In the summer of 1984,I recall hearing about plans for The Time to headline their own tour,with Apollonia 6 as their opening act.This tour would have been competing with Prince's own 'Purple Rain' tour with Sheila E.Unfortunately,The Time broke up before this could happen.In fact,by the time the movie was released,Morris and Jesse had already left the band.

THE TIME 'ICE CREAM CASTLES' TOUR 1984
with special guest: Apollonia 6

What do you think....would this have been a successful tour? Were the Time foolish to break up at the height of their popularity? Could this tour have saved Apollonia 6's album,which struggled to find an audience?

it would have been a good club tour. i doubt it could have survived as a large venue tour.

Anx said:

I respectfully disagree.

I feel like a tour may have been surprisingly successful. So many people LOVE the TIME, and a big time tour may have put them on a path to achieve their full potential. The TIME could have been so big...

vanity2 said:

in 1984, i think the time's popularity was where prince's was in 1982....getting up there, but not quite spotlight material yet. the time and apples6 could have had a very successful club tour, but i just don't see them packing an arena unless it was to open for prince, even with the success of purple rain.

Nice picture of the "remastered" bootleg edition of the album...

off the heals of purple rain they could have definatly done big venues together. too bad it could have helped prince alot

Even "Part Time" would've kicked Prince's ass- THAT'S why The Time didn't play on the Purple Rain Tour and THAT'S probably why Morris & Jesse left.....don't blame them!!!!!
It's all starting to sound eeeerily familiar!!! Didn't St. Paul cuss Prince out over the same thing- lack of promotion???? Same thing happened with Mazarati!!!!

WE'LL NEVER KNOW!!!!!

Anx said:

ARE U KIDDING ME????? THE TIME WAS MOPPING PRINCE UP ON THE 1999 TRIPLE THREAT TOUR!!!!!

A separate tour from Prince would have split some of the sales and it couldn't have even come close to matching Prince's ticket sales. The ideal tour would have been Apollonia 6, Sheila E., The Time, and Prince all on the same tour.

SoulAlive said:

I remember reading somewhere that originally the 'Purple Rain' Tour was 2 be Prince and The Revolution, The Time, Apollonia 6 and Shelia E. If this was true, this would have really been huge.

Why is it so hard for everyone to believe that the TIME could hold their own against Prince?

THE TIME did not require Prince to be successful when they were at the top of their game in the early 80s. They could've sold out at least a 12 city tour I'm sure of it.

There is a reason that THE TIME's best songs in 1990 were included on the Graffiti Bridge soundtrack, rather than on their own album.

This is the very reason why that tour did not happen; Because The Time would have murdered P and the Revolution. The Time were kicking P's band's ass so bad on the 1999 tour that P would bump The Time off of the bill whenever he played major cities. He did this out here in So. Cal. By 1984, The Time were bigger than ever, just like P was. But I feel The Time had even MORE popularity than P did, overall. I'm talking about the average listener and not a cult follower. The Time had waaay more males into them than P did. And a lot of women liked The Time more because they were funny and cool. Waaay more entertaining to watch. A lot of women at that time liked some of P's songs, but trust me, not every woman found P sexy. Believe it or not but there were some women who couldn't get with P 's image. That wasn't the case with The Time. There would have been NO WAY in hell P was taking The Time with him on that tour. That's why he did so many of the things he did to the members. Trying to disbanded the group so he wouldn't have to worry about them anymore.

The reason The Time would have trouble competing with Prince during the "Purple Rain" era is because Prince had gained a pop following by then. Yeah, before then, they could very much compete with Prince because Prince himself was only known in the R&B world just like they were. It wasn't until the "Little Red Corvette" single that the pop world even knew who Prince was and he was halfway through his "1999" tour by then.

Just look how things turned out after "Purple Rain". Prince was still a pop star and the protegees were still only played on the R&B stations. I'm not saying that's a bad thing because I wish Prince himself had remained only known in the R&B world.....he would have continued throwing down his hard jams and kept his "creative" classical shit in his closet.

blackguitaristz said:

Agreed 100%!!. Jesse Johnson and Morris Day Both said in seperate interviews that in most cities they played in, The crowd was more into the Time, and that when they were done performing, alot of people would leave bfore Prince came on. Especially during the 1999 tour. When this started happening more frequently, Prince cut their stage time significantly. And would'nt let them open for him in New York. The Time would've blown up huge had they gotten their own tour in 1984.

vainandy said:

THEN WHY TAKE THEM OFF THE TOUR IN MAJOR CITIES AND WHY CUT THEIR STAGE TIME????? IF U HAVEN'T YET, WATCH THE HOUSTON SHOW. U COULD SEE JESSE LOOK SIDE-STAGE DURING HIS SOLO IN "THE WALK" AND MAKE A PRINCE-LY GESTURE SHORTLY THEREAFTER....STRAIGHT COMEDY!!!!! THE TIME WOULDA GOT ALL THAT POP EXPOSURE AS WELL!!!!!

I'll always remember an interview with Jesse Johnson when he described the time ( I think it was during the Controversy tour) That the band was added on to the tour at the last minute. I don't remember what city it was, But the audience was not aware that the Time were going to perform. Jesse described being onstage when the curtain dropped and the crowd saw the band, All H#!! broke loose. And when they played the first few bars of "Get It Up" They got even more louder. He said there was a videotape of it. I would very much like to see it.

I think some of you are confusing the fact that the Time "kicked the Revolution's butt" on the 1999 tour with their abilityt o sell out shows.


They might have gotten better audience response and played more "tightly" etc..... but they still were not as popular as P was post Purple Rain to draw the same # of ticket sales on their own.

It's too bad the tour wasn't Apples, Time, Sheila and Prince.

blackguitaristz said:

Remember in late 1986 when there was all this talk about the Time getting ready to reunite for a new album,tour and movie with Janet Jackson? There's a rumor that Prince panicked and that's the reason he fired his own band."He knows that if the Time reunion thing happens,they're gonna come out smoking and he doesn't want to be caught with his pants down",an insider told Black Beat magazine.

kinda makes you wonder,huh? He did say that the Time were "the only band that he was afraid of".


.
[Edited 2/23/07 0:36am]

SoulAlive said:

Yes Prince did say that. He also said that he should've kept some of the Time's songs for himself.

GaryMF said:

Speaking for myself, I'm not 'confusing" anything. You'll never see me post that The Time would have sold out as many arenas as P did on the PR tour, on their own. 7 nights straight sold out shows at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit? The Time? Nah, not going to happen. 5 nights straight sold out shows at The Forum in Los Angeles. The Time? Hell nah. Not going to happen. But uh, as far as The Time putting P's own show to shame on the 1999 tour, yeah man. Ask anybody, like myself, that was actually there, and they'll tell u. It's like this; If you're going to a concert and u want a great show. Then in 82 and 83, The Time were the ones to see. Period. As much as I was into P, it was for me, waaay more about studying P from a musician's stand point. Like I posted earlier, I was there with pad and pencil, taking notes. I was not only studying P, but Dez and Mark as well. The pacing of the show, the set list, the lights, the whole 9. U had to be really into P, like a female fan would, who gasps at every single little thing P does, to enjoy his show more than The Time's. P's whole thing was totally set up around him. When P and his band broke loose and just jammed on shit like Lady Cab Driver, which was entirely too short live, or Automatic or 1999, then I was happy. But the International Lover thing was purely for females that adored P. Which was fine. Most of the girls could give a shit about P's musicianship anyways. Whereas The Time was smokin' in every department. And they were just way more fun to watch, overall. Male or female, it didn't matter. They came to throwdown. P would lose most of his male audience during his shows, where that never happened with The Time. And there were many girls that dug the shit out of Jesse when he was with The Time.

Bottom line; P wasn't going to take The Time out with him on the PR tour. If and I stress IF, The Time had stayed together, they would have had to to seperately. And STILL, P wouldn't have had any peace knowing that they were still getting great reviews and STILL saying that their show was better than his own. That's why he had to get rid of them, if possible. The Time served a purpose for P when WB was seriously considering dropping P after his 3 year album deal was up. P's second album sold well enough to keep Warner's cool, but Dirty Mind didn't do nearly as well, sales wise. They wanted him to do more "black" styled material and P didn't want that. So, although it was Andre who originally thought of producing a side project, mainly to get more of his material out since P wanted to do everything, P thought he'll kill 2 birds with one rock. Put out the "black" material WB wanted from him and dump it on The Time to satisfy the label while he can keep doing his shit like "Ronnie Talk To Russia". It worked since the Time's debut far outsold P's Controversy album. Get It Up and Cool were HUGE ass hits. Where as the song Controversy did get airplay on black radio, it didn't come close to sales from The Time'a album. He kept WB off his back but he was not prepared for the fan response The Time recieved.

PRINCE CREATED FRANKENSTEIN WHEN HE CREATED THE TIME!!!!!
AND JESSE SCARED THE HOLY HELL OUTTA PRINCE AS A GUITARIST!!!!!

Again, that's the only reason The Family project came about. He had so much material ready for The Time, like jams like High Fasion and Mutiny. But he had to get rid of them. P could no longer afford to get upstaged at that point. He had too much riding on the whole PR project. The album, the film, the tour. on a personal level, cuz everyone in The Time were pretty close, why u think he fired Terry and Jimmy? Cuz they missed a flight? Nah...Fine them for missing a show, definately. But to fire them? Nah. That was P's out and he seized it. He knew the chemistry wouldn't be the same after that and he was right. He didn't want to use any of The Time's members material. He used Jesse's Jungle Love but butchered up and erased a good portion of Jesse's solo when Jesse wasn't there in the studio. He knew as the more popular they became, the more tired they would grow of his shit and they would WANT to leave on their own. I believe he banked on this so he wouldn't look like the bad guy. But, he still had to contend with Jesse, who he saw as a threat as a solo artist. P wasn't worried about Morris going solo. It was Jesse. P knew that Jesse could write and produce his own shit like Jam and Lewis, BUT unlike Terry and Jimmy, Jesse could burn on lead guitar and was a good looking cat that the girls dug. So, to try to keep Jesse around in his camp, he offered Jesse the lead spot in The Family. That was just to keep Jesse from going solo. But when it came time for them to do more of Jesse's song for the album, guess what? So, Jesse said fuck it and bounced. So P looked to Paul to replace Jesse. That shit didn't even work. Simialar thing went down with Dez. Why do u thing Wendy was always around when Dez was STILL in the band? Cuz she was Lisa's girlfriend? Not hardly. Lisa hipped her that Dez was sick of P and he was on his way out so Wendy made sure to be "ready". All this shit I got straight from Morris and Andre.

blackguitaristz said:

Hey, I wasn't saying you were one of htose people. Your post above actually is exactly what I was trying to say. It's just that some of the other posts made it seem like people thought the Time tour coudl "commerically" rival the PR tour which, as you say, is not very realistic.

either way, I wish the PR tour had been all 4 acts!!! (it's funny cuz Sheila isn't really a part of Purple Rain, but I'm glad she was on the bill. IN fact that is the reason I went to see the PR tour...and ended up being converted to a Prince fan because of what I saw after her set!)

blackguitaristz said:

Anx said:

Hell they still do a decent club tour now, they wouldn't have pulled off a stadium tour, but I could see a mid sized venue tour. Shit I saw Morris solo in 85 at a 10,000 seat venue in redneck country(granted it was a multi act show, but he was the second biggest name at the show)

I seriously doubt they would have had Appolonia 6 open for them considering they didn't like playing back up for Vanity 6 and if they were headliners they wouldn't put up with that shit.

Don't forget that Morris was already gone by the Time purple rain came out. The whole Family thing came about because Paul was going to be the singer for the Time, but thats the point where Jesse quit and Prince decided to take it another direction

GaryMF said:[quote]I think some of you are confusing the fact that the Time "kicked the Revolution's butt" on the 1999 tour with their abilityt o sell out shows.


They might have gotten better audience response and played more "tightly" etc..... but they still were not as popular as P was post Purple Rain to draw the same # of ticket sales on their own.

It's too bad the tour wasn't Apples, Time, Sheila and Prince.[/quote]
I totally agreed! That would been a very kickarse tour!

blackguitaristz said:

Prince also said that he didn't fired the Time, he asked Morris what he did if he was in his shoes. Like yeah right that he didn't have anything to do with the dismissal of Jimmy and Terry. I am glad that he did and they went on to become very successful though.
But some of your stories about what went down during that era are very interesting. I wished that Andre would released a book along with Morris and Jesse someday about their life with Prince, and I bet that they have some very good untold stories to tell. I know that Prince and Jesse had some issues but I can't believed that Prince is that threatening of him. I am glad that Jesse wake up and left as he did his old solo thing, and became success at it. I wondered how his relationship with Jesse nowadays though?
Also I wasn't suprised that Wendy was very ready to take over as the guitarist,not that is a bad thing since she was young, hungry, and ready for that lucky break like any unestablished musician at that time. I don't blame her as I read somewhere she always wanted to be the star and just waiting for that perfect opportunity and break which it happened when Dez left. I guessed since Prince's stardom was rising with the 1999 album, she wants to be part of the action too.
[Edited 2/25/07 0:52am]

I guess my initial post didn't go thru. Anyhoo...

For those of you proclaiming how badly the Time kicked Prince's ass on the 1999 tour, I think it should be looked at from a different perspective. First off, the majority of those who feel this way have a preference for the more funky tracks that Prince has laid down over the years and kind of just tolerate his more "out there" stuff. To put it politically incorrect, BROTHAS DON'T DIG SO MUCH ON POP AND ROCK! Why are you surprised that the Time supposedly put on a better show than Prince when the man gave them what is arguably the absolute best funk he EVER laid down? 777-9311? Get It Up?! Cool??!! The Stick??!! Gigolos Get Lonely Too???!!! DAAAAAMMMMMNNNNN!!!!! How could the Time go wrong???? While Prince is flipping back and forth from a sultry, sexy ballad to a hard rock anthem to pop fun to straight funk, to concert pianist, showing the true virtuoso that he is, Morris and the boys are slidin across the stage in zoot suits and Stacy Adams, STRAIGHT PIMPIN!! I for one loved both, but understood two very important things:

1) Morris Day was the coolest cat on the planet.

2) Prince is a genius.

AdmiralAdama said:

I don't think I have ANYTHING confused!!!!! I liked Prince's set that night as well, but seeing Bobby Z. hit cymbals half the night didn't make me the drummer I am today!!!! Listening to Jellybean play the song (777-9311) right in front of my face (which was actually programmed) DID!!!! Seeing Jesse rip the guitar to shreds and even roll around on the floor as he did it was the greatest sh*t since Jimi!! Straight up: The Time were not just "mere puppets". They were kickass musicians!!!! Again, I urge all U Org-ers:

WATCH THE HOUSTON SHOW!!!!! THAT'S WHAT TIME IT IS!!!!!