Where was he during Small Club?

I can only hear Atlanta Bliss trumpet, or am I just trippin' here???

You're not trippin'!
I don't know where he was but not at "'t Paard van Troje" that night.

He was tired of that day's show and a photoshoot that they did earlier that day (On the training field of the Feijenoord Stadium). I think you saw some of those pics.
So he opted to stay at the hotel. The rest of the band got a bonus for playing at 't Paard van Troje, but not Eric.

I read an interview about this with Eric.

He wasn't feeling well that night and told Prince he would rather not play. Eric said he was pleased in the end because Atlanta really got 2 play. They all got a bonus apart from Eric.

ah... u beat me 2 it jooZt

nuthinbuttamuffin said:

Money aside, the bonus was they created Prince history with that gig!

Especially in HouseQuake he's really missed ...
It's a very tame version.

The absense of Eric is one of the main reasons this isn't my favourite gig.

YES! Housequake is where I picked up on this & decided 2 do this post.

It was Atlanta's playing at the end of the song, where he was basically doing Eric's sax lines that i thought "Am I trippin' here, Where's Eric??"

The numerous times i've heard this gig and I've only just noticed it

dnaplaya said:

That's because Atlanta is playing his ass of in that song,
Man I just love his hornplaying on that song !

you know i've never given this a moments thought.Thanks for pointing that out.

Note to self: Must listen harder in future!

Unfortunately Eric missed out on a classic aftershow, but I'm sure there were many others...

Problem is, Bliss isn't really a soloist. He could play the horn charts along with Eric as well as anybody but he doesn't really have the same facility Eric does when it comes time to step out. Pretty much every time he solos (on anything, at any point during that period -- except maybe his ride on "Now's the Time" from the movie, which is merely a distillation of his three best ideas played really fast) it makes me cringe.