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Prince and First Avenue, it's like bread and butter, it's like cheese and biscuits (WITH THE PICKLE!), it's basically a match made in heaven when you see what has come out of it throughout the years, although unfortunately we're looking more at the early parts of Prince's career, but nonetheless I can't get over how cool some of the performaces are from here..

Some songs that have only ever graced the stage once or at least hardly ever:

Everybody Dance

Dance to the beat (The Time)

Electric Intercourse

All Day All Night

Noon Rendevous

Our Destiny

Roadhouse Garden

Paisley Park

Just wondering if I've missed any out?

To name a few....

DATES:

SAM'S : March 9th 1981

FIRST AVENUE: March 8th 1982

FIRST AVENUE: May 16th 1983

FIRST AVENUE: August 3rd 1983

FIRST AVENUE: June 7th 1984

FIRST AVENUE: August 14th 1984

FIRST AVENUE (7th Street Entry): October 26th 1984

FIRST AVENUE (7th Street Entry): July 11th 1985

FIRST AVENUE: March 3rd 1986

FIRST AVENUE: March 21st 1987

ONLY 20 YEARS LATER......

FIRST AVENUE: July 8th (am) 2007

SAM'S 09/03/81

1. Do It All Night 2. Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad? 3. Gotta Broken Heart Again 4. Broken 5. When You Were Mine 6. Sexy Dancer 7. Sister 8. I Wanna Be Your Lover 9. Head 10. Still Waiting 11. Partyup 12. Uptown 13. Crazy You 14. Gotta Stop (Messin' About) 15. Dirty Mind 16. Everybody Dance 17. Bambi

FIRST AVENUE 08/03/82

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1. BAMBI 2. ALL THE CRITICS LOVE U IN NEW YORK 3. WHEN YOU WERE MINE 4. SEXY DANCER 5. STILL WAITING 6. HEAD 7. SEXUALITY 8. DANCE TO THE BEAT 9. THE STICK 10. PARTYUP

FIRST AVENUE 16/05/83

17. PRINCE ANNOUNCED 18. CLOREEN BACON SKIN

FIRST AVENUE 03/08/83

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1.Let's Go Crazy 2.When You Were Mine 3.A Case Of You 4.Computer Blue 5.Delirious
6.Electric Intercourse 7.Automatic 8.I Would Die 4 U /Baby I'm A Star 9. Little Red Corvette
10.Purple Rain 11.D.M.S.R

FIRST AVENUE 07/06/84

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1. 17 DAYS 2. OUR DESTINY 3. ROADHOUSE GARDEN 4. PRINCE SPEAKS 5. ALL DAY, ALL NIGHT
6. FREE 7. NOON RENDEZVOUS 8. EROTIC CITY 9. SOMETHING IN THE WATER (DOES NOT COMPUTE) 10. WHEN DOVES CRY 11. HAPPY BIRTHDAY 12. IRRESISTIBLE BITCH 13. POSSESSED

FIRST AVENUE 14/08/84

1. GET UP (I FEEL LIKE BEING A) SEX MACHINE 2. LET'S GO CRAZY 3. DELIRIOUS 4. 1999 5. LITTLE RED CORVETTE 6. COMPUTER BLUE 7. DARLING NIKKI 8. THE BEAUTIFUL ONES 9. WHEN DOVES CRY 10. BABY I'M A STAR 11. PURPLE RAIN

FIRST AVENUE (7TH STREET ENTRY) 26/10/84

5. AFRICA TALKS TO YOU 6. EROTIC CITY 7. MUTINY 8. BLUES IN G 9. INSTRUMENTAL JAM

FIRST AVENUE (7TH STREET ENTRY) 11/07/85

13. SHEILA & PRINCE ANNOUNCED 11. GIRLS AND BOYS 12. HOLLY ROCK

FIRST AVENUE 03/03/86

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Around The World In A Day / Christopher Tracy's Parade / New Position / I Wonder U / Paisley Park / Alexa De Paris (intro) / Raspberry Beret / Alexa De Paris / Controversy / Mutiny (including Dream Factory) / Soft And Wet / I Wanna Be Your Lover / Head / Under The Cherry Moon / Pop Life / Girls And Boys (including Holly Rock) / Life Can Be So Nice

Purple Rain / Whole Lotta Shakin' / Anotherloverholenyohead / Mountains / A Love Bizarre / America (including Holly Rock) / Kiss

FIRST AVENUE 21/03/87

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01. Intro 02. Housequake 03. Girls And Boys 04. Slow Love 05. Hot Thing 06. Now's The Time
07. Drum Solo Sheila E 08. Strange Relationship 09. Forever In My Life 10. Kiss 11. It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night

FIRST AVENUE 07/07/07

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1.3121 2.Girls & Boys 3.Feel For You 4.Controversy 5.Three Headed Woman 6.Satisfied/Beggin 'Woman Blues 7.Gotta Broken Heart Again 8.Love Is A Losing Game Vo-Shelby 9.Love Changes Vo-Shelby 10.Thank You Vo-Larry 11.Hair Vo-Larry 12.Sing A Simple Song Vo-Larry
13.Everyday People Vo-Larry 14.Alphabet Street

First Avenue 82 v2.0 is one of my favourites from this era. Bambi is fucking suberb and hard as nails. The rest of the performance is top drawer too, an amazing boot, and what must have been an amazing time to see the man.

The '86 show is another top performance, that must have been a top show, fucking great band with one of the all time great albums to play. Happy days.

And as for the SOTT rehearsal, what can i say? A brilliant show, one of my favourite First Ave performances, what a band, and great to hear Strange Relationship, what a fantastic version.

So yes, First Avenue has been host to some really special Prince shows. Maybe he might take the urge to play there again some day.

Good thread.

How good is the 7th June birthday show?

To see the man in a small venue like First Avenue on the brink of mega stardom with the Purple Rain album, movie and tour. A historical gig for sure. And to hear such rare songs such as Our Destiny and Roadhouse Garden (though of of course at that time no one knew they would remain unreleased).

Great show, i'm so grateful we have this one in good quality.

It's like Glam Slam Minneapolis was to Prince from 90-94. I saw 14 of the 15 shows that were done there. Different era ofcourse, but still great in its own right. It's unfortunate that these shows have never leaked on audio or video, except 2 from the summer of 94 (audio).

motherfunka said:

It's like Glam Slam Minneapolis was to Prince from 90-94. I saw 14 of the 15 shows that were done there. Different era ofcourse, but still great in its own right. It's unfortunate that these shows have never leaked on audio or video, except 2 from the summer of 94 (audio).

Yes, some of the Glam Slam shows (from the different clubs) are very good, such energy.

Glam Slam was like Prince's playground away from Paisley Park.

You are lucky to have attended shows there.

TheDigitalGardener said:

motherfunka said:

It's like Glam Slam Minneapolis was to Prince from 90-94. I saw 14 of the 15 shows that were done there. Different era ofcourse, but still great in its own right. It's unfortunate that these shows have never leaked on audio or video, except 2 from the summer of 94 (audio).

Yes, some of the Glam Slam shows (from the different clubs) are very good, such energy.

Glam Slam was like Prince's playground away from Paisley Park.

You are lucky to have attended shows there.

Great memories! The first one I was at was the Diamonds and Pearls warm up show, Jan 92. I went to the club every Saturday night, so imagine my surprise to show up and pay 8.00 and get that. That night was my first party/aftershow at Paisley Park too. I drove out there in the off chance that I would be able to get in and met a very young girl in the parking lot who said me and my friend could go in with her, and that she knew Prince (I was thinking, yeah right). Security let us in and I was in heaven. Prince popped out of the elevator in the atrium in the same sleveless outfit he wore in the Insatiable video and I could have died. He walked right up to this girl and says hi and gives her a hug and then says hi to me and my friend. Speechless! Prince and some of the NPG jammed later around 3am and Terence Trent D'Arby joined briefly.

motherfunka said:

TheDigitalGardener said:

Yes, some of the Glam Slam shows (from the different clubs) are very good, such energy.

Glam Slam was like Prince's playground away from Paisley Park.

You are lucky to have attended shows there.

Great memories! The first one I was at was the Diamonds and Pearls warm up show, Jan 92. I went to the club every Saturday night, so imagine my surprise to show up and pay 8.00 and get that. That night was my first party/aftershow at Paisley Park too. I drove out there in the off chance that I would be able to get in and met a very young girl in the parking lot who said me and my friend could go in with her, and that she knew Prince (I was thinking, yeah right). Security let us in and I was in heaven. Prince popped out of the elevator in the atrium in the same sleveless outfit he wore in the Insatiable video and I could have died. He walked right up to this girl and says hi and gives her a hug and then says hi to me and my friend. Speechless! Prince and some of the NPG jammed later around 3am and Terence Trent D'Arby joined briefly.

Nice

Prince has had some of his best shows here and as well as the related project has also. The Family, The Time, Sheila E., and even Mazarati. So many great Prince shows recorded and has taken place there. What more can I say. I love all of those shows that surfaced. Too many great recordings has came from First Avenue gigs. One that has never surfaced was the October 5th, 1981 show, Brown Mark's debut show in Prince's band. It was an one-off show (of course) and there they previewed most of the Controversy album.

sms130 said:

Prince has had some of his best shows here and as well as the related project has also. The Family, The Time, Sheila E., and even Mazarati. So many great Prince shows recorded and has taken place there. What more can I say. I love all of those shows that surfaced. Too many great recordings has came from First Avenue gigs. One that has never surfaced was the October 5th, 1981 show, Brown Mark's debut show in Prince's band. It was an one-off show (of course) and there they previewed most of the Controversy album.

And this was supposed to be a "secret" show, with Prince playing under the name Controversy, but it turned into a sold out show because of word of mouth.

Now that's interesting! Is there absolutely no info on it what so ever , bar what you have given me?

Llanishenlad said:

Now that's interesting! Is there absolutely no info on it what so ever , bar what you have given me?

Only what sms130 and myself posted, and it served as a warm up for Prince's two shows opening for The Rolling Stones a few days later.

There is no set list info listed here http://www.princevault.co...ober,_1981 or in The Vault book.

TheDigitalGardener said:

sms130 said:

Prince has had some of his best shows here and as well as the related project has also. The Family, The Time, Sheila E., and even Mazarati. So many great Prince shows recorded and has taken place there. What more can I say. I love all of those shows that surfaced. Too many great recordings has came from First Avenue gigs. One that has never surfaced was the October 5th, 1981 show, Brown Mark's debut show in Prince's band. It was an one-off show (of course) and there they previewed most of the Controversy album.

And this was supposed to be a "secret" show, with Prince playing under the name Controversy, but it turned into a sold out show because of word of mouth.

Yep, that's the show! So, there so really interesting shows. Here's another one (this one by a side project), The Time show on October 4th, 1983. The show was recorded and that's where The Time debuted the song The Bird. That recording of the song appeared on the Ice Cream Castle album. I think it was the last song performed from their set and it's been said that Morris Day stormed off stage and the building after their set was done.

This thread is awesome! I was born in '84 so I missed all of this first hand, which makes me so sad! Thanks for posting

First Avenue is Prince Heaven, a sanctum of mirrored Prince songs that never made the studio recordings.

I love the shows, so great with raw energy almost too raw to be considered natural. But yeah, agree with everything DigitalGardener says. Great cluster of shows indeed. That's why u never seem to hear the stories of people who were actually there during the early shows like Controversy, Dirty Mind, and pre Purple Rain shows cuz they died of mega-musical orgasms.

udo said:

It's not like P and 1st Avenue are like bread and butter.
The few dates you mention do not show that he played there regularly or often.

Yeah he actually did play there often either out to dance or enjoy the entertainment or just jam with the band

3-august 1983.

Nice thread

Great thread!!

OldFriends4Sale said:

udo said:

It's not like P and 1st Avenue are like bread and butter.
The few dates you mention do not show that he played there regularly or often.

Yeah he actually did play there often either out to dance or enjoy the entertainment or just jam with the band

Do we have a somewhar complete list spannign which period?

My impression was that he did play there a few times but not that he wa a friend of the house or somethign that played there at least once every two months or so.

udo said:

It's not like P and 1st Avenue are like bread and butter.
The few dates you mention do not show that he played there regularly or often.

I think that the material that is shown warrants a comment like that alone.

I just loved watching him being a total bad-ass in that small club. The '83 show..with Electric Intercourse and all the other Purple Rain goodies...all sweaty and seeming to radiate that purple light....just pure rock and roll. Certainly some of the best performances I've ever seen from him. Thank goodness for boots for I couldn't be there myself.