LOTSO2010 said:

Two things I always wanted to know did any one buy the big poster of the Symbol guitar which if I remember was by the till?

Can someone help? thanks.

Yes, my friends bought it whilst the store was still open.

Interesting little side note: a few days later, they received a call from the manager of the store asking if they would like to sell it for a profit - turns out Tommy Barbarella wanted it but had missed it by a day or two, and was prepared to make it worth their while.

It resides above their fireplace in their living room to this day.

If it was the only one? where's this fireplace then?

Wow i thought it was porn

Although I used to pop up there almost weekly, hoping for mew music, the shop really was shit.

Cheap crap. I remember going in there one sunday to see a bored member of staff with a big real of symbol stickers on a roll, peeling them off and sticking them to a standard candle, then adding them to the mass of unsold "prince" candles marked up 10 times a sensible price.

I always wondered what happened to the time capsule buried in the basement. I asked Mayte what was when I was having a chat at the Emporium aftershow in and she wouldn't say.

I think I must have visited 50 times. I think the sum of my visits was the 10,000 mag, the undertaker Album CD (given to me by the guy working in the coffee shop), the original Gold Nigga, the MBGITW valentine CD card and the Love Sign promo.....

and......

The Get Wild perfume!

motherfunka said:

Spinlight said:

I went to the uptown store several times (I was so young that it was akin to Toys R Us for me) and I was always enthralled by just being there. The whole interior at the MPLS store oozed Prince. It was like he would pop out of a corner at any minute. lol. Dense fog of random scented oils, tons of pillows, the cadillac from LoveSexy, etc.

The selection of music was piss poor. If I remember right, they either didn't have his entire WB catalog or it was like a weird mishmash selective catalog. I remember it being a lot like his iTunes selection. Random stuff. Lots of the Paisley Park Records CDs though. Tons of George Clinton copies, as far as the eye could see. lol.

I remember once being taken upstairs to the video room to just chill. Up there was the motorcycle from Purple Rain. The chamber you see in the 7 video was at the foot of the stairs, as well. I don't remember seeing any guitars there, but they coulda been.

And everything was mega expensive. I am fairly certain that, other than some asthetic changes and memorabilia, the Camden store was likely the same.

I used to go to the Uptown store all the time. The music selection was crap, other than the releases that were limited...Goldnigga, Exodus, Children of the Sun, MPLS, and The Truth single. They did have a yellow cloud in there. Some of the really cool items that I can remember were the chain hats, the see through canes used in the Alphabet St video and Lovesexy show, made to order rings like the ones wore by the NPG and Prince in the Love 2 The 9s video, with their names on it. The had proof sheets of photos where Prince had marked which ones he liked, and a lot of mostly unseen 8X10 photos. My friend bought one of the proofs, I think it was around 300.00. I bought a few of the 8x10 photos. The best display for me was the displays they had of the SOTT and Lovesexy tour outfits, sweat stains and all. You don't know how bad I wanted to grab the Bob George long black coat and run for my life!

This is a pic of the proof sheet that my friend bought. Graffiti Bridge era...

[img:$uid]http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt249/dboen/princeproof.jpg[/img:$uid]

Oh man, that takes me back! I remember the proof sheet... vestibule thing. IIRC, it was on the right side, the same side as the cashier downstairs and then there was a stand upstairs by the bike and some outfits with the 8x10 stand. Of course, this coulda changed frequently or I'm way more stoned right now than I thought.

Remember the TV screens built into the floor and the walls? I was always scared I'd smash my foot through them and I never dared walk on Prince or Sheila's face. lol.

LOTSO2010 said:

If it was the only one? where's this fireplace then?

Yes, and all I will say is.... Greater London area!

I'll ask them if they can send me a photo over the next few days. No promises, but i'll ask.

Spinlight said:

Remember the TV screens built into the floor and the walls? I was always scared I'd smash my foot through them and I never dared walk on Prince or Sheila's face. lol.

I forgot about that. They didn't have anything so cool in my Local london store.

Stateside got much more attention. I remember the TV's.

I was having a sort out the other day and came across a dozen Glam Slam MPLS matches. Stolen by me from the ash trays on the upper levels!

SquirrelMeat said:

Spinlight said:

Remember the TV screens built into the floor and the walls? I was always scared I'd smash my foot through them and I never dared walk on Prince or Sheila's face. lol.

I forgot about that. They didn't have anything so cool in my Local london store.

Stateside got much more attention. I remember the TV's.

I was having a sort out the other day and came across a dozen Glam Slam MPLS matches. Stolen by me from the ash trays on the upper levels!

I had some of those matches too! Hahah! And the NPG Store business cards, the catalogs. I got a free Michael B drumstick once there too.

Spinlight said:

motherfunka said:

I used to go to the Uptown store all the time. The music selection was crap, other than the releases that were limited...Goldnigga, Exodus, Children of the Sun, MPLS, and The Truth single. They did have a yellow cloud in there. Some of the really cool items that I can remember were the chain hats, the see through canes used in the Alphabet St video and Lovesexy show, made to order rings like the ones wore by the NPG and Prince in the Love 2 The 9s video, with their names on it. The had proof sheets of photos where Prince had marked which ones he liked, and a lot of mostly unseen 8X10 photos. My friend bought one of the proofs, I think it was around 300.00. I bought a few of the 8x10 photos. The best display for me was the displays they had of the SOTT and Lovesexy tour outfits, sweat stains and all. You don't know how bad I wanted to grab the Bob George long black coat and run for my life!

This is a pic of the proof sheet that my friend bought. Graffiti Bridge era...

[img:$uid]http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt249/dboen/princeproof.jpg[/img:$uid]

Oh man, that takes me back! I remember the proof sheet... vestibule thing. IIRC, it was on the right side, the same side as the cashier downstairs and then there was a stand upstairs by the bike and some outfits with the 8x10 stand. Of course, this coulda changed frequently or I'm way more stoned right now than I thought.

Remember the TV screens built into the floor and the walls? I was always scared I'd smash my foot through them and I never dared walk on Prince or Sheila's face. lol.

Spinlight said:

motherfunka said:

I used to go to the Uptown store all the time. The music selection was crap, other than the releases that were limited...Goldnigga, Exodus, Children of the Sun, MPLS, and The Truth single. They did have a yellow cloud in there. Some of the really cool items that I can remember were the chain hats, the see through canes used in the Alphabet St video and Lovesexy show, made to order rings like the ones wore by the NPG and Prince in the Love 2 The 9s video, with their names on it. The had proof sheets of photos where Prince had marked which ones he liked, and a lot of mostly unseen 8X10 photos. My friend bought one of the proofs, I think it was around 300.00. I bought a few of the 8x10 photos. The best display for me was the displays they had of the SOTT and Lovesexy tour outfits, sweat stains and all. You don't know how bad I wanted to grab the Bob George long black coat and run for my life!

This is a pic of the proof sheet that my friend bought. Graffiti Bridge era...

[img:$uid]http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt249/dboen/princeproof.jpg[/img:$uid]

Oh man, that takes me back! I remember the proof sheet... vestibule thing. IIRC, it was on the right side, the same side as the cashier downstairs and then there was a stand upstairs by the bike and some outfits with the 8x10 stand. Of course, this coulda changed frequently or I'm way more stoned right now than I thought.

Remember the TV screens built into the floor and the walls? I was always scared I'd smash my foot through them and I never dared walk on Prince or Sheila's face. lol.

Yes, you're right. As far as the outfits, they had all the Lovesexy tour outfits displayed at one time and then the SOTT outfits another time. I think it was like $5 to look at them. LOL My friend who bought the proof sheet wanted the main green Lovesexy outfit and was bargaining with Duane, but it never happened. I can't remember what he wanted for it.

I got some items from the Camden store, some Bob George sunglasses they were purple glitter with loadsa gems stuck on, assorted candles with sticker symbols, MBGITW mirror which again was just a sticker on a compact mirror, condoms, matches, a perspex dolphin bottle stopper which not long after I saw the exact same ones in the pound shop, so really it was just a load of cheap crap that had been Princified with stickers and then charged a small fortune for

I do still have one nicely made item it is a huge purple umbrella covered in Prince it was about £40.00 at the time, I must've been crazy to spend that it is pretty cool but I can't use it in the rain as it will deteriorate so I can't show off my cool umbrella

I always wished I had bought one of the symbol clocks I often look on eBay but haven't found any to date.