Just listening to "The Prince Podcast" and the guys talk about the yahoo stream. Which leads them on to a short discussion of Prince bollocking bandmates on stage.

"Small Club" is referenced - during "Still would stand all time" "Who's the fool singing will!? its WOULD"

They also talk about around the time of the Purple Rain tour (on various boots) Prince can be heard shouting "Docked" - implying P heard something he didn't like and was cutting someones pay.

"Dark" from the recent rehersal mp3s I think also has a moment where he tells a backup singer that "You need to commit" - after starting to sing but suddenly stopping.

I seem to remember "Christmas in uptown" also has him shouting "Put the motherfucking magazine down" - although this soounds like it was said in jest.

Are there many other cases or Prince bollocking bandmembers?

there's one where he's bollocking the 'bass player' during some rehearsal and Wendy or Lisa say something like "c'mon just get on with it" and the bass player says "ok it won't happen today"

but the interesting thing is prince backs off the mic when he does the bollocking - so it's hard to hear what he says but it is very high pitched shouty!

I brought it up because I was scouring the web last night looking for some of Princes Canal Plus apperences - (some of his best ever TV performances).

There was one that I'd guess was around 2011, where they perform and Prince calls out of Solos from each of the bandmembers. When it gets to Andy Allo she just kind of doesn't do anything... Prince plays instead and just walks over and seems to adjust something on her guitar. (She doesn't get told off. But there are other instances of her missing Princes gestures.

The same performance there is a moment when Prince starts to sing but the mic isn't ready so he just turns the mic to the crowd for a few lines then positions it back. - Made me think, there was a time when someone would have got screamed at for that. But I guess he's chilled out a bit now he's older.

At the second show at the MEN in Manchester this year, Prince cued for Hannah to start the beat and she completely missed it. Prince spun round and shouted angrily 'what happened!?'. I was front row on the barrier and could see/hear it clearly.

At the second Academy show (also Manchester) his mic wasn't on when he went to sing so he took it of the stand and dropped it on the floor

At the first MEN show, he walked off after a song and was stood near the side of the stage where the stairs lead down. He was shouting at this guy and actually waving his arms and stomping his feet! Like a child would. The guy went to put his hand on his shoulder and Prince pushed him away.

Perfectionist...

hardest working man in showbusiness! (not JB)

Noodled24 said:

"Small Club" is referenced - during "Still would stand all time" "Who's the fool singing will!? its WOULD"

I always assumed he was adressing some people in the audience, not a bandmember, I may be wrong, though.

databank said:

Noodled24 said:

"Small Club" is referenced - during "Still would stand all time" "Who's the fool singing will!? its WOULD"

I always assumed he was adressing some people in the audience, not a bandmember, I may be wrong, though.

IIRC everyone enunciates the next "would". Some of them must do things like that on purpose sometimes.

dandan said:

At the second show at the MEN in Manchester this year, Prince cued for Hannah to start the beat and she completely missed it. Prince spun round and shouted angrily 'what happened!?'. I was front row on the barrier and could see/hear it clearly.

Good to know he's still got it in him. Haha. I'm not gonna lie, I think it's part of his charm.

At the second Academy show (also Manchester) his mic wasn't on when he went to sing so he took it of the stand and dropped it on the floor

"well it's not my problem if it's on the floor" awesome.

At the first MEN show, he walked off after a song and was stood near the side of the stage where the stairs lead down. He was shouting at this guy and actually waving his arms and stomping his feet! Like a child would. The guy went to put his hand on his shoulder and Prince pushed him away.

haha - from the guy who wrote "Baby I'm a Star". Possibly THE biggest insight into Prince's life.

The funniest to me is the soundcheck of Screams of Passion c.1984, Between soulful singing, Prince is getting irritated with his band

.

"Faster", "Little faster than that"

"Yeah"

"F"

Music playing

"This joint right here, yea organ"

"Put the stuff on Mark!"

"The lighter u touch it, the more it does"

"It's sensitive to the touch"

.

Music plays- Prince starts oo oohinngggg

"Bobby the piano was too low last night

Could u see me"

"Turn it up a little bit now"

"U need a little more voice than I do"

"Alright just play bass notes on the organ"

"Drop out the chords"

"Theres a gentle autumn breeze ..............starts singing song muffled, whole verse and chorus

.

"Drop out the bass, organ STOP!"

More chorus

"Everybody"

Chorus

"Drop out the organ"

"Play some chords Wendy!"

Playing

"Organ"

.

This is hilarious, but would be grating if you were a band member as Prince sounds irritated a bit here. Strangest of all is how he can change from barking at band members ionto some of his most sublime singing ever.

Adorecream said:

The funniest to me is the soundcheck of Screams of Passion c.1984, Between soulful singing, Prince is getting irritated with his band

.

"Faster", "Little faster than that"

"Yeah"

"F"

Music playing

"This joint right here, yea organ"

"Put the stuff on Mark!"

"The lighter u touch it, the more it does"

"It's sensitive to the touch"

.

Music plays- Prince starts oo oohinngggg

"Bobby the piano was too low last night

Could u see me"

"Turn it up a little bit now"

"U need a little more voice than I do"

"Alright just play bass notes on the organ"

"Drop out the chords"

"Theres a gentle autumn breeze ..............starts singing song muffled, whole verse and chorus

.

"Drop out the bass, organ STOP!"

More chorus

"Everybody"

Chorus

"Drop out the organ"

"Play some chords Wendy!"

Playing

"Organ"

.

This is hilarious, but would be grating if you were a band member as Prince sounds irritated a bit here. Strangest of all is how he can change from barking at band members ionto some of his most sublime singing ever.

Honestly, he doesn't seem irritated here at all. This is what band rehearsal is like when learning a new song.

dandan said:

Adorecream said:

The funniest to me is the soundcheck of Screams of Passion c.1984, Between soulful singing, Prince is getting irritated with his band

.

"Faster", "Little faster than that"

"Yeah"

"F"

Music playing

"This joint right here, yea organ"

"Put the stuff on Mark!"

"The lighter u touch it, the more it does"

"It's sensitive to the touch"

.

Music plays- Prince starts oo oohinngggg

"Bobby the piano was too low last night

Could u see me"

"Turn it up a little bit now"

"U need a little more voice than I do"

"Alright just play bass notes on the organ"

"Drop out the chords"

"Theres a gentle autumn breeze ..............starts singing song muffled, whole verse and chorus

.

"Drop out the bass, organ STOP!"

More chorus

"Everybody"

Chorus

"Drop out the organ"

"Play some chords Wendy!"

Playing

"Organ"

.

This is hilarious, but would be grating if you were a band member as Prince sounds irritated a bit here. Strangest of all is how he can change from barking at band members ionto some of his most sublime singing ever.

Honestly, he doesn't seem irritated here at all. This is what band rehearsal is like when learning a new song.

Its hilarious though. I think he may have been messing with them, as Wendy does not play organ or bass and Bobby don't play no piano. As for Mark and his touching, it can't be a bass guitar. How can that be sensitive to the touch.

.

It is funny

Adorecream said:

dandan said:

Honestly, he doesn't seem irritated here at all. This is what band rehearsal is like when learning a new song.

Its hilarious though. I think he may have been messing with them, as Wendy does not play organ or bass and Bobby don't play no piano. As for Mark and his touching, it can't be a bass guitar. How can that be sensitive to the touch.

.

It is funny

Do you know what, I didn't even notice the instruments were mixed up!

dandan said:

joyinrepetition said:

dandan said:

Do you know what, I didn't even notice the instruments were mixed up!

With Bobby, Prince was saying the piano was too low where Bobby Z couldn't see him giving cues to the band. He is short you know. Lol

Oooh, I get it. Didn't think of that

dandan said:

At the second show at the MEN in Manchester this year, Prince cued for Hannah to start the beat and she completely missed it. Prince spun round and shouted angrily 'what happened!?'. I was front row on the barrier and could see/hear it clearly.

At the second Academy show (also Manchester) his mic wasn't on when he went to sing so he took it of the stand and dropped it on the floor

At the first MEN show, he walked off after a song and was stood near the side of the stage where the stairs lead down. He was shouting at this guy and actually waving his arms and stomping his feet! Like a child would. The guy went to put his hand on his shoulder and Prince pushed him away.

I witnessed all of these and have never seen Prince so angry as he was at that poor guitar tech... I was at the side of the stage where he was shouting at the guy. Best bit was, he yells and screams at the guy and then spins around to the audience with a smile on his face as though nothing had happened.

I seem to remember him laughing at Hannah after she missed the cue, think he shouted 'Let's Work' but nobody went into it!

Does anyone remember a nude tour rehearsal where Prince argues with a member of the band?

jayspud said:

Does anyone remember a nude tour rehearsal where Prince argues with a member of the band?

I read about that, but I can't remember what happened.

I know of a story though, which isnt technically him bollocking band members, but it has an angry Prince moment in it. I got it from here: http://princerogersnelsons.tumblr.com/post/80724880204/this-whole-story-begins-at-paisley-park-in-1993-i but I'll copy and paste it as the text is kind of hard to read:

"

This whole story begins at Paisley Park in 1993. I remember coming in, and it was a beautiful Winter’s day. There was snow and the smell of coffee all rushing at me as I opened the doors to Paisley to start my early morning shift. I looked around and found nobody at the lobby… yet. I wasn’t surprised. Prince didn’t have anybody on shifts at 4:30am other than me. It was typical of him to ask me to come in really early and then leave really late. I didn’t even mind because I loved my job, even though it was just doing a lot of paper work and assisting Prince in anything he needed. I was steadily working on paper work for the next four hours. But, sure enough, My girls who worked at Paisley with me came in around at around 8:30am, they were snickering about something. They came over to me at the front desk and I could hear Val say to me:

"Guess he’s got some new arm-Candy!"

"What’s that supposed to mean?"

"He’s got another hoe on deck."

"ANOTHER?!?!"

We all started to laugh… We kind of had bets on Prince’s love life… we would look at his girlfriends and be like:

"I give it like 2 weeks, and Imma bet $20 if it lasts longer."

We were mean like that, but hear me out, it wasn’t like Prince would get a new girl every two, three months, nah, he got them like they were hot-cakes. I’m talking two, three, WEEKS. But anyways, we all stopped our chatter to gaze at Prince walking in through the doors with his new gal… she was tall, medium-dark skin color, medium, curly dark brown hair and a glare that felt like swords. Yeahhhhh, definitely Prince’s type. They went upstairs and that was the last any of us saw of them for the next 6 hours.

"You think they’re fucking up there? they’ve been up there for a pretty long time?"

"I don’t know, man. I wouldn’t be phased if they were fucking. But Prince gets tired of playing with toys for too long. Don’cha think he’d be down here mmm, I don’t know, like fucking 3 hours ago?!?!"

We waited. Prince came down, finally, but for a fruit smoothie, fully clothed, not a hair out of place. I looked at Val and we exchanged our dazed looks… she came back over to me.

"So this motherfucker is up there for a damn near 7 hours and comes down for just a smoothie?!?!?!"

"I wonder what’s going down…he’s being extra mysterious. He hasn’t said a word to anybody down here."

It was approaching 9:00pm before I knew it. I was supposed to go home when I was told, and Prince hadn’t been back downstairs for a very long time. Val left because her shift ended at 8:40pm… I was alone with just a couple of Prince’s recording engineers and producers.

Then I heard a distinctive, low, calming voice.

"Alright, everybody upstairs. Let’s get it on!"

I was looking up at him and he looked directly at me and said:

"you too."

So, I got up, took all the work I was working on and headed upstairs to one of the recording rooms. I saw Prince’s new pussycat, looking very displeased outside of the room.

"Here, listen to this, and I’ll be back in a few."

He handed a cassette to one of the engineers and the engineer just nodded and started playing it. Prince left the room back outside to his girl. I was a really snoopy person, mind you, okay, I’m sorry, but I was curious as to what was going on… it was weird… he never left like that during his recording sessions and even though he does it a lot he hates to keep people waiting. I decided to follow Prince. I could hear his heels from down the hall. I took mine off and proceeded to walk to the sound of he heels hitting the floor. I caught glimpse of what was going on. He went into a room with this girl, and yeah, I’m smart enough to know what is about to happen. They’re gonna fuck. I saw a window off to the side and peeped into it… the walls at Paisley are some-what thin so I was hoping to hear a bit of their conversation. Yes, I sound totally weird and snoopy, but the thing was, I knew this girl was trouble. I wanted to see for myself what she was doing to him to make him act such a weird way… Prince doesn’t even drink smoothies, that’s what weirded me the fuck out. So I leaned in… he was whispering to her. Okay, great, I’m about to watch him totally shag this chick. But then as sudden as he started whispering to her, he started yelling…

"YOU’RE PLAYING ME FOR A FOOL." he grabbed her and pushed her against a wall. *(I was so turned on at this point, even though it was NOT a good time…)*

she yelled back at him “DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU MEANT THAT MUCH TO ME? YOU’RE NOTHING TO ME.” he loosened his grip on her… and then I ran for my life back down the hallway and opened the door and sat down…


"What’s going on?" we could hear the sound of Prince’s heels thrashing the ground, harder and harder each time.

”I do not know but—”


Without a moment’s noticed the doorknob turned… slowly… and he just stormed in, and when I say stormed in, I mean, he broke one of the door hinges on the door while swinging it open. He was red in the face. He didn’t say a word. He was sweating… and that day he had on a black buttoned-up shirt, with cuffs and everything, and it was ironed and sharp! but then it turned into a mess… he walked to the microphone and picked up the guitar, one of the producers didn’t even need a cue, he just pressed record and Prince SHREDDED this fucking guitar, and it was on full volume and everything. You could probably hear it from down the street. And he was playing it and it was some of the best guitar work I’ve ever heard. He played for 48 minutes and then he was done. His finger tips were bleeding and his hair was all over the place… we all just looked at him and he just walked away. The next day he showed up and pretended like nothing happened… "

Angelsoncrack said:

jayspud said:

Does anyone remember a nude tour rehearsal where Prince argues with a member of the band?

I read about that, but I can't remember what happened.

I know of a story though, which isnt technically him bollocking band members, but it has an angry Prince moment in it. I got it from here: http://princerogersnelsons.tumblr.com/post/80724880204/this-whole-story-begins-at-paisley-park-in-1993-i but I'll copy and paste it as the text is kind of hard to read:

"

This whole story begins at Paisley Park in 1993. I remember coming in, and it was a beautiful Winter’s day. There was snow and the smell of coffee all rushing at me as I opened the doors to Paisley to start my early morning shift. I looked around and found nobody at the lobby… yet. I wasn’t surprised. Prince didn’t have anybody on shifts at 4:30am other than me. It was typical of him to ask me to come in really early and then leave really late. I didn’t even mind because I loved my job, even though it was just doing a lot of paper work and assisting Prince in anything he needed. I was steadily working on paper work for the next four hours. But, sure enough, My girls who worked at Paisley with me came in around at around 8:30am, they were snickering about something. They came over to me at the front desk and I could hear Val say to me:

"Guess he’s got some new arm-Candy!"

"What’s that supposed to mean?"

"He’s got another hoe on deck."

"ANOTHER?!?!"

We all started to laugh… We kind of had bets on Prince’s love life… we would look at his girlfriends and be like:

"I give it like 2 weeks, and Imma bet $20 if it lasts longer."

We were mean like that, but hear me out, it wasn’t like Prince would get a new girl every two, three months, nah, he got them like they were hot-cakes. I’m talking two, three, WEEKS. But anyways, we all stopped our chatter to gaze at Prince walking in through the doors with his new gal… she was tall, medium-dark skin color, medium, curly dark brown hair and a glare that felt like swords. Yeahhhhh, definitely Prince’s type. They went upstairs and that was the last any of us saw of them for the next 6 hours.

"You think they’re fucking up there? they’ve been up there for a pretty long time?"

"I don’t know, man. I wouldn’t be phased if they were fucking. But Prince gets tired of playing with toys for too long. Don’cha think he’d be down here mmm, I don’t know, like fucking 3 hours ago?!?!"

We waited. Prince came down, finally, but for a fruit smoothie, fully clothed, not a hair out of place. I looked at Val and we exchanged our dazed looks… she came back over to me.

"So this motherfucker is up there for a damn near 7 hours and comes down for just a smoothie?!?!?!"

"I wonder what’s going down…he’s being extra mysterious. He hasn’t said a word to anybody down here."

It was approaching 9:00pm before I knew it. I was supposed to go home when I was told, and Prince hadn’t been back downstairs for a very long time. Val left because her shift ended at 8:40pm… I was alone with just a couple of Prince’s recording engineers and producers.

Then I heard a distinctive, low, calming voice.

"Alright, everybody upstairs. Let’s get it on!"

I was looking up at him and he looked directly at me and said:

"you too."

So, I got up, took all the work I was working on and headed upstairs to one of the recording rooms. I saw Prince’s new pussycat, looking very displeased outside of the room.

"Here, listen to this, and I’ll be back in a few."

He handed a cassette to one of the engineers and the engineer just nodded and started playing it. Prince left the room back outside to his girl. I was a really snoopy person, mind you, okay, I’m sorry, but I was curious as to what was going on… it was weird… he never left like that during his recording sessions and even though he does it a lot he hates to keep people waiting. I decided to follow Prince. I could hear his heels from down the hall. I took mine off and proceeded to walk to the sound of he heels hitting the floor. I caught glimpse of what was going on. He went into a room with this girl, and yeah, I’m smart enough to know what is about to happen. They’re gonna fuck. I saw a window off to the side and peeped into it… the walls at Paisley are some-what thin so I was hoping to hear a bit of their conversation. Yes, I sound totally weird and snoopy, but the thing was, I knew this girl was trouble. I wanted to see for myself what she was doing to him to make him act such a weird way… Prince doesn’t even drink smoothies, that’s what weirded me the fuck out. So I leaned in… he was whispering to her. Okay, great, I’m about to watch him totally shag this chick. But then as sudden as he started whispering to her, he started yelling…

"YOU’RE PLAYING ME FOR A FOOL." he grabbed her and pushed her against a wall. *(I was so turned on at this point, even though it was NOT a good time…)*

she yelled back at him “DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU MEANT THAT MUCH TO ME? YOU’RE NOTHING TO ME.” he loosened his grip on her… and then I ran for my life back down the hallway and opened the door and sat down…


"What’s going on?" we could hear the sound of Prince’s heels thrashing the ground, harder and harder each time.

”I do not know but—”


Without a moment’s noticed the doorknob turned… slowly… and he just stormed in, and when I say stormed in, I mean, he broke one of the door hinges on the door while swinging it open. He was red in the face. He didn’t say a word. He was sweating… and that day he had on a black buttoned-up shirt, with cuffs and everything, and it was ironed and sharp! but then it turned into a mess… he walked to the microphone and picked up the guitar, one of the producers didn’t even need a cue, he just pressed record and Prince SHREDDED this fucking guitar, and it was on full volume and everything. You could probably hear it from down the street. And he was playing it and it was some of the best guitar work I’ve ever heard. He played for 48 minutes and then he was done. His finger tips were bleeding and his hair was all over the place… we all just looked at him and he just walked away. The next day he showed up and pretended like nothing happened… "

Sounds like a rehearsal for Purple Rain...

[Edited 10/12/14 10:04am]

Noodled24 said:

databank said:

I always assumed he was adressing some people in the audience, not a bandmember, I may be wrong, though.

IIRC everyone enunciates the next "would". Some of them must do things like that on purpose sometimes.

Before he says "Who's the fool singing will, it's WOULD," you can clearly hear one of the female background singers singing "Will," and then she corrects it after his admonishment. Love it.

jayspud said:

Does anyone remember a nude tour rehearsal where Prince argues with a member of the band?

The story is in one of the Prince books, I think Possessed by Alex Hahn

.

Early 1990, the band is rehearsing and Miko is playing the lead guitar which is a little loud. Prince is in a foul mood for some reason.

Prince "Miko turn your guitar down"

(Miko turns the guitar down, but its still too loud)

Prince " Miko, turn that FUCKING guitar DOWN"

Miko "Don't talk to me like that man!"

Prince "U wanna take this shit outside"

Miko "What with you and and your bodyguards - Yeah right!"

Prince "Fuck you!"

Miko "Fuck you 2, I quit this shit"

.

Apparently Prince pleaded with him to stay for the rest of the Nude tour, but after that he left and Levi Seacer graduated to Lead Guitar.

Since Prince has humour (who's the fool singing "had"?), he was fair player enough to lay on tape his dictatorship going to Kingdome Come for all to hear, in Data Bank (1986). "I didn't call that either! Susan, fade the shit out."

There is also the "Trust me, I'm a musician" from the Another Lonely Christmas Rehearsals.
And off-topic, you can hear him, on the same rehearsals, forcing poor little Wendy to sing "When the Saints go marchin'in". How's that for a torture?

Wendy and Lisa (and Susannah?) being told off for getting the backing vocals wrong on Anotherloverholenyohead rehearsal.

From these posts, Prince sounds like he was (maybe still is) a horror to work for and with! Some have always asked me "why do I love Prince?"...stating that he is a complete asshole, and now I know why. Reading these things make me question that now myself. It's no wonder that the man never made lasting friendships or relationships. To be honest, I wouldn't have wanted to be around him myself, being a person such as that.

1contessa said:

From these posts, Prince sounds like he was (maybe still is) a horror to work for and with!

You're only just figuring that out?

Some have always asked me "why do I love Prince?"...stating that he is a complete asshole, and now I know why. Reading these things make me question that now myself. It's no wonder that the man never made lasting friendships or relationships. To be honest, I wouldn't have wanted to be around him myself, being a person such as that.

haha real crisis of concience huh?

1contessa said:

From these posts, Prince sounds like he was (maybe still is) a horror to work for and with! Some have always asked me "why do I love Prince?"...stating that he is a complete asshole, and now I know why. Reading these things make me question that now myself. It's no wonder that the man never made lasting friendships or relationships. To be honest, I wouldn't have wanted to be around him myself, being a person such as that.

There' a book by Mikki White (background singer for Prince), "Purple Reigned On Me" that I found by chance on Amazon. Makes you want to recommend him an enema.

1contessa said: