What instance made you a fan?

[here's mine in a nutshell]

Seeing part of "Purple Rain" which happened 2b on VH1 some random weekend afternoon.

If seeing a highly dedicated musician wasn't enough, the stage performance of "I would die 4 U" and "Baby I'm a Star" was all I needed for me to know how special he was.

Years later, I could still remember it.

But I didn't refer to myself as a fan (actually I rarely do with the word "fan" as it is)... until almost a year ago, after seeing the HalfTime show, when I got here and when I started buying albums.

Back in 1982...I heard the music and he had me. I didn't stand a chance.

Not until I heard the song 3121. I then bought the CD and loved all of the songs. I only saw a short bit of the half-time show because the power went out and by the time I arrived home, the show was over. On another note and strangley enough though, when I saw your thread, I picked up my 3121 cd cover and just discovered the booklet inside. I don't recall seeing it before since I put the CD in my cd-changer in the car and have had it there ever since.

I was always a Prince fan. Apparently, I was a Prince fan even in the womb. When my mother was pregnant with me, my older brother (R.I.P.) had a Walkman and put the headphones on my mother's stomach. My mother says that when he put a Prince tape in, I started to react.

I think I was born to be a Prince fan. I was born on June 7th, 1983, and my last name is Nelson.

1979: Attended a Rick James concert in Charlotte, NC. Prince was the opening act - Blew EVERYONE away! Rick James could not compare when he followed Prince's act. In fact, about 20 minutes into Rick's set, people in the audience started walking out. It wasn't that Rick James performed poorly, it was just that after seeing Prince - there was no where else to go! Prince wore everybody out! I feel like I was a part of history that night. May Rick James be resting peacefully.

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Paris9748430 said:

Fantastic story!

I was 12 and asked my mom to take me to see Purple Rain. I had to have everything he'd released immediately after.

Paris9748430 said:

are you announcing something to us? .....


.... *coughcoughlovechildcoughcough*



just jokes .. .. very coincidental and nice....now if you tell us you can play numerous instruments.. that's it.. your cover is blown lol ..

I likes songs like I Wanna be Your Lover, Soft and Wet, and other early ones, but after listening to the Time and that damned 777-9311 *faints*, I quickly became a Prince-head for life when my older friends hipped me to the fact that Prince did music for the Time.

It was all over then...

saw the movie girl 6 in 2001 or so. i really liked it (i love spike lee's movies for some reason) and the more i watched it, the more i liked the music in the film (by prince and associated artists) as well. bought the soundtrack and that was it.

Flowerz said:

I did play the Clarinet when I was in 5th or 6th grade. And when I was a Freshman in high school, I played the drums in Music Class. Does that count???

I begged my Mom, Dad, and later my Stepdad for a guitar my entire life and I never got one!!!

I've been trying to be like Prince my entire life. When I was 6 I did Let's Go Crazy for my school talent show.

I went to a predominatly white Catholic school, and here's this tiny little black kid playing a toy guitar, doing pelvic thrusts, and licking his tounge at the girls.

When I was 9, I was going to a mostly black public school. For their talent show I peformed 7.

As you can see, I don't remember NOT being a Prince fan!!!
[Edited 1/27/08 1:17am]

I became an official fan when I recieved my degree in Musicology after a 6 week study-program from an online tutorial/class called the Electric Inter-Course.




//
[Edited 1/27/08 1:25am]

Twinkly1 said:

WoW! That's a record!




Glad I could help you find that booklet though!

Paris9748430 said:

That's an interesting story. Out of curiosity though, what other music do you like besides Prince? And has it had a strong of an influence on you, if any?

PDogz said:

How long was Prince's opening act? And wow, that must've been amazing to watch, seeing as how it was at the very early part of his career. Obviously had an impact on you since you became a fan from witnessing that performance.

So how long was it and what did he sing? You've captured my attention!

paintedlady said:

Hey lady!
How old are you?
Oh, wait, you said your older friends got you into the early Prince music.

purplepolitician said:

There was Prince music in there? (I never saw the movie though.)

Illustrator said:

But do you enjoy it too?

I loved lots of early eighties music - Adam ant, Human league, Duran Duran, Japan, Associates, culture club, Frankie goes to hollywood Madonna,etc....and I got into alot of stuff by hearing what my older sister was into - including a few mentioned above.

But my first main love seemed to be for (Why do I think this isn't gonna go down well?) Wham! - However they split,

Anyway, in '85 I remeber being with my sister trekking around London as she was desperately trying to find 1999 on single because it was always played in the club she went to and loved it. I didn't know the song at the time, or who Prince was. It was in '86 when Prince released Kiss thats when I knew who Prince was. And what a first impression it was too!

Kiss was like nothing else! Here in the U.K - after years of British '80s synth bands and new wave dominating the charts (and Wham!), it was like nothing I'd heard - and he was like no-one I'd seen either!!!

But the same year George released Faith and I was back in (Wham - kinda) heaven,
and as much as I knew about Prince, not just from Kiss alone but my hearing my sisters Parade album, and her raving on about Prince and her seeing UTCM etc.Faith dominated over everything!

Then '87 and there was excitement on the Prince front when my sis got the SOTT album on day of release. My sister playing it to me track by track. I liked the single releases that followed, but the album at the time was very different and quite a challenge for my POP TART ears!

Ultimately I was still a George fan. It was sad though when my sister told me The SOTT tour was cancelled though, expecially as she had the best Peach and Black outfit for it. Just think Sheena, U got the look, but better of course!

Anyway, it was starting to get a bit bland on the George front. He started this whole not wanting to be in the public eye crap, and that he's stopping interviews etc. Like, What? I'm 15 nearly 16 and it's important that idols are in magazines and release new music with great singles with matching videos - Image, image image!!!.

Anyway, '87 was also the year that 24hr television started, Night Network! and they had another excellent spin off show (I think it was linked)on sundays, and both featured Prince quite heavily, especially due to cancelling the SOTT shows. I got hooked watching it. It also featured a fair amount of other interesting bands like the cure, sugercubes, New order. I felt my musical taste and awareness maturing quite nicely!

Then we're into '88, and that is when it all really kicked off for me. There was lots of hype for his forthcoming album - Lovesexy! the prospect of it being accompanied by a tour, as well as the controversy caused by Black - to be followed closely by the controversy of him appearing naked on Lovesexy's cover!!!!

Prince was everywhere and I was lapping it up. He started to crop up in all my conversations and I could feel that it was turning a bit obsessive. Prince was tarting to be my new Idol!!!

Then it exploded!!!! Alphabet st was released and it was simply amazing - nothing sounded quite like it!!! I loved the video equally as much and took great pride as it was the first video to get through Night networks video jury (3 celeb guests would watch and press a buzzer once they'd had enough) without one buzz it played in its entirety (all 2:08 of it). No other video did that!

Then Lovesexy got released, and then shortly after my sis got us tickets to go see Lovesexy live! Even more amazing was one day from work, she called Wembley direct and managed to get through to his PR rep who after a good chat was generous enough to invite us along - on her personal guestlist - to a meeting that had been arranged for selected members of the Controversy fanzine around at the time. So off we went and got to spend an hour with him, asking questions and getting things signed and that!!!! An intense start to my Love of Prince!

I hope that was more interesting than boring, I know I went on a bit but loving Prince and his music has been such a key element in my life that it is hard to water it down.

Thanks for reading!!!!!

mentalist said:

Actually, I'm gonna read it tomorrow, I'm going to bed now, it's past midnight here.


But I'll read it tomorrow, I promise!!!

wildgoldenhoney said:

nothing but prince music in it. it's a bad little forgotten movie, but i like it, love it.

purplepolitician said:

I always have the "where was I?" moments, I've gotta google this movie now!

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today,
to get thru this called LIFE.....


this was the nail on the head

Strangely enough, Batman. What can I say, I was 8 years old at the time and the movie was huge.

When I was 12, I heard Prince's "Raspberry Beret" on the radio. Then I bought "The Hits/The B-Sides".
[Edited 1/27/08 13:36pm]

It was over 25 years ago, who remembers.

I was a Rick James fan till I went to college- had every album, posters on my dorm walls, Mary Jane Girls could sing better than Vanity 6...

Then junior year, I got this roommate named Sammi- she was collecting Prince bootlegs on cassette!
I couldn't understand what the big deal was about this guy! But she played him non-stop...
I started to hear stuff that wasn't on the radio, and I even "borrowed" some of her stuff when she wasn't home. 1st I gained an "appreciation" for him, THEN "Sign 'O' The Times" came out!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, a convert was born! I began to buy all the back albums to catch up. (I actually had 3 because my Mom worked at the mall and someone had lost a bag with "1999", "Dirty Mind", and "Purple Rain" in it, but I hadn't played them!)

When the "Lovesexy" tour came around, I was too broke to go. But I went to "Act I" (out of college and working!) and have seen him 28 times since!

Sammi and I are still friends- after college she went back home to England. She can't believe that I am still a fan- she's not into him that much anymore; she's a Mom and has moved on... She did send me the "Daily Mail Planet Earth", tho!

Paris9748430 said:

WOW wot a coincidental story which kinda refers back 2 my son being a mad PRINCE fan from b4 he was born.
At the time off my wife being pregnant with him we would have been playing TMBGITW & Get Wild lots on our cd player as we r both prince fans.
After my son was born if he ever started 2 get upset crying or anything we realised that if we put The Most Beautiful Girl In The World cd on play he would stop crying & calm down instantly. Realised he had been listening 2 it with his mum from b4 he was born.
His whole life he has lived & breathed Prince & says he fullfilled his life's dream by witnessing P live at the 02.
He is 13 & plays the bass due 2 the influence of Prince & Larry G etc.

Live4Love>Love2Live !!
[Edited 1/27/08 5:27am]

wildgoldenhoney said:

His entire set was about 45 minutes or so of complete mayhem and frenzy!

When you first entered the Coliseum, there was no curtain and everything was setup at the front edge of the stage: mic-stands, keyboards, and very few other props. The drum set was in the middle of the stage placed up on a little riser with an oval-shaped sign over it (which was first covered in canvas) that had "PRINCE" spelled out in lights, as in the logo on his 1979 "Prince" album. Everybody was just standing around, jamming to the pre-concert music that they play over the system, smoking joints, grooving, and basically waiting for Rick James.

No one really knew who Prince was yet. In fact, I thought we were about to see a band called "Prince For You" (the title of his first album). I didn't know yet that Prince was an individual and not just the name of a band. I thought certainly that no one would be actually named "Prince".

Then… BAMM! The lights went out, and you could make out 3 shadowy figures move onto the stage, and then stood with their backs to the audience. The rest of the band took their place, and all you could hear over the sound system was someone speaking in a low, sort of foreboding tone: “Char-lotte! Are you ready for me?”

The drum roll hit, the stage lights came up, and Andre, Prince, and Dez turned and all charged about 4 or 5 steps toward the audience – and everybody freaked the Hell out! These guys looked scary as shit! The one in the middle (who I soon learned was Prince) had this spiky hairdo, full make-up, a pink leather motorcycle jacket, panties, black stockings, and pumps! The audience reaction was pure fright! Then Prince reached around to his back, pulled his guitar around to the front, then the whole band started jamming “Sexy Dancer”, and the crowd quickly got over their fright and started rocking to the music and jamming along - all hands were in the air. By the end of that first song, everybody was like: “Oh shit! This guy AIN’T playing!” The party was ON full blast!

Their play list consisted of songs from his first two albums, but the song they did that most sticks out in my mind is when they played “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?”, because Prince was ad-libbing a lot. Like:

Why you wanna treat me so bad? Is it the clothes I wear?
Why you wanna treat me so mean? Is it the style of my hair?

But what completely blew people away was when they played their encore: “I Wanna Be Your Lover”.

Prince went mad, threw off that cool ass pink leather jacket, peeled off his stockings, threw them at the audience, and was running around the stage jamming to the beat with nothing but his guitar, bikini underwear, and high-heeled boots (with little stars on the side). And then once he was done jacking-off the microphone (as if he were giving it head - Prince was a real whore on stage back then), tossed his guitar to the side, reached his hand down into his panties to cover his dick, and pulled his panties all the way down to his knees, gyrating toward the audience with only his hand covering his dick! WTF!!! The audience was going crazy! At the end of his set, Prince said “Damn Charlotte, we’re gonna have to come back here again soon!” And that was it! I was a stoned-cold Prince fan! I started telling people about Prince the next day!

At that point, everybody was standing around like they had completely forgot about Rick James. But the roadies came out and moved all of Prince’s stuff off stage, the sign over the drums came apart into two pieces and they removed that. But what really tripped me out was once all of Prince’s equipment was off stage, they removed the backdrop that was behind Prince’s set, and you could see that the stage was actually HUGE and that Prince had only been setup right up at the front. There was a giant curtain hanging behind all of that. After several more moments of getting everything set up, the lights dimmed again, the music started, the curtain opened up, and there you could see that this stage was about a mile wide and a mile deep! This was Rick James’s stage!

Rick came out, and The King of Punk Funk reminded you of what you came here for! His show was awesome, but I’ll save it for another thread. But it was interesting to note that many people in the audience started moving out, because at least initially, Rick was no comparison to what we had all just seen out there! Don’t get me wrong, Rick tore the roof off that sucker, but it was hard to stop thinking about what we had just seen Prince do out there.

Rick’s show was about 2 hours long, and the Stoned City Band succeeded in funking us to death! The show was actually exhausting! I remember thinking “How in the Hell can they do this every night, and from town to town?” Ahh, the memories!

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