"And if it comes out, I don't want it 2 just end up with all the Prince fanatics." -Prince

Vibrator
YES
SUSANNAH'S PAJAMAS
FELINE
the Flesh sessions

EUPHORIA HIGHWAY
A COUPLE of MILES
Babydoll House

Quasimodo New Morning Park Cafe Fine Line Cafe

polk a dots cops robbers gangstars

HARD LIFE misdirected by ecnirP

Recorded @ Madhouse Studios in Philadelphia PA

Austra Chanel Billy Lewis John Lewis Eric Leeds

music that lead up 2 8, samples of sounds on 8 + 16

New Direction In Garage Music

ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SIX 1/2
SEVEN
EIGHT

Prince

Eric Leeds

Dr Fink
Levi Seacer Jr

Sheila E

Dale Alexander

Maneca Lightner

Limited Engagement
MADHOUSE

in the

Engagement

EAT UPTOWN POOL GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS BAR n GIRL ALL NUDE

wha?

mmkay

Prince and reed man Eric Leeds teamed up to create two albums under the moniker Madhouse

Madhouse, for the relatively few paying attention, was one of those riddles wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

by Miles Marshall Lewis

www.waxpoetics.com

Madhouse, for the relatively few paying attention, was one of those riddles wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma that Churchill talked about. Every piece of the group’s cover art—two albums, three singles—featured only twenty-one-year-old Maneca Lightner, credited as the “Madhouse cover girl,” dressed in sexy polka-dotted outfits with a Yorkshire terrier. Lightner, it so happens, was dating Prince casually at the time. Warner Bros. Records released the band’s first album, 8, through Prince’s Paisley Park Records label on January 21, 1987, and the album credits made no mention of the band members. Those same credits claimed that 8 was recorded at Madhouse Studios in Pittsburgh, a studio that doesn’t exist.

The riddle-mystery-enigma went even deeper. Minnesota’s Star Tribune reviewed 8 the day after its release and presented Madhouse as the brainchild of Atlanta keyboardist Austra Chanel. The group, according to an official bio from publicist Howard Bloom, consisted of Chanel, drummer John Lewis, bassist Bill Lewis, and Eric Leeds. As you might gather by now, neither Chanel nor the Lewis brothers existed either, but nationwide newspapers and magazines began echoing the misinformation.

Warner Bros. delivered Madhouse’s 16 album on November 18, just ten months after 8, with bass player Levi Seacer Jr. and keyboardist Matt Fink added to the lineup, real-life musicians from Prince’s recent touring band for his Sign o’ the Times album. Stranger still, that two-month European tour featured Madhouse as the opening act with a slightly different lineup, essentially the 16 assemblage but with longtime Prince associate Dale Alexander on drums.

Prince was already infamous for this kind of playful deception. By 1987, he was notorious for writing effortless hit singles for others using flimsy pseudonyms. Nobody believed Christopher (of the Bangles’ “Manic Monday”) or Alexander Nevermind (Sheena Easton’s “Sugar Walls”) composed anything. Beginning with the Time and continuing with Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Sheila E., the Family, and Jill Jones, Prince was also legendary for writing and playing most everything on his protégés’ records. Madhouse marked the last time in Prince’s career that he ever would. (Subsequent Paisley Park acts—the Three O’Clock, Dale Bozzio, Tony LeMans, Taja Sevelle, Good Question, Carmen Electra—were, for better or worse, largely left to their own devices.) Never again would Prince go to such absurd lengths to pretend he had nothing to do with an act he wrote and played almost everything for.

Fans collect near the soundboard of Le Réservoir after the show, where Rad stands behind a table posing for photos, selling CDs, and autographing them. To the side is Eric Leeds, with his own display of solo albums: his début Times Squared, Things Left Unsaid, Now & Again. No Madhouse.

Much better

paisleypark4 said:

Much better

OldFriends4Sale said:

paisleypark4 said:

Much better

I love your posts but the initial post here was not making sense. Didnt really give an explination of what was being posted.

paisleypark4 said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

I love your posts but the initial post here was not making sense. Didnt really give an explination of what was being posted.

oh, well it was the same as I've done before, discussing all things Madhouse

It's Madhouse/Hardlife, so I was just being creative and a play on some of Prince's emojees and letter-number writing... all that I posted is from the Madhouse era

Maneca Lightner is awesome. Where are all the women who look like that?

Oh, yeah. Madhouse was cool, too. If there's a third album by Prince in the vault, I'd love to hear it!

MADHOUSE ... this had the copacity to be a really colorful protege/Austra Chanel period

.

Madhouse band, Maneca, the dancers(Game Boys I believe) the Hard Life video, the criminal/cop/gangster imagery Prince likes. I can even see Bob George having been a part of a Madhouse set

.

It was going to be hard, because everyone but Dale Alexander was in Prince's band.
I always thought Levi really shined with Madhouse more than Romance 1600 and the SOTT band.