing the same steps he did in Purple Rain. Jesse Johnson who was listed as performing in the program I bought was never even mentioned. Someone said he called in at the last minute with a foot injury. Is that musician code for ‘I scored some crack’?

I think it was really lame that they didn’t show up. I mean Morris showed up at the Aladdin DVD screening here in Hollywood this past summer just so he could be seen, since he didn’t have to be there to do anything, but he can’t be arsed to come to a charity event to hang with old friends? There’s someone who doesn’t get it at all. Jesse’s probably an addict so at least that’s a reason, but what was Morris’s? Money.

THE REVOLUTION
The moment we were all waiting for. Alan Leeds introduced them as the band that stood BESIDE the genius and boy was that ironic considering the no show on his part. As they filed out one by one I was just so moved by the history of the moment. Leeds pointed out it had been 17 years since they had played together. A fitting number. The five original members were augmented by some of the members of the so called “Counterrevolution”, Susannah, Eric and Miko and the two background girls from the house band were situated up front. Wendy took center stage in a cool looking black velour suit, dark hair trimmed to Parade era length. Lisa sat up in her ‘apartment’ wearing a knee length open white coat with her hair teased a bit to, again, ‘imply ‘ her look from the Parade era. Very cool. Bobby Z was very serious looking and they pulled his kit up front a bit so everyone could see him work. Fink came in a simple leather jacket, but changed into a purple surgeon’s outfit with red stethoscope to boot! Brownmark wore a brown rag on his obviously bald head and was much larger than I recall. A huge standing ovation while they set up lead them to launch right in to MOUNTAINS. Wow. What a moment. It was wonderful to see them all together again and sounding great. This was the one band, I think, that wasn’t augmented by the house band and even though they didn’t use what I would consider the signature Revolution sounds, like the Linn Drum or phased high hat or the Oberheim stabs and handclaps, they were still playing as if they had never parted. According to Matt, they had reunited the previous night for one rehearsal before the gig and that was it, so these guys already knew this material like the back of their hands and it showed. AMERICA came segued right after and the crowd went crazy again when Wendy ripped out the opening lead line. She sang it with a lot of energy and her sister backed her up on the chorus right next to her. I was thrilled that they did POP LIFE and RASPBERRY BERET next, since those seem like the signature Revolution tunes to me. Not a lot of interaction between the band members, but that may have been because they didn’t have the time and needed to focus on their parts. I noticed that Wendy and Lisa didn’t make any eye contact, which makes me wonder if they really have broken up. I am waiting to see more reports posted from the VIPs to see what they noticed during the meet ups and the afterparty.

Next was ANOTHERLOVERHOLEINYOHEAD with Eric just tearin up his horn parts. I wished for a moment Atlanta was there and then that reminded me of another missing member. Wendy said something about there being a genius behind these songs and that they all have much love for each and every one of these songs and she said he’s not here tonight but maybe if we all sing out our hardest and send out that love maybe his ears will burn a little. PURPLE RAIN was next and at the first strum people went wild. I was surprised at how well Wendy could handle the vocal. She sang it softer than I’m used to hearing it but the chorus just rang out with the extra vocalists. “Did you hear that Prince?” she said. Looking at their faces Wendy, Susannah and Fink, I could see that they were really missing Prince and it was getting hard to hide it. Patti Labelle came out wailing and Wendy flubbed her third verse and said something about Patti getting her all hot under the collar. They thanked Shelia for the blessing of this event and then the entire night’s cast (including ticket auction winners) got up on that stage and a did a raucous BABY I’M A STAR. Jill and Wendy shared the mike on this one and everyone got a last chance to play with each other. Jerome grabbed people to dance and contest winners shook their gift tambourines from the front rows. Wendy even did a few ‘on the ones’ for good measure. Again it was interesting to see who interacted with who. St Paul went stage left to put his arm around Susannah and Apollonia stayed next to Sheila E. Sheila’s band members huddled together. There was a lot of mutual respect passing around and it felt amazing to watch. I was honored to finally see that after all these years.

And just like that it was over. I was slightly disappointed that the Revolution didn’t get to do their curtain call bow but there were so many people on stage that it wasn’t possible. As I left the stadium, I felt very satisfied and simultaneously let down by Prince himself. He taught his protégé’s much but he could learn a little emotional maturity from them now.

I hope to see these guys reform again someday soon, and from the sound of things they are just looking for an excuse to play together again. Sheila even said at one point, “Can someone get a promoter to put together a tour for us?”

One other thing – each one of the participants from the lighting people to the sound to the promoters and performers donated their time to this cause. That means Jill Jones probably flew in from New York on her dime, Matt and Bobby from Minneapolis and so on. That’s a lot of heart. I know that Love4OneAnother donated to the charity and Prince is listed as 'corporate' in the program (whatever that means), but these guys wanted to be there to thank the fans for the years and if Prince can’t appreciate that and participate does he deserve the years? I still say if you can’t integrate your past with your present you have no future.

WELL I GUESS IT IS A MATTER OF OPINION

I WAS IN SEC B ROW 20, THE SOUND WAS AWESOME

APPLES WAS SO SO AS A PERFORMER, BUT ARE YOU JOKING,SHE LOOK
HOT

THE HOUSE BAND, SOUNDED GREAT (I DID NOT MIND THEM PLAYING
THROUGHOUT THE SHOW)

SHEILA COULD SAY WHAT EVER SHE WANTS TO THE AUDIENCE
I'D NEVER TIRE OF IT

I DO AGREE WITH YOU ON CHAKA/

Instead of looking at it as an ego thing, I'd prefer to view Prince's non-appearance as just about the smartest decision made that night.

Look at it this way:

As incredible as I'm sure the concert was, and as good an idea as this 'Family Reunion' (of sorts) was, it was an event that was predominantly about drawing attention to (and providing funds for) programs benefiting abused children. The moment Prince walks out on that stage the event becomes about him and not about child abuse. Perhaps that's why he chose to donate funds to Sheila's charity rather than perform. I'll quote an unlikely source:

"...This is America. And in America, we should expect our millionaires to give millions..."

Prince is probably the only millionaire among those who were invited to participate in the Family Jamm event. Rather than show up and turn attention away from the cause itself, this particular "millionaire" made his behind-the-scenes donation, while the "non-millionaires" chose to offer what they were able to.

Now matter how much this may have disappointed some of you who attended, it does make sense.

BTW, the quote was from Rosie O'Donnell, speaking about the surprising number of celebrities she phoned on the morning of 9/11 who refused to donate any funds to start a charity with her, but faced the nation several days later on the 9/11 telethon to beg the rest of us to send money.

-SWANGkeepsastiffupperlip
[This message was edited Mon Dec 15 20:17:37 PST 2003 by SWANG]

Thanks for the detailed report.

Excellent report, thanks for taking the time and
putting that together, very well written too,
Thank you very much, Jestyr

"I noticed that Wendy and Lisa didn’t make any eye contact, which makes me wonder if they really have broken up. I am waiting to see more reports posted from the VIPs to see what they noticed during the meet ups and the afterparty"

Last I heard Wendy was practically "married" to someone else now (a journalist?). So I think it's a definite they're not together. However the W&L website is back up and running now so they're still together creatively, which is the most important thing to me.

Great report!

Thanks!

Jestyr said:

Great review.
Jill should have performed more than one song,can you imagine her doing Violet Blue..

Great report, but I have to disagree with you. Apples looked great, especially considering she's around 40. Nice bod, great legs, a minor roll, but hot and she sounded alot better than I expected. Remember she was an actress playing a singer in the movie.

Jill was amazingly hot too.

Great show all around. I am just excited about next year. Maybe we should email her begging that the show be released as a DVD.