I was listening to a Peach and Black podcast where they discussed the One Nite Alone era and one of the hosts mentioned a concert Prince played in 2003 where he played all instrumentals and did not sing. And when several fans complained that Prince wasn't singing that made him strenthen his resolved even more by playing even more. Anybody know more about this concert like what did the band play, atmosphere and lineup.

No idea... Prob just a brief aftershow or something if it's true. Seem to remember a London aftershow wvhere he arrived hours late and wandered off within a few mins.

Could prob tell u first hand if NPGMC hadn't ballsed up by membership at the precise moment it came time to order gig tickets...grrrrr!!!

And people ask me why I refuse to waste my time on such podcasts

If Im not mistaking, it was a concert at the House Of Blues in 2003 (feel free 2 correct me) where the NEWS album was played in full, but of course the fans who paid 2 see the show weren't told that in advance. So yes, LOTS of disappointed people.

If you've ever seen The Sacrifice of Victor, he only sings a couple of songs throughout the whole show. Mavis, The Steeles, the Game Boyz, and others take the microphone the rest of the time. He sings "Jailhouse Rock", "Peach", and "The Ride". There's probably 10 or 12 songs in the show.

Brofie said:

Oh, I don't think anyone is asking you about anything, Mr. Negativity.

Mindbells9 said:

Wasn't there some show at Paisley Park where he came out and played guitar laying on his back for 45 minutes or something. I always understood it to be no singing during all that time of the show (but he did sing eventually).

ernestsewell said:

I think he did that for The War at one of the Celebrations...

Genesia said:

I think it was earlier than 1998 or 2000s cuz didn't Jim Walsh mention that night in his liner notes 4 the Gold Experience?

Mindbells9 said:

No it was definitely after Gold. It was more like 2000-2002 era I believe. Seems like NPGMC was around.

it was at the premier showing of the live at the aladdin dvd in la in august 2003. fans from npgmc got tix to watch the dvd in a theatre, and prince turned up unnanounced and played NEWS in it's entirity, without singing a note

a few people knew he was gonna do this, but it was kept pretty hush hush so it was a real surprise to the audience

ernestsewell said:

Jim Walsh said,"One night we were joined by 150 people,the next 400. One night he laid on his back and played feathery blues guitar for 20 minutes..." He was talking about attending Glam Slam shows in the liner notes for the Gold Experience.

If I recall correctly, there was at least one aftershow in 3121 Jazz Cuisine when Prince did not sing.
[Edited 4/19/10 11:06am]
[Edited 4/19/10 11:07am]

rmartin70 said:

This is not what I was speaking of. Fans reported on the incident online. There was no internet around that time...not to the extent there is right now. I read it either on Housequake, or alt.music.prince.

it was 18th august 2003 at bb kings, universal city, california

he played shhh (instrumental) and then news

it was a showing of the live at the aladdin dvd as i mentioned earlier, and he played a surprise gig

I seem to remember at the time princes website announcing after woulds that contrary to rumor the instrumentals played were not news. And that there wasn't even a vocal mic set up so it was a very conscious decision to play instrumentals and not a whim

Thank you Unique and Chopingard for the info. I always thought it was an One Nite Alone concert where he played instrumentals all night without singing. Hope he does more good instrumental records and does some shows to support them. It's been a while since he done something truly challenging as far as live musicianship is concerned.

ernestsewell said:

Pot, Kettle and Black comes 2 mind.

chopingard said:

shhh was the first track and he apparently played a couple of tracks from news, but being jazz instrumentals, no-one knew what he was playing really. the gig wasn't bootlegged either as no-one knew he was going to play. it was thought that one of the tracks was a madhouse number, but no-one was sure. he was playing bits from xenophobia around the time live at soundchecks but no-one could tell one track from another, so he may have played something from that. he played for about 50 minutes

i think he had the mic setup, but pointed towards the audience, trying to make some kind of gesture, although he usually does that to record the audience singing

i remember i talked someone who lived locally into going, as i knew he was going to play, but couldn't let the cat out of the bag, and she said she hated the gig as he didn't sing! she went to watch a prince dvd and ended up seeing an impromptu live show, essentially for free as she only paid for the screening, and she complained about it!

that's the thing tho, so many fans don't understand jazz, or don't understand or appreciate anything that's not plain prince music with him singing actual songs along to a familiar pattern

unique said:

I would love to see (and hear) Prince do a night of instrumental jazz improvisations ! I'm not sure he can pull it off though. He's not bad at jazz, but he's certainly not up to the level of Renato, just to name one.

He tried it a while when he was chilling with Miles Davis but in my opinion he was never able to reach such heights...

LittleSister said:

theres a small gig from 87, ruperts in mpls or something, and that was a jazz set. i can't remember if it was entirely instrumental or just mostly, and one of the nights at the celly was a jazzy theme, the night sheila e supported and then prince took us to the movies to see minority report. it was jazzy prince songs rather than jazz standards tho

SPOOKYGAS said:

Says the fool who is trying to down someone. Your act is getting old.

ernestsewell said:

I remember a L4OA party in 98 or 99 where he was obviously in a dark place emotionally (In retrospect it was probably the Mayte split) and he did not sing at all, just gave a few sound instructions to crew. He sat at the keyboard with the one eye bass strapped on playing both (amazing!), and never singing anything, just looking down shaking his head. I did not recognize any song that night. And I never heard them again. Its one of my favorite PP memories.

Oh and set only lasted about an hour or so, if it was in fact a set, it could have been an hour long song for all I know.
[Edited 4/20/10 6:48am]

ernestsewell said:

He did this at Glam Slam upstairs VIP in the mid 90's. Many of those shows I went to like upstairs at the VIP room and PP remain to this day undocumented anywhere.

ernestsewell said:

No need to down U.. U do a good job of that on your own.

Brofie said:

the hell they do.

SPOOKYGAS said:

You're so ridiculous. Do you realize this is prince.org not spookygasontherag.edu ? Get a life already.

ernestsewell said:

Not you Ernest!
I guess you mean:There are probably 10 or 12 songs in the show.

Brofie said:

as usual u dont know what ur talking about.

thepope2the9s said:

That seems to be the popular opinion.

ernestsewell said:

Realise.