28th December 1985.

Prince gathers Eric Leeds, Sheila E and Levi Seacer Jr at Sunset Sound Studio to Jam. Eight instrumentals are recorded during the session, Slaughterhouse, U Just Can't Stop, Run Amok, Mobile, Madrid, Breathless, High Calonic and Twelve Keys. Prince alternated between guitar and piano on the recordings. Eric Leeds went into the studio the next day to record sax and flute overdubs on some tracks.

22nd January 1986.

After more sessions, including one with Lisa Coleman, Wendy Melvoin and her brother Jonathon, an album is assembled out of the instrumental recordings made in late Dec '85 and early Jan '86.

A 45 minute jam entitled Junk Music was edited down to 20 minutes and was to serve as the centrepiece of the album. The album was given the title The Flesh.

The tracklist was:

1. Junk Music.

2. Up From Below.

3. Y'All Want Some More?

4. A Couple Of Miles.

No test pressings were made of the album and the project was shelved when Under The Cherry Moon demanded Prince's time and effort.

The Flesh sessions remain unreleased and in a way can be seen as a forerunner to Prince's later Madhouse project. Like Madhouse, the focus was on instrumental music, and like Madhouse, the album was to be released with few details and no mention of Prince's involvement.

28th September 1986.

Prince begins recording the debut Madhouse album entitled 8. It was recorded in his home studio in four days. Eric Leeds played sax and flute, but Prince played everything else except for a couple of synth solos provided by Dr Fink.

21st January 1987.

Release of the Madhouse album entitled 8. No musicians are credited on the album artwork. Eric Leeds, who plays sax and flute on the album, became the "spokesman" for the "group." Leeds gave various stories about the origin of the band to conceal Prince's involvement, however Prince played a very large role in the album, writing all the music and playing most of the instruments.

Six, was released as a single.

[img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/Prince%20and%20related/P%20mag%20and%20boot%20covers%20and%20ads/madhousePOS8.jpg[/img:$uid] Madhouse 8 promo poster.

[img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/Prince%20and%20related%20album%20and%20singles/Madhouse8-1.jpg[/img:$uid] 8 album cover.

[img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/Prince%20and%20related%20album%20and%20singles/be30828fd7a055343d461110_L-1.jpg[/img:$uid] Six single cover.

23rd Feb 1987.

Rehearsals began in late February 1987 with a "road version" of Madhouse for the upcomming Sign O The Times Tour.

The group featured Eric Leeds on saxaphone, Levi Seacer Jr. on bass, Dr Fink on keyboards and Leed's friend H.B Bennett on drums. Bennett was a jazz drummer from Pittsburgh who had jammed with Prince in the past.

Two weeks into the rehearsals, Bennett was replaced by Dale Alexander, a Minneapolis drummer who had auditioned for Prince's band in 1978. It is said that Prince wanted more of a funk feel to the Madhouse band and felt that Alexander was better suited than Bennett.

Part of an interview with Eric Leeds regarding Madhouse 8.

TLM: Madhouse was a very interesting project. How did that come about?

EL: He called me one Sunday afternoon after the Parade tour and said “Do you want to come over to my house and play some jazz?” I go over to his house and he’s already got three or four tracks done. I had no understanding what this was specifically going to be because a lot of times we’d go into the studio together and do different things that would never see the light of day. I think the entire process of the Madhouse album was done in about three days and it was only when we got about halfway through it that he explained what he was going to do. It was kind of a double-edged sword for me, because it was obviously a project he was putting together to feature me; that I was going to be the ostensible prime attraction, which was great because of the visibility that it would give me.

But to be absolutely honest with you, I was never that crazy about that album, the first one particularly – the music was not that interesting. Once again, it was a very interesting and enjoyable project because the process and the manner in trying to do what he was trying to do and the way he got things out of me. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t stuff that I was particularly interested in listening to. There were some interesting parts. On the first album, Prince wrote all the songs and played all the instruments except saxophone – it was entirely his project. It was a wonderful opportunity, but the way it was marketed, [meant] a lot of people are under the impression that it was my music and it was much more of representation of what I am as a musician and it’s just not so - it was one hundred percent a Prince project and I was just playing the role of a saxophone player.

TLM: Prince went to great pains to hide the fact that it was a Prince record.

EL: This is what he came up with and I didn’t necessarily disagree with him on this point. He said “I’m not going to go so far as to say that this is jazz. This album will never get anywhere because the critics are going to blast it. They’re going to say ‘how dare this guy think he can make a jazz album.’ And if it comes out, I don’t want it to just end up with all of the Prince fanatics. I want to distance myself from this and see if we can get some form of an honest reaction without any preconceived notions as to my involvement with it.” So what it ended up with was all of these fictitious names [of band members and recording studio] that he came up with and then the whole marketing project became silly, because I was the only person that was going to have a real face. And the whole marketing ploy was based on me going out and lying to everybody about what it was about. After a while, it really became silly and to this day, Prince is aggravated over the fact that people found out that it was really his album.

TLM: Is that so?

Oh yes. I finally said: “Prince, give it a rest. Everybody whoever interviewed me about it was like “Oh yeah, I’m supposed to really believe that this isn’t Prince?” I would try to convince them but I don’t think I was fooling anybody. It became like an inside joke, like the fact that it was supposed to have been recorded in Pittsburgh, where I came from. And the fact that I lived in Atlanta and everybody in the “band” was supposed to be part time musicians who I knew from Atlanta. We came up with name, occupations – we put a whole back story to everything about the album – it was very funny. I realised that we had had created a monster when he had given the back story to his publicist and his publicist called me to put together the initial press release and in discussing it with the publicist, I realised that the publicist didn’t realise that it was all a lie! Prince had not let the publicist in on it! I said that’s perfect Prince, because if the publicist is going to make this work, he has to believe it. Regardless, it was very successful and the idea not to give the songs any names, just numbers was his, which was cute. And we had a top ten single (“Six”) out of it.

27th March 1987.

Prince directs a fifteen minute film entitled A Twisted Tale About Two Bums Living The.....Hard Life.

The roles were played by Wally safford, Greg Brooks, Cat, Jill Jones, Miko Weaver, Eric Leeds and Dr Finks mother.

The film used tracks from Madhouse 8 as a soundtrack, but it was never intended as an extended video clip or a promotion for the group, in fact, the film served no real purpose at all.

30th July 1987.

Prince begins waork on a second Madhouse album.

He recorded, mixed and completed the album in just under a week. Eric Leeds later reworked four leftover tracks for his 1991 album Times Squared.

18th November 1987.

The second Madhouse album entitled 16 is released on Paisley Park Records. Band members listed are Levi Seacer Jr, Dr Fink, Eric Leeds and John lewis on drums.

However, Lewis had nothing to do with the album, and Finks' input was minimal. The record was very much a Prince recording, five of the eight tracks are solo Prince recordings with Leeds on sax and flute. Finks' contribution was a keyboard solo on Sixteen. The three remaining tracks Ten, Eleven, and Fifteen feature the lineup of Prince, Eric Leeds, Levi Seacer Jr and Sheila E.

Two singles were released, Ten and Thirteen.

[img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/Prince%20and%20related/P%20mag%20and%20boot%20covers%20and%20ads/1987-madhouse16-ad-smaller.jpg[/img:$uid]Promo poster for 16.

[img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/Prince%20and%20related%20album%20and%20singles/Madhouse16.jpg[/img:$uid] Album cover.

[img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/Prince%20and%20related%20album%20and%20singles/madhouse-10.jpg[/img:$uid] Ten single art.

[img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/Prince%20and%20related%20album%20and%20singles/R-309829-1110425359.jpg[/img:$uid] Thirteen single art.

Part of an interview with Eric leeds regarding Madhouse 16.

TLM: You did a second Madhouse album, 16.

EL: I really liked it except for two songs [Eric would rather not say what they are!]. That was a much more organic album. That came up from spontaneous sessions with Prince, myself, Sheila E and Prince’s bass player at the time, Levi Seacer. The four of us went into the studio over two or three days and just played and everything on the second Madhouse album came from those sessions. In fact, several songs that were one my first album (Times Squared) came from those sessions – “Andorra,” “Night Owl” “Overnight, Everynight, “ and “Kenya”. I made songs out of them with a whole lot of post-production work and a lot of chopping and editing and a lot of studio whizz-bang, but the basic tracks came from those sessions. 16 was more of straight-up, funk, R ‘n’ B album. I just thought that the music was better realised; it was more cohesive album. Unfortunately it wasn’t that successful.

26th June 1988.

Prince and Sheila E record four instrumental tracks intended for a new Madhouse album.

The tracks were recorded in one day at Paisley Park. Three of the tracks have never been released, one of the tracks was turned into Cape Horn for Eric leeds' Times Squared album.

5th December 1988.

Prince starts work on the third Madhouse album entitled 24 at Paisley Park. From Dec 5th to the 15th, he completed The Dopanine Rush Suite which he had started in London during the Lovesexy tour.

He also taped four new instrumentals, 17(Penetration), 18(Are U Legal Yet?), 19(Jailbait), and 20(A Girl And Her Puppy).

Prince recorded everything himself with only Eric Leeds adding sax and flute. Prince also contacted french actress and singer Mathilda May to add some lines in French, he had met her while on the Lovesexy tour.

Mid December 1988.

Prince makes a rough mix of the Madhouse 24 album, more mixing was done in late December.

The album was due to be released in spring 1989 but Prince lost interest in the album and it was shelved. It was never released.

[img:$uid]http://i757.photobucket.com/albums/xx218/MMikeyBee/Prince%20and%20related%20album%20and%20singles/madhouse24se2.jpg[/img:$uid] Possible album artwork for 24.

Part of an interview with Eric Leeds regarding Madhouse 24.

TLM: Why was the planned 24 album such a troubled project?

EL: Prince did all the tracks himself and I think he started doing some of them when we were on the road doing the Lovesexy tour. When we were in Europe on the road in 1988 and there were a few off days, Prince would always go to London and work in the studio and I think some of the tracks came from those sessions. He called me into the studio after we got off the road – around December 1988 - and he had all the tracks done. I think I did all the horn parts in two days and he was with me for all the sessions. So we did the album and he did the mix on it and gave me a copy. I don’t recall what timetable he had in mind, but at that time, the relationship he had with Warners had started to turn [deteriorate] and things like Madhouse were hardly a priority for Warner Brothers. I think they were desperately trying to get Paisley Park records going as a viable label. If Prince had really wanted it released, it would have gotten released.

July 1989.

After prince decided to shelve the previously recorded third madhouse album, he decided to start fresh on a new project. Eric leeds was asked to look in the vaults for suitable tracks.

Prince also gave Leeds a tape containg tracks that he felt may be suitable, the se tracks included Wet Dream Cousin, Vibrator and XYZ.

Leeds chose ten instrumentals and worked on the tracks for most of August 1989. He added new instrumentation and melodies, Larry fratangelo, Ricky Peterson and Atlanta Bliss played on some of the tracks.

Early September 1989.

Eric Leeds gathers ten instrumental tracks intended for a third Madhouse album. Picking up from where 16 left off, the new tracks were numbered seventeen to twenty six, the album was to be named 26.

Upon hearing the results, Prince felt that the new tracks did not fit the Madhouse sound and suggested to Ledds that they should be released as Leeds' solo record. The album eventually became Times Squared released in 1991.

19th Feb 1991.

Eric Leeds' debut album entitled Times Squared is released on Paisley park Records.

Cool !

ThanX for the reading ! I love Madhouse !

The Eric Leeds interview is really interesting, is that the one in which hw talks about Miles on The Last Miles site ??

28th September 1991.

Prince and Sheila E record an instrumental track called Boom Box.

Prince wanted to embark on a new Madhouse "style" project. The name of the "group" was to be Brass Monkey.

No further sessions were recorded and the project was abandoned.

5th december 1991.

Prince's new horn section (a five piece) rehearse several Madhouse tracks along with NPG members for a possible support slot on the upcomming Diamonds & Pearls tour.

Prince wanted a Madhouse "style" band but with a bigger horn section.

The horn section consisted of Michael B Nelson, Brian Gallagher, Kathy and Dave Jensen and Steve Strand.

The rehearsal was taped and sent to Prince who was in Paris.

In the end the "new" Madhouse band was never used.

7th July 1993.

Prince records new material with "Madhouse" at paisley park.

The lineup was Prince, Michael B, Levi Seacer Jr, Sonny T and Eric Leeds. Six tracks were recorded during a five hour session.

Ricky Peterson did some post production work on the tracks during August and September 1993. Nona Gaye added vocals to Got 2 Give It Up and The Steeles provided backing vocals to Space.

The album was completed by mid '94, the proposed title of the album was 24.

The album was never released, WB showed very little interest in the project.

One track from the album 17 was given an official release when it was included on the 1-800 NEW FUNK album, which was released in 1994.

Thanks to squirrelgrease.

The full Eric Leeds interview can be found in this thread [img:$uid]http://prince.org/msg/7/343376[/img:$uid]

Additional Madhouse info can be found in this thread http://prince.org/msg/7/343376

Thanks for reading.

yankem said:

Cool !

ThanX for the reading ! I love Madhouse !

The Eric Leeds interview is really interesting, is that the one in which hw talks about Miles on The Last Miles site ??

Thanks for the comment, yes the interview is from the last Miles.

Maneca Lightner is the Madhouse "covergirl," here is a brief interview with her, taken from trueprincestories.com

TPS: Just curious, was the doggie on the covers yours?

ML: No, that was a trained puppy, but still those shoots went on forever. While on the set, he’d crawl into the car and fall asleep or play. But I had alot of fun and he was a sweet puppy.

TPS: Had you done any modeling prior to those covers?

ML: No. I wasn’t really interested in being a model. I met Prince when I lived in Denver. I was only 16, and he was at a record signing. Two years later, we met again and I was wearing a polka-dot outfit that he really liked – that’s why all the outfits I wear on the album covers have polka dots on them. Three years later I got a call from him asking if I was interested in being the cover model for a jazz album he was putting together. We shot three covers and two videos. It was big fun!! We dated off and on for some time–unfortunately, I didn’t have any talent he could tap into & develop. I didn’t dance, sing or play any music instruments.

TPS: Did you have any offers to model after that?

ML: Yes, but Prince wanted me to represent only the Madhouse projects. I didn’t really want to be a model anyway. I didn’t like the feeling of having to look perfect every time I stepped out of the house. People want you to look exactly like your photos and that’s simply not realistic. Fortunately, I had a talent at the business side of the music industry. I knew there was something I was good at! HAHAHA!

TPS: So what have you been up to since then?

ML: Well, I worked for sometime with different record labels, all on the business side of things. I worked with Warner Brothers, Virgin, and others. I then opened a talent agency for Musicians and Singers with a partner. We were in business for seven years working with artists like Pink, Christina Aguillera, Destiny’s Child and many more! I still work on certain music events every now and then, but for the past two years I’ve been working in Real Estate and I’m now finishing up a book I’m writing with my best friend, on love and relationships.

So the lucky purple one got to play with her billabongs. Life isn't fair. I painted the ceiling enough times looking at the Madhouse 8 album sleeve.

Great thread idea. These side projects, especially Madhouse are always fun to dig into.

The odd thing about Madhouse to me is that I liked the music instantly on first listen, even though I hadn't really been exposed to anything like it before. I was really into British Ska at the time, so I certainly liked the rock/horns mix, but this was so different for me. I've often likened Madhouse 8 to Dirty Mind in that it was a completely new way to appreciate music again. It's not jazz, it's not funk, it's Madhouse.

Oh, and if anyone digs Madhouse, they have to get Eric Leeds' solo efforts if the haven't already. Those are terrific albums in their own right.

Mong said:

So the lucky purple one got to play with her billabongs. Life isn't fair. I painted the ceiling enough times looking at the Madhouse 8 album sleeve.

Best pair of boobs to ever grace an album cover.

And, Prince met her at age 16. How many times have we heard that? Maneca Lightner, Anna Garcia, Mayte Garcia, Tamar Davis, Bria Valente, etc... Does Prince hang out at high school cheerleading practices?

squirrelgrease said:

Great thread idea. These side projects, especially Madhouse are always fun to dig into.

The odd thing about Madhouse to me is that I liked the music instantly on first listen, even though I hadn't really been exposed to anything like it before. I was really into British Ska at the time, so I certainly liked the rock/horns mix, but this was so different for me. I've often likened Madhouse 8 to Dirty Mind in that it was a completely new way to appreciate music again. It's not jazz, it's not funk, it's Madhouse.

Oh, and if anyone digs Madhouse, they have to get Eric Leeds' solo efforts if the haven't already. Those are terrific albums in their own right.

Thanks for your comments squirrel, you are correct i think, in that these albums cannot really be catagorized easily, Madhouse music is a good term i think.

I liked the albums upon first hearing them too, and discovering Madhouse made me really start to appreciate instrumental music and jazz in particular, jazz music is something i would never have considered listening to before hearing these albums.

And as for Eric Leeds' solo albums, i never gave them a thought until more recent times, or until i started to learn more about the background of not only Eric, but Madhouse too, and i am currently in search mode for these albums.

squirrelgrease said:

Mong said:

So the lucky purple one got to play with her billabongs. Life isn't fair. I painted the ceiling enough times looking at the Madhouse 8 album sleeve.

Best pair of boobs to ever grace an album cover.

And, Prince met her at age 16. How many times have we heard that? Maneca Lightner, Anna Garcia, Mayte Garcia, Tamar Davis, Bria Valente, etc... Does Prince hang out at high school cheerleading practices?

And look how each of those relationships ended, maybe he should have tried to find someone nearer his own age. Mind you, older girls might not be so easy to manipulate.

Thanks. Interesting read, especially the Eric Leeds interview bits. I hadn't read those before.

And of course Prince had a relationship with the Madhouse girl. I should have realized that years ago.

MikeyB71 said:

older girls might not be so easy to manipulate.

um...yeah...lol

This thread doesn't deserve to sink among the "Where's Bria?" flotsam.

squirrelgrease said:

Thanks for this thread. I think I mentioned in another thread how little I knew about the whole Madhouse project, so I found it really interesting to read. I know this forum doesn't get as much attention as it should, but I'm glad it's here. In fact, I'd love to see more like it for more associated artists.

Efan said:

Thanks for this thread. I think I mentioned in another thread how little I knew about the whole Madhouse project, so I found it really interesting to read. I know this forum doesn't get as much attention as it should, but I'm glad it's here. In fact, I'd love to see more like it for more associated artists.

Co-sign. The in-depth stuff is always appreciated.

MikeyB71 said:

. I realised that we had had created a monster when he had given the back story to his publicist and his publicist called me to put together the initial press release and in discussing it with the publicist, I realised that the publicist didn’t realise that it was all a lie! Prince had not let the publicist in on it! I said that’s perfect Prince, because if the publicist is going to make this work, he has to believe it. Regardless, it was very successful and the idea not to give the songs any names, just numbers was his, which was cute. And we had a top ten single (“Six”) out of it.

Classic Prince.........

MikeyB71 said:

28th September 1991.

Prince and Sheila E record an instrumental track called Boom Box.

Prince wanted to embark on a new Madhouse "style" project. The name of the "group" was to be Brass Monkey.

No further sessions were recorded and the project was abandoned.

This is interesting to me, because I thought this was the period in which Prince and Sheila were estranged.

Efan said:

MikeyB71 said:

MikeyB71 said:

MikeyB71 said:

Yes, I just double checked the info I have, and this is definitely the date given for this recording session.

Wow. I checked and checked again, it was prince and Eric Leeds who recorded the track, NOT Sheila e. Thanks for pointing that out Efan. I have also now checked the entire thread for any typing errors I may have made. All is well, thank you, and I do apologize.

I'm glad I helped in any way.

It just caught my eye because that period of Sheila's recording career is interesting to me. Once she and Prince went their separate ways (for a time), Sheila apparently still lived in Minneapolis, so I guess it's not impossible, but it seemed unlikely. Thanks for the answer!

Efan said:

MikeyB71 said:

MikeyB71 said: Wow. I checked and checked again, it was prince and Eric Leeds who recorded the track, NOT Sheila e. Thanks for pointing that out Efan. I have also now checked the entire thread for any typing errors I may have made. All is well, thank you, and I do apologize.

I'm glad I helped in any way.

It just caught my eye because that period of Sheila's recording career is interesting to me. Once she and Prince went their separate ways (for a time), Sheila apparently still lived in Minneapolis, so I guess it's not impossible, but it seemed unlikely. Thanks for the answer!

Sheila was at the Arsenio Hall show when Prince was on promoting D&P in late 91. If they were estranged, I find it odd that she would go there in person.