Has anyone ever seen Prince, or one of the members make a mistake onstage?....Or is the level of rehearsal so high, that they just don't happen...?

if u would consider prince falling down and busting his ass onstage or tripping or knocking something over...to be a mistake then yes...i have seen it 4 times...
85 grammy awards
85 atlanta PR tour
radio city music hall 93
canada 93 or 94 i forget right now...

He screwed up twice on Arsenio. In 91, during Daddy Pop, the backup dancers were supposed to toss him in the air but it didn't work out, and he got like 2 inches off the ground.

During his 92 performance, he tries to light some magazine articles on him on fire with lighter fluid and a match, only he cant get it to burn. He lights like 3 matches before they cut to another camera.

You've probabbly already heard about the lamp post... LOL

During his Purple Rain Live video, as he's performing Purple Rain, just when he starts singing, his microphone doesnt seem to work, and you hear what sounds like a backing track running in the background for a moment, or maybe it was some strange echo.

TFI Friday with Chris Evans. Sang "Baby Knows". He even apologised at the end of the song. He misses the lyrics completely at one point. 1st time I've noticed any mistake by Prince!

Minor mistakes aren't that rare. There's one part on 'Fury' from SNL where he gets a little messy, fumbles a few quick notes together and doesn't quite end the lick on the first beat of the next measure as intended. Just little things.

I reckon he forgot the second line in his Brits performance of Fury, the grin when he got it right next time was the give away for me

I think he messed up "The Holy River" lyrics on Oprah in '96. But hell, I mess them up every day.

Tom said:

I´ve been wondering about this for years now..what exactly was that ? What happened there...was it an echo effect or a transmitting problem or did he really use a backing track ( which I highly doubt).

RodeoSchro said:

He totally forgot the words to "Get Yo' Groove On" at a performance promoting "Emancipation." It wasn't on Oprah. I can't remember whose show it was, come to think of it, but I know it was this song.

he's missed some lyrics several times that i know of
and his improvisations don't always come out right
but he's pretty good at making it sound purposeful anyway

At one of the Musicology concerts that I saw in Philly he knocked over the microphone. He was quick to pick it up, tho.

prettymansson said:

85 grammys I thought he was going to knock all his teeth out. It was close!

2004 Vegas Musicology tour (Tiger Jam) the horns didn't come in on time and they totally messed up the small Candi, Maceo and Greg diddy that they do. He threw a little trantrom and sat down on the couch of the stage. It all looked staged to the untrained eye...

RodeoSchro said:

You sing "Holy River" every day? Some kind of ritual? You think you'd learn the lyrics eventually.

1sexymf said:

speaking of mistakes with the mic:

in chicago a couple weeks ago, prince's microphone had fallen down a little bit while it was still in the stand. ol' boy tried to get it to sit back up properly...he was fiddling with it for like a good half-minute or so, and it wouldn't straighten back up. eventually he kinna gave up and this cute little look came across his face that just said "oh, fuck it" and he went into a geetar solo. a tech came out and fixed the mic in like 5 seconds.

goodtimes.

That hairdo he had at Bagley's Warehouse.
[Edited 3/9/06 12:01pm]

in '89 during the first gig of the batman tour in rotterdam i've seen him loose his mike while running around onstage.. i think he turned around, dropped on his hands and started singing into the mike which was now lying on the ground.. it also looked as if it wassd part of the show to the untrained eye.

What about on the Small Club bootleg when during "Still Would Stand All Time" someone is clearly singing the wrong words. Prince calls them out in the middle of the song asking "Who's the fool singing 'will'? It's WOULD!"

If you've written that many songs, it's quite unevitable that you'll forget some words now and then...

Number23 said:

Now that's funny!

MTV awards '91 The assless pants Gett Off performance. Didn't he catch his sleeve on the mic in the first verse and got in a bit of a tangle? I seem to recall him dealing with it sharpish though?

that is what makes it cool to people performing live. because anything can happen. i mean, nobody is perfect.

when something goes wrong it will always add to something. a joke, a deeper emotion, a musical improvisation.

Rufus Wainwright always messes up on stage, but he is so funny and real when he does.

sextonseven said:

raaaaahhhhhahahahahahahahah!!!! That's classic!

Tom said:

he tried to open the top of the piano and had trouble

not really his fault but on the 87, going in to 88 New Years Eve benefit show the balloons didnt go off right, of course P plyed it off cool

wow,this stuff is funny

prettymansson said:

That's like the coldest shit EVER Just the way you put it, gat dayum

86 performance of "life can be so nice"
I don't know what happened. looks like he was about to start twirling or something. he was taking off his shirt, dropped the mic, tripped over it and then had a look on his face like "aw shit" and picked it up real quick.
too funny. it was like he looked over at wally and jerome to see if they saw him mess up.
ha!

RodeoSchro said:

That was "The Holy River" on Rosie O'Donnell's (sp?) show back in January 1997.

roanmairin said:

LOL, you would think so, wouldn't you? Nah, I don't really sing it every day but it IS my favorite song.