About a year ago someone posted the Youtube link to a video that I had never seen before. It was Appolonia 6 performing 3 songs, I think. I know Happy Birthday Mr. Christian was one of them. It was like a mini-movie. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Yeah I remember that. It was pretty amaturish though - I can see why it wasn't released at the time.

Yeah,I know what you're talking about.It was a "video album" using the songs "Sex Shooter","Happy Birthday Mr.Christian","Blue Limousine" and "Ooh She She Wa Wa"...basically,an extended music video/mini-movie.Filmed in 1985 but never released.Back then,I remember hearing about this project but I didn't know that they actually filmed it.It's obvious that Warner Bros (or Prince) had major plans for Apollonia 6.

toejam said:

I think alot of what we saw is just "rough footage".If it had been released,it probably would have been properly edited and re-shot if needed.The footage we saw does look amateurish and rather silly,I admit.

Thank you.....you know who.....heeeheeee!

I snagged it offline. Goofy - yeah a little, but production values were pretty decent 80s type stuff. I think had it been released back then it would have been received well. Today it does look amateurish, but so do a LOT of things tied to music videos from back then;)

yep, it was a great find to see that after hearing about back in the day. Ricky Nelson played Mr. Christian, one of his last performances before he died.

Wouldn't it be cool if the Apollonia 6 CD was remastered,with a bonus DVD containing the mini-movie?

The video is weird and pointless, which is part of what makes it so much fun, to me. I love the atrocious acting and nonsensical storyline, and I've always loved the music, but part of the charm of it is that the video has no point in being in the first place. Does it? I mean, the A6 album itself was released late in 1984, way too late and completely missing the Purple Rain buzz. Doing this video in 1985, when A6 had zero buzz going on, is really missing the bus. All of which kind of makes me like it all the more in a weird way.

Efan said:

Yeah,I know exactly what you mean.I'm actually surprised that this project even exists! I remember back in '84,Apollonia did an interview where she revealed that "Warners is requesting--no,demanding--that we film a video for every song on the album".I'm guessing that,Warners and Prince thought that the album would be a huge success.That's why they came up with the idea of a video album.I bet they were planning to submit to MTV,and promote it like crazy.

It's odd that this video was filmed in early 1985.By that point,the album wasn't doing very well at all ("Sex Shooter" got a little airplay but didn't really become a big hit,and the second single "Blue Limousine" didn't chart at all).It almost seemed pointless to continue with this project.That's what makes this project so interesting.

I really liked the video. It's something I was sure existed from Apollonia's comments (and the story that Ricky Nelson was in it just before he died). It was great to finally get to see it. It was directed by the Art Director from Rocky Horror Picture Show - which explains a lot of the visual style. Personally I wouldn't call it amateurish. I think the sets are really cool - especially all the neon and '80's colors. It suffers from being a work print (all of the editor's fade marks are still on the film) and sound work was obviously incomplete. A clean version with the proper transitions and good sound would look much better. Of course the 'acting' isn't great, but it feels almost like soft porn acting which seems to fit the Apollonia 6 vibe.

I'm just happy to have a music video for 'Blue Limousine'. I wanted one ever since I first heard it!

This project makes me wonder....what else was filmed but never released?? Imagine a Sheila E. "Romance 1600" mini-movie,collecting dust in the vaults!

madartista said:

That's right.Back then,I remember hearing his name attached to this project.

I'd love to see a proper DVD compilation of promos/TV appearances. I know they did some TV appearances in France and of all places, Mexico.

I saw this probably once back in the 80s, on some video show like USA's Night Flight maybe? It's been so long I can't remember for sure but I don't know where else I'd have had opportunity to see it.

I think it could have been a good video, but there wasn't enough connect-the-dots going on for it to go anywhere...

Yeah it was pretty bad. The acting was awful. Just awful.

alwayslate said:

That's why it was GOOD.

eaglebear4839 said:

Yeah,I think it needed a stronger storyline,to link the songs together.It's really just a collection of music videos with some pointless dialogue/brief acting scenes inserted between the songs.

but in the 80s no one would have cared.....lol

I agree, this was a cool find from 1985. I love to see stuff like this surface all of a sudden. And Blue Limo is my favorite song on here. But I think thas this was a dead act before this was gonna be released.

Thanks.

SANSKER7 said:

"Blue Limousine" is my favorite A6 song too.Warners and Prince should have promoted the hell out of that song,and turned it into the smash hit it deserved to be!