Back in the late 80's early 90's, a 15 minute documentry was made, I think, by Prince's manager of the time. It had short comments by Clapton, Miles Davis, Terence Trent etc. and had pieces of performances, partyman with him on bass in the studio, a bit of an after show, and finished with a piano version of The Ladder.

What was the exact name of this documentry? I had it once on vhs but some selfish f***** taped over it....and I need it back!!!!

Please help! I think it was called something like, 'Prince - A Portrait' or 'Portrait of a Genius'.....

There was a downloadable 10 minute video at the end of npgmc Year One called "Musical Portrait" I must have it somewhere
Maybe that's it

PANDURITO said:

I'm sure it was 15 mins. I remember it also had a clip of him in the studio where he's playin guitar and keyboards at the same time. It was a crackin little docu. and I think it's what I need to convince my girlfriend just how talented he is. I've tried just about everything else aside from gettin her to a concert, but I'm sure this will clinch it. If this doesn't work sadly I'm goin to have to give up until the he gets over to the UK again.

Nikeze said:

All I can do is check later when I get home.
Will post here if I find it's 15 minutes . I only saw it once and that was more than 4 years ago

PANDURITO said:

ok, that would be muchos appreciated, cheers

It was Prince:Musical Portrait, premiered on British TV on 27 September 1989, according to Uptown's The Vault. The short nine-minute documentary by Limelight Productions was filmed under the directorship of Alber Magnoli, and included footage of various rehearsals and post-concert appearances on the Lovesexy tour, as well as clips of Prince working in the studio with Mavis Staples. It also included interviews with amongst others, Eric Clapton, Little Richard, Miles Davis, and George Clinton.

It was also later released for download during the first year of the npgmc in 2001. It has shots of Prince putting the bass part down to Partyman in front of a soundboard. I don't recall any bit where he's playing guitar and keyboards at the same time, maybe your imagination plaing tricks.

metalorange said:

Hmmmmm, I'd really like to see this 9 minute version cos I'm sure it was 15 mins, and yes I also taped it from the BBC premier. I also think the clip with the guitar and keyboard was during the ladder performance. The ladder started with the live recording of it, then over the music it showed different clips, one being in the studio doin the guitar/keyboard thing.
Cheers for the info though.

Just found this
http://open.bbc.co.uk/cat...e/LLMA367D

If you click on the date link, then scroll down to the BBC2 listing, you can see it was on for 16 mins. Bearing in mind there's no adverts on BBC TV.

Nikeze said:

There's no adverts, no, but they do sometimes preview forthcoming programs which can eat up a few minutes. If you taped it, can't you check the length on the video tape? I did watch it at the time but can't remember exactly what occurred on it, though when I later saw the npgmc version I remembered it. It may be that they also previewed a video or something to fill the time?

The performance of The Ladder was also used at the end of the BBC1 documentary Omnibus did, but again, there were no clips over the top, it just freezes and then the titles come up.

Ahh, I'm wrong, I've just re-watched it (which I couldn't do before because of some error with my player - kept getting a green-screen - had to restart my pc) and yes, there are shots over the top of The Ladder and one small shot DOES show Prince playing guitar and keyboards, you're correct. So it definately was the 9 minute documentary.

If you want to impress your girlfriend, I'd show her the Brits perfomance though!
[Edited 5/17/06 5:53am]

metalorange said:

Nice one mate, knew we'd get there in the end. She's seen the brits, and yeah, she can appreciate he's a great performer, but her attention span is next to zero. I suppose all I'm really doing getting her to watch this is just adding another brick to the building....I don't expect her to suddenly say, oh I get it,I can see now! I think that will happen when she see's him live. But you know I do think of the film 'White Men Can't Jump', when Wesley accuses Woody that he doesn't 'hear' Jimi, and I'm sad to say this might be the same as my girl. Such a shame


Cheers fella.

It's a 57.21 MB file?
Is it worth uploading?
Anybody still wants to see it?

Nobody?