I'd left this for years thinking it would be a piece of shit. The D&P era just makes me queasy for numerous reasons, although there are a few great tracks on the album. The Rock In Rio performance around this time was embarassing to me.

So, I recently downloaded it simply because it was pro-shot, fully expecting to fast forward through Tony's raps, the oriental instrumentals and the silly orgy dancing - but i didn't. i watched it all and two hours just disappeared. It's a fucking classic, hiding under my nose for all these years. Prince's decision not to release it was a bit silly and I'm very happy it leaked. Hidden treasures like this after all this time, fantastic. All I need now is a pro-shot One Night Alone - that Vegas DVD was a smelly shadow of the concert I attended.

Number23 said:

I'd left this for years thinking it would be a piece of shit. The D&P era just makes me queasy for numerous reasons, although there are a few great tracks on the album. The Rock In Rio performance around this time was embarassing to me.

So, I recently downloaded it simply because it was pro-shot, fully expecting to fast forward through Tony's raps, the oriental instrumentals and the silly orgy dancing - but i didn't. i watched it all and two hours just disappeared. It's a fucking classic, hiding under my nose for all these years. Prince's decision not to release it was a bit silly and I'm very happy it leaked. Hidden treasures like this after all this time, fantastic. All I need now is a pro-shot One Night Alone - that Vegas DVD was a smelly shadow of the concert I attended.

Interesting. I had ignored it for similar reasons. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the heads up.

yes this is one of my favs!! I love this tour and BOTH London Pro shot shows are fantastic!! Get the other too. Its worth it also

Sly said:

Number23 said:

I'd left this for years thinking it would be a piece of shit. The D&P era just makes me queasy for numerous reasons, although there are a few great tracks on the album. The Rock In Rio performance around this time was embarassing to me.

So, I recently downloaded it simply because it was pro-shot, fully expecting to fast forward through Tony's raps, the oriental instrumentals and the silly orgy dancing - but i didn't. i watched it all and two hours just disappeared. It's a fucking classic, hiding under my nose for all these years. Prince's decision not to release it was a bit silly and I'm very happy it leaked. Hidden treasures like this after all this time, fantastic. All I need now is a pro-shot One Night Alone - that Vegas DVD was a smelly shadow of the concert I attended.

Interesting. I had ignored it for similar reasons. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the heads up.

It's the energy. It's quite dark and foreboding - he's obviously not in the happiest of places mentally and having to balance the odd dichotomy of being a mainstream superstar for the first time since Purple Rain and the obvious personal knowledge of the name change/record company war to come...i just found the whole vibe really interesting. Mayte's a fleeting, ethereal presence - and his own dancing is astonishing. I'd forgotten how balletic and graceful he could be in the air. Undoubtedly the most polished, choreographed moves i his entire career. He pulls it off effortlessly - probably the last time he was a true song and dance man .He'd also never been as sexual since the Dirty Mind tour.

Musically, the NPG with Levi was a fucking powerhouse. Even Tony M's appearences are mercifully brief - and actually not that imposing as Prince is so busy playing the character of alien come to earth to funk us up then beam the funk out of there in his wee sparkly light tube. Tony doesn't work on record, but playing off the pouting feminity of Prince live I actually get it.

Ach...

Number23 said:

Sly said:

Interesting. I had ignored it for similar reasons. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the heads up.

It's the energy. It's quite dark and foreboding - he's obviously not in the happiest of places mentally and having to balance the odd dichotomy of being a mainstream superstar for the first time since Purple Rain and the obvious personal knowledge of the name change/record company war to come...i just found the whole vibe really interesting. Mayte's a fleeting, ethereal presence - and his own dancing is astonishing. I'd forgotten how balletic and graceful he could be in the air. Undoubtedly the most polished, choreographed moves i his entire career. He pulls it off effortlessly - probably the last time he was a true song and dance man .He'd also never been as sexual since the Dirty Mind tour.

Musically, the NPG with Levi was a fucking powerhouse. Even Tony M's appearences are mercifully brief - and actually not that imposing as Prince is so busy playing the character of alien come to earth to funk us up then beam the funk out of there in his wee sparkly light tube. Tony doesn't work on record, but playing off the pouting feminity of Prince live I actually get it.

Ach...

Fuck, you've actually got me quite excited

It was the first prince gig i went to, but i was a kid and it's all very vague. Have to check it out.

I like the "Rio" performance! Great hillbilly version of Let's Go Crazy to a popping "Horny Porny" and then one of the hardest deadliest versions of Kiss performed!

Jeez I hate that Rock In Rio version of Let's Go Crazy...

Number23 said:

It's the energy. It's quite dark and foreboding - he's obviously not in the happiest of places mentally and having to balance the odd dichotomy of being a mainstream superstar for the first time since Purple Rain and the obvious personal knowledge of the name change/record company war to come...i just found the whole vibe really interesting. Mayte's a fleeting, ethereal presence - and his own dancing is astonishing. I'd forgotten how balletic and graceful he could be in the air. Undoubtedly the most polished, choreographed moves i his entire career. He pulls it off effortlessly - probably the last time he was a true song and dance man .He'd also never been as sexual since the Dirty Mind tour.

Musically, the NPG with Levi was a fucking powerhouse. Even Tony M's appearences are mercifully brief - and actually not that imposing as Prince is so busy playing the character of alien come to earth to funk us up then beam the funk out of there in his wee sparkly light tube. Tony doesn't work on record, but playing off the pouting feminity of Prince live I actually get it.

Ach...

I agree. It always felt dark as you said, I could never quite put my finger on it at the time.

I think the highlight of those shows for me were the 'Thieves'/'It' section - bloody brilliant.

Xibalba said:

What????

I didnt know there was a pro shot.

What date and track-list?

Gohi said:

Jeez I hate that Rock In Rio version of Let's Go Crazy...

I really like it, especially because he broke a bunch of strings on his guitar and had to go on with that song without it.

muirdo said:

What????

I didnt know there was a pro shot.

What date and track-list?

Wasn't this shot with camera's for screens besides the stage? I didn't know of this video as well andam downloading it now. First part has arrived: sure brings back some memories. But man was it an extravaganza on stage !!!

[Edited 7/27/10 14:03pm]

The D&P album was always like a greasy coin on the tongue to me. Never appealed to me. I pretty much skipped it when it came out. But in recent months, since I edited Tony M., 98% off the album, it was like rediscovering it all over again for the first time. (Also took off "Jughead"). It is a totally different album and I really love it now.

Hey Ernest any chance do you have an "edited out" version of My name is Prince with no Tony M? I love that song but Tony just ruins it. I have all of the edits and remixes that are official and really want one someone edited themselves with no tony.

muirdo said:

What????

I didnt know there was a pro shot.

What date and track-list?

there is the 15th june 1992 and 24th june 1992 both from earls court pro shot. the 24th june was intended for xmas 92 vhs release

http://www.princevault.com/index.php/24_June,_1992

http://www.princevault.com/index.php/15_June,_1992

Diamonds And Pearls Tour

Earls Court, London

15th June 1992

Take My Hand, Precious Lord / Thunder / Daddy Pop / Diamonds And Pearls / Let's Go Crazy / Kiss / Dead On It / Jughead / Purple Rain / Live 4 Love / Lively Up Yourself / Willing And Able / Damn U / Sexy MF / Arabic Interlude [Habibi] / Thieves In The Temple (including It - Sexy MF) / A Night In Tunisia / Strollin' (instrumental) / Insatiable

Professionally filmed with many different camera angles and some brilliant close-ups. This footage, although very incomplete is FAR superior to the June 24th (THUNDER) recorded footage. Not only are the colours much sharper, but the picture glitches that are apparent (oh SO apparent) on the 24th video are gone, and the sound quality is amazingly clear. The only real complaint regarding the picture quality is that when the camera is filming Prince from directly in front (and slightly down), the glare of the lights are over-powering and cause the picture to become unclear. Unfortunately the last 30 minutes of the show is missing, and the footage ends abruptly during 'Insatiable' - however during (the all too brief) 'Insatiable' we are treated to both the professionally filmed video, plus Mayte's hand held camcorder video footage (which is very cool) mixed together. There is also a cut during the beginning of 'Dead On It' (less of Tony M is always a good thing). The 24th footage is more complete (although it is incomplete itself), however the camerawork, picture quality AND sound quality is superior on this show - which makes this my favourite.

dandeeland said:

Hey Ernest any chance do you have an "edited out" version of My name is Prince with no Tony M? I love that song but Tony just ruins it. I have all of the edits and remixes that are official and really want one someone edited themselves with no tony.

i'm sure ther are official edits without the rap, from promo cds

Diamonds & Pearls live. It's an amazing show,

but my DVD is incomplete, it cuts off in the middle of a Rosie song.

I felt the same about D&P, generally it has a cheesy essence to me the era, with the in-style flat tops of the game boyz etc but it actually made me like what I'd normally consider a piece of shit Daddy pop quite fun to watch with the whole jumping and levels on stage.

Thunder is a fantastic opening for the show

Live4love I consider one of my favourite highlights

Thieves in the temple/IT is darn cool

and the flow of Diamonds and pearls- Let's go crazy-kiss is........velvety (?)

Like said before it's a very much choreographed show and some of the moves are fantastic, it's definately a deceiving one for people and goes to show how prince can save the respect of albums/songs by getting em out there live

worth it for the cool vibe of willng and able alone!

the full rock in rio performance from the original brazilian tv broadcast is also great. what's so great about that show in particular is the inclusion of a number of new songs at the time, some of which weren't played often or at all live at other shows, at least not in the same arrangements

what's also impressive about the shows with the gamboyz from around that time, which is evident in the tv performances such as arsenio hall, is the extremely energetic dance routines, with prince literally flying about all over the place, yet there are little to no signs of him being out of breath when singing straight afterwards. you'll usually spot at a lot of gigs where artists dance and run about that they tend to end up shouting a song instead of singing it, such as madonna for example, but prince will be thrown around and then go straight to the mic and sing in falsetto as if he hadn't moved

i noticed this whilst going over a load of live shows, his voice doesn't change even if he's been jumping about all over the place. and when you think that people like michael jackson or britney spears use the excuse of lipsynching because they can't dance and sing at the same time, whilst prince's moves are far more strenuous, it really shows up the other acts

unfortunately because of his disputes with youtube you can't just pull out clips like that to show argumenative nut job MJ fans what real singing and dancing onstage is like. i sometimes wished that prince did the moonwalk a few times in his hi heels whislt playing the guitar and singing, just to piss all over how easy the move is

I've just acquired this show all i need to do is get it on a dvd, this will be the first time i've done it, but i can feel it won't be the last!

bigd74 said:

I've just acquired this show all i need to do is get it on a dvd, this will be the first time i've done it, but i can feel it won't be the last!

or you could join the rest of us in the year 2010 (as seen in back to the future) and stream it from your pc to your plasma and save the environment being destroyed by lasers burning chemicals onto dvd discs

ufoclub said:

I like the "Rio" performance! Great hillbilly version of Let's Go Crazy to a popping "Horny Porny" and then one of the hardest deadliest versions of Kiss performed!

I love this version of Let's Go Crazy also, not sure I would classify it as hillbilly though. The coolness of Rosie's vocals and Michael's bad ass drumming is awesome.

Number23 said:

That section's fantastic. Made me actually appreciate the groove of Thieves, a song that's never really clicked with me on record due to it's sterile, vaccumed production and slickness. The acoustic guitar solo before the It gospel screaming is like nothing I've heard him do before or since. Not the usual pentatonic showboating. It almost sounds, dare i say, spontenious and improvised? Nah... What i find interesting is the actual amount of new material he performs - almost the entire album gets an airing. It really gave me a new appreciation for the musicality and versitility of D&P - which I find far too cynical, commercial, over-produced and exploitative of then-current trends on record. Michael B plays a fucking blinder.

The Act I tour for o(+> had 14 of the 16 songs from the album, with The Act II tour dropping all but 5. The Ultimate Live Experience tour for Gold had 10 of 12 songs. For whatever reason, all tours since do not even come close to playing that many new songs.

I like this dvd, shame about the colours and the occasionaly dodgy picture but still it's good. I'm currently watching Lotus TV The Right Way dvd, fuck my old boots is that good! if only prince could release something this good or have a website to watch it on . some of it i hadn't seen before, did he not have a sound check for the superbowl press conference? smoking performance shame you can't hear him sing!