Why do u think he went without playing an instrument or show case the band ?.it almost looked like he was lip singing.my goddness play something.

joelmarable said:

That would be too shocking for the average AI audience. The most of em surely dont even know what instruments are for.
It's all about singing and dancing and looking sexy (and getting rich), isn't it ?
[Edited 5/25/06 14:24pm]

*edit* sorry !
[Edited 5/25/06 14:23pm]

He once said we arent intrested in what u know, but what u are willing to learn.Besides after musicology i thought class was in session.if not, someone should ring the bell to start class because i am sick of rap and non musicians.

joelmarable said:

It's a SINGING competition. S I N G I N G!

I wondered where the hell the band was myself. Some people have justified his appearance on the show as "teaching them how it should be done". If that's the case, the band should have definately been with him with spotlights shining on them. Music has to be played by someone. It doesn't just magically appear once you start to sing.

Graycap23 said:

Well, that pretty much covers it.

I didn't see the show when it aired, but I taped it and just blew by all the other shit untill I got to P. Of course, my first thought was "Man, how come P isn't playing guitar?!" But then I thought, cuz it is AI, P's going to tone it down or whatever, with just the singing and the two "superfineheifer's" (don't trip, that's P's phrase, not mine). But yeah, although, as always, P put on a great performance, I much rather had seen P sing his ass off AND go buck wild on the axe, but u know.....I do think it's cool to even see folks on here giving a fuck about the musicianship element. Beautiful.

I don't watch the show very often (though it is aired here in the UK), but I can't recall any guest who performed with his own band - it was all with that showband (forgive me if I'm wrong).

Don't forget that setting up your own band on stage requires a lot of preparation, soundcheck and all that, so AI probably doesn't do it for guests, especially since they've got a complete band plugged in. That band isn't too bad btw, but it's different for someone like Prince who is used to having his own band with a lot of practice, therefore probably the decision not to play a song like "Fury" with guitar solos, but something suitable for the show band on AI (and him just singing).

I doubt the show's band played behind Prince. Prince probably pre-recorded his own music and then sang live with it.

vainandy said:

I just watched it again. You could be right.

Yeah, there was very little chance of keeping his appearance secret if he'd had rehearsals earlier in the day - he did that at the Brits and a photo leaked out and somewhat spoiled the surprise.

It was just a pop-in pop-out appearance and I'm sure given the nature of the show there wasn't time to do a full-on performance - but it's not as if we don't know he is totally capable of it.

I only watched Prince's part on the net later, but I'm guessing the show was pretty fast paced and there was no time to set up instruments, get the sound right after so manyother performances, etc. They justed wanted him to go in, rip it, and get out.

They could have at least done like they used to do on Soul Train with groups like Lakeside or The Barkays. They lipsynced on that show though but Prince could have sang live with some pre-recorded music and still brought in the band. They could have given the illusion that they were playing and the only people that would have been the wiser would have been the show's sound people.

Graycap23 said:

Last night when I found I'd missed the performance and then caught it on .housequake, ( .housequake), the first thing I noticed was the abscence of the band. In chat it was brought up that there may have been no band to keep from having to have a rehersal and blowing the "surprise guest" angle. This morning when I reflected on the AI performance on my long ass commute to work I remembered that AI is about singing and stage presence (an art in itself), not about musical proficencey, playing instruments etc.

Prince was probably trying to keep it a secret, not for the show's sake of having a surprise guest, but to keep his own fans from finding out because he knew many of them were going to raise hell.

See AI sticky folks http://www.prince.org/msg/7/190202