Hey all-

I was at the last jam of 2009 concert last saturday (still on a high from it too!) and was so taken aback by prince's ability to be able to hear when things weren't up to par in terms of the various instruments on stage.

I have noticed similar instances on certain recordings where he repeatedly has to tell the sound guys to turn his guitar up etc.

i wonder what happens to these particular employees? do you think they get a strong reprimanding from prince or do you think he goes to such extremes to fire them?

i guess i'm just curious that's all!

There are scenes on tv such as the Superbowl or at a concert where Prince throws his guitar to the guitar tech to catch.

I hold my breath wondering if the guitar tech might not catch guitar or successfully catch it. Guess he would get fired if he missed

I think it's part of the act...maybe slighly rehearsed.

luv4u said:

i know! what a fun job though but also very high stress!

Prince fires sound guys like Donald Trump fires c-list celebrities.

blackielawlessrules said:

Many "spontanious-sounding" things on stage are well-rehearsed and have been used in some songs over the years all the time, but I'm quite sure that when he wants some intruments to be turned up/down he really means it and it's not rehearsed. In Paris, when he wanted the keys to be turned up, two seconds before he said it I thought to myself "the keys are too low..." and when he wants his guitar to be turned up it really makes sense.



Apart from that, it is rather destracting for the performance to say "turn this up, turn that down" all the time, so I don't think he'd say it without the change in sound really being worth it afterwards.

Dave1992 said:

This brings to mind Crystal Ball's Days of Wild. I often feel sometimes his "direction" is rehearsed. But the answer to this instance remains elusive to me.

luv4u said:

I thought of the Super Bowl in relation to the question too. As great as that performance was, the guitar sounded wrong and I wonder if his sound person paid for that.

Guitar tech is not the same person as a soundboard engineer.

Guitar tech looks after the guitars and their tuning/repair etc and would usually be employed by the artist.

Soundboard engineer is usually employed by the venue , although it has been known for artists to have their own also.

beener04 said:

I find it cool that he does that during after shows. I feel all he's doing is tweaking the sound where he'd like it to be. It's all about PERFECTION.

This was definitely a highlight for me being a sound student, what a trained ear Prince has,,, and he was even sexy when he was giving orders, LOL I wouldn't mind hopin on the one when he said so

PurpleLove7 said:

I agree with you. He used to do that all the time at shows at Paisley Park. They were spontaneous shows. He would call out a song and the band would start playing it, it wasn't like an "official" concert where everything is rehearsed over and over, hence the need not to do all the callouts so much.

I've seen a lot of entertainers do this onstage. Prince is not the only one. I believe it's for real.

Dayclear said:

I think it is too-he wants it right and I wanna hear it that way

carlcranshaw said:

Very interesting-he fines them? Looks like what I said is true-he wants it right and he makes them do it right. That guy kills me by saying Prince called him by name Very nice carl

carlcranshaw said:

Interesting read.

Well I guess it's only fair that Prince gets to hear how great he sings, since he goes out of his way to please us.