Report on The Rainbow Children Listening Party presented by Pop Life in Los Angeles and The Bumpsquad last Saturday, October 27, 2001.

Hello freaks on this side! Still reeling from the listening party we had Saturday night in Los Angeles. We had about 80+ Prince fanz show up to partayyy and jam to Prince music all night. We had folks coming from SF, San Diego, Rialto, Orange County and Palmdale (I may have missed others from out of town). With only 3 weeks in preparation, we had a great turnout. Party started at 9PM playing songs only available on NPG Music Club-- Pearls B4 the Swine, Supercute, Underneath the Cream, etc. to promote his music club while on the TV monitors we were playing Prince's TV appearances from his earliest-- American Bandstand to his most recent. At around 10:30PM, we played The Rainbow Children album in its ENTIRETY straight through, complete with lyric books for everyone. For those who are not aware, TRC is a one track album (just like Lovesexy) with 14 tracks and a length of 69 minutes, 58 seconds and is one cohesive album linked with narration (Prince's voice slowed down, maybe 10x-- really slow that you won't grasp what he's saying in the beginning unless you have the lyric book at hand-- and takes a lot of getting used to). As I scanned the crowd, there were those who obviously have heard the album and were singing along, many reading the lyric book at hand trying to follow the music; those just grooving to the music while watching the TV monitors still showing Prince's TV appearances including his performance at the MTV awards with the butt-baring pants that elicited hoots from fanz; other had strange looks on some faces who were hearing Prince's slowed down voice for the first time, but overall, the response to the album has been positive-- definitely a different Prince album. Some album tracks that caused the most response were the jazzy "Muse 2 The Pharaoh", funky "1+1+1 Is 3" that had many dancing on their feet, musical/operatta-type piece "The Wedding Feast" (some who have heard it before and couldn't stand it capped their ears while it was playing-- it's only a 54 second song--while other sang along with gusto-- I for one-- and find the track very playful and entertaining, Prince even laughs at the end of the song), sweet love song "She Loves Me 4 Me", gospel-tinged "Everywhere", controversial piece on racism (or anti-semitism?) "Family Name", another dance groove "The Everlasting Now" and the glorious "Last December". At around 11:40PM, we started playing mixes of Prince's music and took the party to another level---imagine hearing Mad Sex, Pop Life (extended version), Love or Money, Jam of the Year, P Control, Billy Jack Bitch, DMSR, Hot Thing, just to name a few-- with all the freaks in the house and you can imagine how crazy it got including some hot freaks that got up onstage doing some nasty moves! We gave away promo copies of The Rainbow Children and Prince collectibles. Party last until around 1:30PM. A bunch of us, still high from the party but famished, headed to a nearby Thai restaurant around 2AM to chill some more! Pop Life in Los Angeles and The Bumpsquad want to thank everbody for their support!!! Hope to "C U at another party"! Special thanks go to Christine and Dina for the decorations, and J7 for the music. For future Prince events in Los Angeles, visit the Yahoo! Prince club, Pop Life in Los Angeles, at http://clubs.yahoo.com/cl...losangeles or e-mail bobbyc912@yahoo.com. The Bumpsquad e-mail address is j7@thebumpsquad.com or chrisg@thebumpsquad.com. Peace 2 y'all!