There is at least one decent soundboard recording of Prince's opening set at the Omni in Atlanta in 1980. Every time I hear it I think how great it would be to see some actual live footage from that gig - or any gig from the early stage of Prince's career. I can remember hearing the ignorant rumors about the outrageous sissy who wore ladies drawers and kissed his male band members onstage. He would be a spectacle today so he was blowing peoples' minds back then. Just think - that was 30 years ago! Most of you have parents who were still in school that long ago.

After all the nonsense and hating and complaining, you step back and consider the comprehensive perspective of what he has meant to popular music and culture - not just entertainment (MJ was an entertainer; Prince is a musician first) - he truly has no rival and you have to be in awe.

Brofie said:

Most of us?

I don't think so.

Brofie said:

A friend of mine traded with a guy a few years ago who claimed 2 at one time have an audience filmed show that he shot at one of Prince's opening shows on the Fire It Up tour. A few years later his house was broken in to and that tape among other things was stolen from him. He says the guy waits in vain for the dim hope that it'll turn up on the bootleg market one day, though whoever broke in his house probably threw it away and just kept/sold anything else of value like jewelry, tv, vcr,etc., not even knowing what they had in their hands would be like gold 2 a Prince collector

Mindbells9 said:

thieving fuckers...id bust a gonad to see shit like that...

Joyinrepatition said:

either that or...they were bootleg thieves!

someone filmed it from the audience? really? considering the technology widely in use for the home consumer at that time.... I can't imagine it looked that good. Or even had sound, if the old home movies I've seen of my childhood from that year are anything to go by

It's in the Vault with every other Prince concert. Maybe not multiple angles, but it was filmed, so who knows... maybe our grandchildren will see it

I think it's in the vault, I won't be surprised. Prince has some really interesting and amazing things in there.

i wanna see princes performances i bet they were awesome!

There is a really good/professional concert film of the Rick James Tour for Street Songs, which was in 1981. It was played on BET J/Centric about six months ago. So, I've always wondered if James or Motown filmed any of James' tours before then. Thus, maybe the best way to try to locate film of Prince on the "Fire It Up Tour" is to go through the Rick James channels, but I don't know how much bootleg stuff is out there on James. Just a thought, and probably somebody has tried this route before.
[Edited 4/19/10 19:28pm]

Genesia said:

That would leave me out. I wouldn't mind getting my mitts on some of this at all.

I remember hearing that the Atlanta 1980 boot is the audio taken from a videotape. Like the 1981 videos from NY & France or the Atlanta 1985 video in circulation, supposedly there are many single camera shows (perhaps back to the Capri showcase) taped for the purpose of reviewing the performances. I would guess that there are videos of the rehearsals also. Now whether or not anyone saw the value in keeping these videotapes at the time is a different question entirely...

errant said:

Indeed - and think of how big that camera was back then. THe bootlegger was certainly not filming it convertly. Makes the liklihood of the story even more questionable to me.

alphachannel said:

There is no way that someone would not have cahsed in on tapes like that by now. If Pepe Willie had them, yu konw they would be out. I would think that Prince wouldnt even own them since he was not a mogul and didnt own and control everything like he dis after he made it. They would probably belong to some of those dusty old music business associates from Mpls like Chris Moon, Owen Hunsey, and Pepe.
[Edited 4/21/10 12:34pm]

I agree which I why I doubt the videotapes still exist. Before Purple Rain's breakthrough the tapes wouldn't have had nearly the market as today nor was there the means to distribute them. Most importantly who would have known back then that tapes would garner such interest today?

Either Prince kept them for his own reasons or they would have been taped over and/or thrown out. Think about how much footage was discarded by TV stations between the '50's and the '90's.

This is definately the show I want to see more than any other. Not just Prince's performance, but Rick's performance also. Prince and Rick are my two favorite artists of all time.
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[Edited 4/21/10 14:35pm]

there is footage of this tour on tape. i have the visual version of the omni show with rick james. rick put on a hell of a show that night.

jackson35 said:

screenshot?...

I have a few concert photos from that era. I have never see any concert footage.

alphachannel said:

It was reported many times that Prince used to film (& record) all his performances as early as 1979 or 1980 but the purpose wasn't to release the stuff: only to watch the show every evening in order to make it even better the next day. I hardly see why Prince wouldn't keep copies of everything he did from day 1, though he probably won't ever release any 1-camera video because it looks cheap.

As for "knowing", Prince always aimed to become a major star and did everything to achieve this goal between 1978 and 1984 (Dez Dickerson's book is fascinating when it comes to describing this great, long-term, marketing plan).

Brofie said:

I agree, neither one of them has a rival. Prince has no peers and niether does MJ. they are apples and oranges, they are both good 4 ya and good 2 ya!!!!..Now the real reason i was replying is because u should go to this site and get all the old, old, old, Prince, Rick james, and the Time, Dez all this footage at: classics2dvd.com.....this dude got EVERYTHING!!!! Go there and tell everyone else in the group to go look at his selection and start ordering!!!! look under: MUSIC

BiancaCharles said:

Is this guy selling these??

Alot of these are fan made DVDs and available for free.

BiancaCharles said:

thanks Mrs P & J

BiancaCharles said:

Someone is going to be banned

databank said:

That was my thought too.

vainandy said:

I would love to also see both of their sets from this tour. I remember when that tour came here to Rochester NY. (sadly I missed it),the local radio station held a contest for Women only. U had to be a certain caller ( number wise) & the winner got to receive a kiss from Prince backstage (the things up & comers had to do). Jet magazine had put it in their pic of the week back at that time & I've tried to search their archives but can't
find it,the brother had tongue all down her throat.