At the time that the tracks were made available for download in Jan 2003, some fans speculated that the first letter of each song could be arranged in such a way to spell C-Note, a hundred dollar bill, and the amount NPG Music Club members had paid the previous year, a number of whom had been complaining that they didn't receive what had been promised.

I always wondered if this was Prince's sense of humour at play, or whether he saw these speculations and took on the title retroactively when the album was released in 2004. Empty Room seems a strange track to include, other than to get the 'e' in C-Note!

leecaldon said:

At the time that the tracks were made available for download in Jan 2003, some fans speculated that the first letter of each song could be arranged in such a way to spell C-Note, a hundred dollar bill, and the amount NPG Music Club members had paid the previous year, a number of whom had been complaining that they didn't receive what had been promised.

I always wondered if this was Prince's sense of humour at play, or whether he saw these speculations and took on the title retroactively when the album was released in 2004. Empty Room seems a strange track to include, other than to get the 'e' in C-Note!

I remember the tracks coming out. After about 2 or 3, fans on alt.music.prince started to put it together.

"Empty Room" does seem odd, at first, given that the songs are heavily jazz-influenced jams. All are songs recorded in rehearsals, including "Empty Room" which was recorded in Copenhagen.

Fans had been going on about "Empty Room" off and on for years, though. Maybe Prince saw a two-birds-one-stone moment - release a popular song that fans loved and finish off the C-Note title.

Princevault speculates that it was also possibly intended for Chaos and Disorder, which might have been a great fit. Moody, dark, angsty.

The beginning of the article gets it wrong when it comes to Copenhagen's release date (though it's corrected later), and doesn't mention the fact that initially not all NPGMC members could d/l the tracks (links were sent by means of email to regional members in Europe or Japan depending where the tracks were recorded at).

.

It's also the first time I hear of them originally being grouped together as "European & Japanese Soundchecks 2002", I was a member and I don't recall any such thing. A Google search doesn't lead to any other occurence of that title either. I don't remember the details but as a European member back then I'm pretty certain that I did not get at least the first European email, and I'm pretty sure I had to get at least some of the later tracks thru P2P, though it's also possible some members shared the links they had received by email with other fans. In any case, I definitely did not have direct access to all 6 tracks as a member. Can anyone clarify this?

.

Finally, it's worth mentionning that the album cover finally revealed on Tidal in 2015 clearly states that the album, as planned for release on the TCI boxset, was intended as the 5th New Power Generation album (4th if you decline to count The War as an album). According to Pvault, the 2004 NPGMC release wasn't credited to any specific artist (I must admit I don't remember that), and ever since it's been credited to "Prince And The NPG" because that's how the original files were labeled, but it should now be credited as a "solo" NPG release.

.

The article is merely descriptive, not a proper review, therefore only useful to someone who hasn't heard the record. Regardless, it's nice to see that forgotten album get some attention.

leecaldon said:

At the time that the tracks were made available for download in Jan 2003, some fans speculated that the first letter of each song could be arranged in such a way to spell C-Note, a hundred dollar bill, and the amount NPG Music Club members had paid the previous year, a number of whom had been complaining that they didn't receive what had been promised.

I always wondered if this was Prince's sense of humour at play, or whether he saw these speculations and took on the title retroactively when the album was released in 2004. Empty Room seems a strange track to include, other than to get the 'e' in C-Note!

I've always wondered that as well.

ER was indeed an odd final track to end the record. I'm pretty sure a much more cohesive record could have been made using another jam session from another ONA Live soundcheck as a closer, so it only seems to be there for the "E" (I've just checked: no city from the ONA Tour started with an E )

databank said:

The beginning of the article gets it wrong when it comes to Copenhagen's release date (though it's corrected later), and doesn't mention the fact that initially not all NPGMC members could d/l the tracks (links were sent by means of email to regional members in Europe or Japan depending where the tracks were recorded at).

.

It's also the first time I hear of them originally being grouped together as "European & Japanese Soundchecks 2002", I was a member and I don't recall any such thing. A Google search doesn't lead to any other occurence of that title either. I don't remember the details but as a European member back then I'm pretty certain that I did not get at least the first European email, and I'm pretty sure I had to get at least some of the later tracks thru P2P, though it's also possible some members shared the links they had received by email with other fans. In any case, I definitely did not have direct access to all 6 tracks as a member. Can anyone clarify this?

.

Finally, it's worth mentionning that the album cover finally revealed on Tidal in 2015 clearly states that the album, as planned for release on the TCI boxset, was intended as the 5th New Power Generation album (4th if you decline to count The War as an album). According to Pvault, the 2004 NPGMC release wasn't credited to any specific artist (I must admit I don't remember that), and ever since it's been credited to "Prince And The NPG" because that's how the original files were labeled, but it should now be credited as a "solo" NPG release.

.

The article is merely descriptive, not a proper review, therefore only useful to someone who hasn't heard the record. Regardless, it's nice to see that forgotten album get some attention.

I'm pretty sure they were never called "European & Japanese Soundchecks 2002".

I received one email from NPGMC (having received a link to Xpectation) -

"http://www.npgmusicclub.c...yroom.html

Please do not share this link. It is 4 u only at this time.

Love4oneanother,
The NPG Music Club"

I recall all the tracks being shared widely by fans very quickly.

[Edited 1/7/18 6:43am]

leecaldon said:

databank said:

The beginning of the article gets it wrong when it comes to Copenhagen's release date (though it's corrected later), and doesn't mention the fact that initially not all NPGMC members could d/l the tracks (links were sent by means of email to regional members in Europe or Japan depending where the tracks were recorded at).

.

It's also the first time I hear of them originally being grouped together as "European & Japanese Soundchecks 2002", I was a member and I don't recall any such thing. A Google search doesn't lead to any other occurence of that title either. I don't remember the details but as a European member back then I'm pretty certain that I did not get at least the first European email, and I'm pretty sure I had to get at least some of the later tracks thru P2P, though it's also possible some members shared the links they had received by email with other fans. In any case, I definitely did not have direct access to all 6 tracks as a member. Can anyone clarify this?

.

Finally, it's worth mentionning that the album cover finally revealed on Tidal in 2015 clearly states that the album, as planned for release on the TCI boxset, was intended as the 5th New Power Generation album (4th if you decline to count The War as an album). According to Pvault, the 2004 NPGMC release wasn't credited to any specific artist (I must admit I don't remember that), and ever since it's been credited to "Prince And The NPG" because that's how the original files were labeled, but it should now be credited as a "solo" NPG release.

.

The article is merely descriptive, not a proper review, therefore only useful to someone who hasn't heard the record. Regardless, it's nice to see that forgotten album get some attention.

I'm pretty they were never called "European & Japanese Soundchecks 2002".

I received one email from NPGMC (having received a link to Xpectation) -

"http://www.npgmusicclub.c...yroom.html

Please do not share this link. It is 4 u only at this time.

Love4oneanother,
The NPG Music Club"

I recall all the tracks being shared widely by fans very quickly.

Pretty awseome u still have the mail

Thx for the additional info

databank said:

It's also the first time I hear of them originally being grouped together as "European & Japanese Soundchecks 2002", I was a member and I don't recall any such thing. A Google search doesn't lead to any other occurence of that title either. I don't remember the details but as a European member back then I'm pretty certain that I did not get at least the first European email, and I'm pretty sure I had to get at least some of the later tracks thru P2P, though it's also possible some members shared the links they had received by email with other fans. In any case, I definitely did not have direct access to all 6 tracks as a member. Can anyone clarify this?

I was in the U.S. and a member (not that it much helped in this instance), and I got them all pretty much within hours of release because people shared the emails with the links on some forum--I don't remember which one. If anyone reading this was one of those sharers, a very belated "Thank You" is in order.

Thanks Latin. I haven't really listened to this album that much aside from Empty Room but I'm going to revisit it.

pinkcashmere23 said: