Many people have hailed this the best live bootleg out there today with some awesome guitar work and excellent sound quality.

Would you agree with this or is there something better out there? ("It aint over" not withstanding.)

It is the best live Prince boot imho... and it shits all over "It Ain't Over"!!!

MartyMcFly said:

I agree. I don't have that many live boots but Small Club is by far the best. Of the ones I have I would rate It Ain't Over as 3rd after Small Club and Sign O the Times Tour Rehearsal '87 (which probably also goes by another more snappy name)

AsylumUtopia said:

Interesting. You dont know the name the SOT rehearsal goes under? Does it have quality sound? What songs does he do?

I reccomend "My Band's Tight" 10/26/02 Copenhagen.Nice guitar work on that one.

Rebeljuice said:

There is an infamous warm up gig before the SOTT tour that goes by several names. I have it on a disc called Housequake but I think the more common name is For Those of You on Valium. There are a couple of SOTT good rehearsals on Wonderboy and Now's The Time. It must be one of these.

Rebeljuice said:

Now that I think about it, it's probably called 'For those of you on valium...' (although my version is actually called "Sign O the Times Tour Rehearsal '87" - obviously thought up by a very imaginative bootlegger). Top quality sound and most of the tracks from SOTT are on it. I haven't listened to it in a while but according to http://www.prn-archive.net the track listing is :

Intro
Housequake
Girls & Boys
Slow Love
Hot Thing
Now’s The Time
Sheila E. Drum Solo
Strange Relationship
Forever In My Life
Kiss
It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night

which sounds about right.
[Edited 11/10/05 7:39am]

4 Those Of U On Valium wasn't a rehearsel
[Edited 11/10/05 8:28am]

Dewrede said:

Right, it's more like a warm up or try out.

RepoMan said:

Nitpickers!

Meant to say it was recorded with an audience
(recorded 1987-3-21 First Avenue , Minneapolis)

Rebeljuice said:

I would say that most people say that beacause they don' know very much boots.
Yea, Small Club was also my first boot, but now I know a lot more of 'em. Mostly soundboard or TV/Radio broadcast shows.
And there are a lot better boots, or better said different in high quality.
Small Club is just easy to get (I often find it in used record stores or even in normal record stores/warehouses). It's the most well known boot - sometimes in different designs or without some songs (People without is sometimes missing).

Damn....germish again!
[Edited 11/10/05 9:25am]

PhilG said:

Best boot I've heard in the last 5 years

Great indeed

I recently got

Club Fillmore (San Fransisco) 2-15-2004 and
Whole Lotta Love 4 Paris (Bataclan)10-29-2002


Those are great too
[Edited 11/10/05 10:15am]

better recognize !!!!!

Rebeljuice said:

It isn't better than Neon Rendezvous in my opinion. It is a great aftershow that incorporates new songs sure, and is inspired, but I think because it is perfect soundboard is part of the accolades. And of course that little ditty Just My Imagination.

They tear the fuck out of Rave imo. That's a speeding ticket performance.

soulyacolia said:

I'm not sure why this doesn't get as much love as Small Club.Maybe not enough people have heard it? Anyways, the guitar work is astonishing that night.He starts with Hendrix's Who Knows?(with bits of Voodoo Child) & follows that with amazing versions of Bambi,Whole Lotta Love, & The Question of U. The best part of this aftershow is when a certain audience member makes the mistake of taking a picture of Prince & he makes the band stop(on the one) & he then threatens to leave!I think he tells somebody to grab the offending person & to "twist his neck, twist it!"
[Edited 11/10/05 10:52am]

DiamondGirl said:

THAT is a true gem ! And I thought I was the only one who loves the Neon Rendezvous CD so much...amazing versions of Something In The Water ( over thirteen min. long, drastically rearranged version), the almost fifteen minute long version of Noon Rendezvous and the funky Irressistible Bitch. And that ad-libbed version of Purple Rain (Gotta Shake This Feeling) with lyrical bits of Another Lonely Christmas.....excellent !

The Small Club boot is great, but not exactly the kind of boot I listen to on a regular basis. But Neon Rendezvous is something like my breakfast CD, I listen to it very often.

It Ain´t Over is laughable, after all those years and with all those gems in the vault he comes up with a bunch of songs recorded at different locations and with George Clinton and Musiq on it.


I dig George, love his music, but GC and Musiq shouldn´t have been there.

Small Club is cool but I guess the Bataclan 2002 gig will be just as legendary one day.

My favorites on Small Club are People Without and Just My Imagination and to some extent Rave, but that´s about it. I like it and it´s a must have CD but there are other shows that I dig much more, like Le New Morning Paris 1987, or Bataclan 2002 and so on.
Small Club is a tad overrated, but still legendary.



Why do so many people ignore the amazing Paradiso shows from ´95 ?

On UK tv the other night, there was a countdown of the top 20 greatest live performances ever, stuff like james Brown at the Apollo, Hendrix at Woodstock, Queen at Live Aid etc. Prince was nowhere in the list - fact is, he's never done ONE single gig that is immensely more famous than any other. Small Club probably comes closest.

metalorange said:

Judging by the three things you name on this list, it would appear to be very conventional. JB at the Appolo, plus two heavily mediatized appearances. Prince truly arrived through videos and motion pictures. He has a great live act but waited until this millenium to deliver an official live performance on record. When he appeared at the Grammies to sing Baby I'm a Star, he wasn't like Micheal Jackson at the Motown anniversary show, making some kid of dramatic return to superstardom. Still he was the best live musician of his day with perhaps Bruce Springsteen. Come to think of it, Baby I'm a Star at the Grammies and Purple Rain at the AMAs were quite good -- they just weren't career-defining moments like Hendrix at Woodstock. Then again our boy doesn't do events like Live AID, which is a shame. It's almost as if he made it hard to get his live music just so you'd be forced to buy a ticket.

Aerogram said:

But if he could just get his ass down to Glastonbury...

Aerogram said:

From memory, there was also Bowie's last gig as Ziggy with the Spiders From Mars, Bruce Springsteen at the Roxy, The Who at the Isle of Wight, some concert by Elton John where John Lennon joined him on stage, Radiohead at Glastonbury, Oasis at Maine Road, Nirvana's last gig in London, Pink Floyd doing The Wall in London, Bob Dylan when he turned electric, the Sex Pistols in a gig in Manchester, Johnny Cash performing in a prison, the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park, U2 at Red Rock, Brian Wilson performing Smile for the first time, The Clash at some protest do, Bob Marley at a peace concert in Jamaica - and one more I can't remember!

I don't think short tv appearances would count as a full-fledged gig! It was all part of the build up to Channel 4's UK Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame Induction. Last year, there was a public vote and Michael Jackson beat Prince for the 80s - this year unfortunately, there is no vote, it has already been decided by some panel that Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, New Order and Bob Dylan are going in. Bah humbug.

People need to recognise , Neon Rendezvous kicks Small Club's ass , always has and always will

OK, just "got hold" of Neon Rendezvous to check out how good it is. Have to admit, it's a pretty impressive boot - however, I don't think it is quite in the "Small Club" league. I would have loved to hear these rehearsals performed the same live though - get a sense of the whole band just jamming to these numbers which didn't come across the same way in any live performance I've seen/heard.

Thanks for the recommendation!

To be honest, I've never heard nor owned the full 'Small Club' BL.
I have many others, but figured there would be a time, like now, when no new music is around to go find it somewhere.
I've heard "Just My Imagination", and it made me wonder why, oh why, he never wanted to release stuff like that right after it was made. I really dig Prince's improv!
So, I waited and waited that someday he would release something live and right off the cuff, and I get 'It Ain't Over' which was a bit disappointing

'Neon Rondevous' is an interesting one. "When Doves Cry" with all the variations of Prince-screams. "Something In The Water" and it's re-arrangement and wicked extension. "Erotic City" with a blazing electric guitar lead! AMM!!!

I still wanna know if that first part of 'Prince:A Musical Portrait' where he's doing an aftershow (screamin' in the mike, slicin' his Blue Angel) is out there on VIDEO???