How can i get the vault book, the prince enpsyclo? I'd love to read about prince without having to stare at a computer screen.

Here you go....

http://www.uptown.se/2004...ault.shtml

Why can't i order it from any normal book store?

It's published in Sweden, but I don't know what that has to do with. The list price is $60 incl shipping through Uptown.com, but you can buy it on eBay for around $40+ I'm going to buy it myself. I consider it must reading.

thanks. i'd like 2 copies.
[Edited 1/3/05 20:11pm]

THAAAAANKS, altavista, I had heard about this book but wasn't able to find it anywhere.

The book:

http://www.uptown.se/2004...ault.shtml

How to order:

http://www.uptown.se/2004/order.shtml
.

Haven't read much about it (maybe my fault because I missed it).

Is it worthwhile having it ?
Can somebody give a more or less objective review from a fan's / reader's point of view.

I'm a bit sceptical because ... I remember when the two previous Uptown/Nielssen books were released (Turn It Up and Days Of Wild), there was some unhappiness because the books contained lots of erros, were cheaply produced and sold too expensively.

funkystuff said:

It's really only for hardcore fans, not a 'read' as such - it is a cross between a diary of Prince's known movements and what he was upto, from the beginning upto the start of last year, and a chronological list of all his known recordings. There's a little critiquing, but mostly it's just tons of facts. If you wanna know more about a Prince song, it's more than likely to be in there. Closest thing to a Prince technical bible! Invaluable reference for the obssessed fan.

It's more a chronology of Prince's career than anything (it's roots go back to Per Nilsen's Prince: A Documentary, first published in 1990/1 - which then turned into Uptown's Days Of Wild. They also produced the 'companion' book Turn It Up, which detailed all known and circulating out-takes, all officially released recordings and so forth.

The Vault is the updated and combined version of all of these.

If you want a biography - then Per Nilsen's DMSR is the one to get (although it only goes upto 1987.

The Vault is more like a reference book, completely fascinating and invaluable as said

I'm interested to see how the proposed yearly update will sell though, I've bought all the Uptown books and subscribed to the magazine for years until it's closure, but I dunno if I personally want to buy a new copy of the book every year just for corrections and 1 years update.

I'd prefer to see DMSR part 2!

It's a must have! All the mentioned above is true. It's indeed a technical bible for instance. But I think u don't have to be obsessed to enjoy it. It's the greatest and most complete encyclopedia about all u wanted to know about Prince's music (and also a little bit about his life).

Art, amsterdam, Holland.

Is it unabridged and unofficial?

NewFace said:

Thankfully, yes it's unofficial.

"Unabridged"? - There's no bridged version if that's what you mean.

NouveauDance said:

Yeah! I just read that over at the site.

Are they really going to re-write the WHOLE thing every year?
It would make sense to do that after, say, 5 or 10 years,
but, every year is a bit silly, IMHO.

I think it would go over better with a "companion" type of book instead:
"the Vault '04"
"the Vault '05" and so on.

I'm looking forward to buying it.

The fact that Per Nielsen was able to chronicle his day-to-day movements is crazy-cool. A slice in the life on a nine-to-five basis. I wish my life were as interesting.


What would we do without PN? I wish I was hip to Uptown much sooner and now it's too late. It would have been more interesting to read the mag real-time, but I know you can get back-copies. I guess the trade-off with the Vault is a more manageable one; shit, I'm not the one doing all the work.

how big is it (in cm)?, how many pages?, and does it have any pics inside?

NewFace said:

Check it out for yourself: http://www.uptown.se/2004...ault.shtml

NewFace said:

14.7cm wide, 21cm high, 2.8cm thick. Not a massive book, but the paper is pretty thin - 717 pages, and the text is very small, about 1.5mm high.

There are no pictures - I guess there were too many issues involved in getting the rights to pictures