Krystal666 said:

You're welcome, Krystal. One year I saw both a Michael Jackson concert and a Prince concert. Maybe it's because I'm a musician, but I thought Prince blew MJ away. He had incredible musicianship ON TOP of being a great showman.

Someone at housequake asked me what the NPG members were like, specifically the Game bois. I'll post that info here too:

This is embarassing but - I don't know who the Game bois is - I might have met them or him or her but names escape me. Remember - I didn't know who Jerome was.

I briefly met Rosie - I remember her name for some reason. She seemed really nice when we said hi. That's all I remember - saying hi.

I also met that keyboard player - white dude with long brown hair. He was a REALLY GOOD keyboard player. Could you please remind me of his name? This is so embarassing. I think we chatted for a little while - he seemed to feel playing with Prince was not such a big deal. Hm. But my memory might serve me wrong.

We were invited to attend one of Prince's rehearsals with NPG. I noticed their rehearsal was very disciplined. Usually when I rehearse there is some fiddling around, chatting and other noises in between takes. At the NPG rehearsal, once they finished playing a song, there was complete silence - great discipline.

At one Dames rehearsal, I was under a lot of pressure and people were chatting and drumming etc. while I was trying to say something. In my frustration, I suddently screamed "Quiiiiiettttt!!!!!" Everyone froze in shock, cuz I was usually very sweet and harmless looking (you might get a sense of that in the photos). You should have seen their frozen shocked faces. Now that I think back on it, that was pretty hilarious.

Anyway, back to the rehearsal, it was so cool to have Prince performing right in front of us. I think he was singing Pop Daddy at the time. At one point, he forgot his own lyrics and everyone laughed with him. They had to start again. I think he did a split in front of us. Really cool. But I also kept thinking about how small he looked.

I also noticed he had a rapper there. That's when I decided that Prince was still trying to keep up in the commercial appeal department. Don't let him fool you - he still wanted to sell music - at least right then he did. I don't buy that "I want to write for the sake of art" crap. In my opinion, Prince would love to be commercially on top forever.

So the most I saw of the NPG members was that rehearsal. That's when we briefly met Rosie etc. After that, it was back to business trying to get our own act together.
[Edited 6/19/05 19:18pm]

Thanks for that story artpal! The keyboard player's name is Tommy Barberrella. I actually saw him in person once too. Didn't talk to him tho! He was having a conversation with Prince's drummer Micheal Bland and his bassist Sonny T. They were all dressed up in there NPG gear-I remember bright colors!

Anyway I never was fooled by Prince I always felt he wanted to kick Madonna's and MJ's asses! Hell he probably still does...and right now he is!!!

Krystal666 said:

That's interesting! So how did you end up hanging out with the NPG crew? Yeah - now I remember the name Sonny. Is Tommy Barberrella still in NPG? Gosh I sound like such an uninformed nerd. Hey - I'm new at this personality tracking thing.

I remember when I toured with Stacy Lattisaw in 1988 and we opened for some really famous acts/people and I had to brush up on who was who before I embarassed myself. Hey - I'm generally just a musician in my basement - too busy baking my own cookies to buy any.

artpal said:

Hey artpal! I never really hung with the NPG crew..in fact I just stumbled on them once filming something. I went to school downtown St.Paul this was when I was like sixteen...and I always ate lunch at this little place housed in a huge building called the Depot...but anyway I was walking to luch and I see like a SWARM of people, cameras, I find it very annoying because I just wanna get my lunch but there is a freekin' circus and I'm like AHHHH.. then I look over and it is the NPG members...in my mind I'm like..."They look so framiliar-wait!!!OMG." There was Sonny, Michael B, and Tommy talking wearing VERY bright attire.

I look over and I see my idol-MAYTE...she looked so beautiful I mean even more beautiful than on TV...she was chatting with a woman and had a sweet smile on her face the whole time...suddenly out of nowhere a tall secret service looking body gaurd says "HI"
"HI...omg it's Prince's wife! It's MAYTE!!!" I blurted out
He is like "Yes it is" in a monotone voice.
I must have seemed like such a little teenager with my ponytail, jeans and sneekers getting all gitty over a celebrity,,,,but it was MAYTE!!!!
Suddenly I felt the feeling that I had to go find lunch somewhere eles that day!
"OK bye!" I said and scurried off!

Looked around for my man Prince...but he was nowhere to be seen...or maybe he was hiding in the background somewhere....

Somehow I am sure that we were all spared some punishment by the fact that Robin Power never released any solo material. No slight to the musicians that were supposed to back her but she is easily the least talented Prince associate of all time. Even Tony M and TC Ellis brought more to the table. I heard the entire "Number One" track. But she was definitely good to watch dance.

Thanks for all the great stories, Artpal! Here's another connection you have that people would be interested in: When you toured with Stacy Lattislaw in 1988, you might have been playing cuts from her "Personal Attention" album, half of which were written and produced by Brownmark (Mark Brown), Prince's bass player from 1981-1986. His cuts on 1987's Personal Attention were "Personal Attention", "He's Got A Hold On Me", "Find Another Lover", and "Changes". Do you remember these songs or anything about them?

I did some google research and found out that Tommy and some others are no longer with NPG. You know what? That does not surprise me. There seems to be a high turnover rate with Prince's projects. I probably knew the answer to my question and that's why I even asked it.

So Krystal - you must have been so cute as a teeny bopper fan!

Plymouth, with Stacy, I remember playing "Love on a Two Way Street" "Nail it to the Wall," and "Every Drip Drop of Your Love." And some others I can't remember. I don't recall Brownmark's stuff if we played it. Gee - I didn't know that stuff about Brownmark.

CSG4ever - that's cool. Apparently others agree with you. You know, at the end, when Prince took on Carmen's project instead of us after he applauded our music, I realized he wasn't after talent with his proteges. Save for Sheila - the fact that she was talented as well as his protege was probably a coincidence. C'mon - he applauded our music and then passed us up for Carmen. Maybe if we were helpless females who needed more direction and couldn't write a lick of music he would have signed us up. Maybe we should have played dumb.

Let me tell you how the story ended. We did the show at the Glam Slam. The next day, we were supposed to hear of his decision to keep us on. Here's what he said thru Robin - he'd keep us together in MN and we'd do his music. We'd gig and rehearse and work and rehearse and gig - and get paid nothing.

In other words, we jumped when he said jump, wrote our own stuff at his request, blah blah blah, and now he wants us to do HIS music. And not get paid. I felt like I had just been swimming naked in the waters of Lake Minnetonka - but that wasn't Lake Minnetonka. Well, I wasn't going to jump through more hoops just for him to tell me I was in the wrong lake again.

So I left on a cross country drive thru the U.S. Alisa had a job to go back to in Philly. And I eventually lost touch with everyone.

Here's some room for discussion - what would you guys have done in my shoes? Stay or leave?

?
[Edited 6/24/05 15:08pm]

artpal said:

Wow! I am sensing some anger coming from you artpal-and it is totally justifable artpal! I understand. It sounds like you worked hard just to have him be like "Ha you guys should just be lucky to be associated with me" I would have been so frustrated I probably would of slapped him...I mean you rearanged you whole lives to be devoted to this prodject and then he doesn't even want to PAY you????

I was always under the impression that Uptown Dames ended because Prince and Robin ended and then he was like "Uh over her..over the dames...Carmen's cute...I'll focus on her..." Just my interpurtaion.

Krystal666 said:

Actually, I think that was the real reason. This other stuff about staying around and not getting paid was probably a way to get rid of us. Just last March, I heard through the grapevine that as soon as Prince met Carmen, that was the end of Robin - even before our first rehearsal. He was just messin around with us, probably cuz Robin was so persistant (strong!). It's good to know it's not cuz he thought we sucked as a band or anything.

By the way, he did pay us for the work we did do. He just didn't want to pay us for the next phase - where we play his music.
[Edited 6/24/05 15:26pm]

artpal said:

Perceptive of me! But still artpal you still deserved a raal shot..but I guess that is showbuissness and at least you knew it wasn't because of you! so.....can you think of another interesting Princey tidbit for your orgpet??

Krystal666 said:

Okay. Here's a question for discussion. Do you think Prince and Robin were a couple?

artpal said:

Yeah...didn't we already figure that out artpal??

Krystal666 said:

Kinda. Do you think it was just a fling, or were they a serious couple? You know - serious enough to go on the "Prince's Girlfriends" list?

artpal said:

Ooooh, I'm gonna say Prince girlfriend list considering he liked her enough to put her in his movie and try to get a career started for her!

I like this game artpal!

Hey artpal!!!! Did you check out Housequake.com??? In the video section entiled "Women who love Prince" Robin was on there talking about the purple one!! Wow she looks beautiful! You know her love and admiration of Prince I can totally feel! When she became a fan of his when she was thirteen that is around the same age I fell in love with him and his music! When she talks about him you can just see the affection she has for the man! That is EXACTLY how I felt about him for YEARS! Ha ha....I can't belive they did a show like that on national television! It sounds like an idea I would come up with "Let's talk about Prince's women and about how hot he is!"

Anyhoo I just thought you might like to know, it looks like it was filmed around 1991 right around your stint with my man! Just thought you would like to see Robin in an interview from back in the day!

[HEY ALL, ANX HERE: Because this thread is acting all wonky and won't take any more posts, I'm starting a new thread to continue the discussion here: http://www.prince.org/msg/5/151677 Sorry for the weirdness!]