Hi all

I am having to consolidate my collection to squeeze it onto a Sonos home music system and was wondering what everyone thought were the top 10 live soundboard bootlegs?

You know - the ones you cant live without.

Soundboard for sound quality, and ideally a cross-section of tours and era, with interesting song selections and great performances.

So what would be your top 10?

bigd74 said:

Small Club
84 Birthday
86 Paris
09 Montreux
88 Dortmund or Japanese date (can't remember which city)

Well that's 5

Paris or New York 1981

These are the live soundboard boots I keep on my mp3 player:

Atlanta 1980

Birthday Show 1984

Stockholm 1986

Dortmund 1988

Small Club 1988

Montreux 2009 both nights

I used to have Osaka 1989 on the mp3 player also, but if I had to choose one Lovesexy show, I prefer Dortmund so I took it off.

I'll monitor this thread for four more to add.

In chronological order:

1. 3rd August 1983: Benefit Concert for Minnesota Dance Theatre - First Avenue, Minneapolis

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2. 7th June 1984: 26th Birthday Show - First Avenue, Minneapolis

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3. 30th March 1985: Purple Rain Tour: Syracuse Carrier Dome, NY

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4. 7th June 1986: 28th Birthday Show - Cobo Hall, Detroit, MI

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5. 9th September 1986: Parade Tour - Yokohama, Japan

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6. 17th June 1987: SOTT Tour - Paris, France

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7. 19th August 1988: Small Club (Lovesexy Afterparty) - The Hague, Netherlands

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8. 9th September 1988: Lovesexy Tour - Dortmund, Germany

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9. 9th April 2002: ONA: Avery Fisher Hall, NY (soundcheck, main show, aftershow)

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10. 18th July 2009: Montreux Jazz Festival 2009, 1st and 2nd Show

[Edited 2/10/14 14:32pm]

nursev said:

bigd74 said:

Small Club 84 Birthday 86 Paris 09 Montreux 88 Dortmund or Japanese date (can't remember which city) Well that's 5

damn...2 out of these

The Japanese date was Sendai and was 1-2-89 and the

Paris 86 is actually MSG 86 (i wasn't near my laptop! doh)

bigd74 said:

In addition to the ones mentioned. The rock aftershow from the O2 gigs in 2007 is one I can't be without. The best boot of it I have is called, "Prince, Josh & Cora" and it was from the aftershow on 28th August.

10 of mine no order

1. Minneapolis Met Center, 7 March 1982, great show

2. 1986 Birthday show

3. Beginning of rain (For electric Intercourse alone)

4. 1989 Japan aftershow one (New black funk I think)

5. Sydney May 12 2012 (It exists)

6. Melbourne May 15 2012 (As I was there and he played days of wild)

7. Livesexy - Dortmund Sep 88

8. Small Club

9. For Those of u on valium March 1987

10. 1985 Birthday show.

^^Most of the above mentioned shows...

plus "Welcome 2 the Beautiful Experience"

Feb 1994. Awesome show.

Thanks for all the thoughts - I see ive got track some down.....

Have the ...ermm ..."tracking" settings changed somewhat over the past couple of years. My tracking seems to be a bit out of date and needs recalibrating.

I love the 88 Nagoya Show and Rehearsals.

Crystal clear and just fun to listen to.

TheEnglishGent said:

In addition to the ones mentioned. The rock aftershow from the O2 gigs in 2007 is one I can't be without. The best boot of it I have is called, "Prince, Josh & Cora" and it was from the aftershow on 28th August.

I have that on one called Indigo Chronicles but its not great quality, I'll have to look out for the one you mention. Great show and first few songs are especially good

dodger said:

TheEnglishGent said:

In addition to the ones mentioned. The rock aftershow from the O2 gigs in 2007 is one I can't be without. The best boot of it I have is called, "Prince, Josh & Cora" and it was from the aftershow on 28th August.

I have that on one called Indigo Chronicles but its not great quality, I'll have to look out for the one you mention. Great show and first few songs are especially good

Yeah, I have that version too, well worth seeking out the other one if you can find it.

Birthday show 1984 - incredible song selection and amazing audio quality- but all of the above are equally incredible in their own way. That's why we love Prince.