'I think the whole thing was never expected to be anything more than an opening act, There used to be some arguments before going onstage about things that I would do that were conflicting with the things that Prince would do. I was told not to do certain things, certain dances. Morris Day.

With the success of The Time's unpretentious and light-hearted shows during the 1982-83 'Triple Threat' tour as opposed to Prince's more ambitious and theatrical performances, if we read to be true, Prince often demoted the band from the bill without no official reason. Rumour had it that Prince didn't want to risk being upstaged particularly in the big cities, for example Los Angeles and New York in March 1983. Only Vanity 6 and Prince performed.

To some extent I think Purple Rain-the movie and even the soundtrack, was Prince's way of trying to put the The Time in their place as he wanted. Whereby the central character emerges triumphant at the end with a rousing performance of 'Purple Rain' and the focus very much on Prince. As such, you come away from the film thinking of Prince whereas The Time to some extent are only part of the plot to the film. Even with the soundtrack, the only songs that are on it are Prince and The Revolution's. You ask people now and they say, 'Ah, I loved that movie Prince was in', but if you ask them to name of the rival band in the film, many folk have difficulty remembering.

Perhaps, The Time may not have outgrown their creator even without the commercial success of Purple Rain but to some extent I can't help but feeling they may have been a bigger and more recognised band without it. Even now, you go into any record store in the UK and you will have difficulty find a Time record in there. Even if they are, they are on US import.

Any thoughts and ideas guys?

The film does paint The Time in a bad light. They are seen as the evil, corporate, cheesy, depthless side of music, whereas Prince is the emotive, deep, free, emotional, and ultimately good side of music.

Which in a way is true, they were created just for Prince to indulge his cheesy, funky but meaningless side.

I think if remembered at all in the UK, most people probably think they were created for that movie and disappeared straight after.

But the Time's main failing is simply their inability to come up with their own great tracks and albums. Even now they just perform the same songs they've performed for 20 years - you need new material to move forward.

Funny, I've sometimes heard The Time referred to as a 'supergroup' - simply because they once had Janet's producers Jam and Lewis in the lineup. I mean, what did Jerome contribute exactly? A bit of dancing. He's like a forerunner of Bez from the Happy Mondays...