this thread's dedicated to the spirit of the friday night hoo-hahs that took place at paisley every now n'then...oh, how i miss 'em.


i've only been to the little-big purple valhalla that is paisley park studios a grand total of about 6 times, but i still have my own stories to share with the rest of ya'll. tonight, i shall give you a few tidbits of when me and a few friends would make the 45-minute trip out to chanhassen (or 'channie-chan', as i like to call it) on any given friday night to go and get our dance on...check it out:

the night of march 16th, 2001: that wuz the night i first set foot on paisley park--also, i got my paisley party cherry 'popped' that night. my friend nicole took me out there along with her...that night was pretty special, cuz prince was havin a launch party for the npg music club. the fonky baldheads (they must've been cast into the doomed Paisley Pastures since then--ain't heard a peep outta them since, really) performed a couple songs. they pretty much sucked to me, i wasn't too amazed by those guys. i was also pretty lucky that night, as prince performed for a bit and that was my very first time seein him live. the weirdest thing about that is that the very first song he did was a cover of the old sly & the family stone cut, "if you want me to stay"--earlier that evening, i was listenin to the radio and that same song had played! total deja vu.

another time i had gone out to the park i had a bit of an, umm, potty problem...there's a couple of gas stations right up the road from paisley park that everybody always goes to before each party in order to stock up on breath mints, pop, cans of red bull, whatever. i was with my friend shawna (violett here on the org!) at the time...anyway, that night i decided to do sumfin that i rarely do: get some cappucino, so i could have a bit of a caffeine buzz in order to keep me hoppin durin the night. well, coffee and my bladder don't get along too well so about 10 minutes after drinkin it i was doin the pee-pee dance in shawna's car.

thing of it was, the doors at paisley weren't opened yet so no luck in goin to the bathroom there.

we didn't wanna risk endin up havin to be waaay at the back of the line in order to get into the place once it did open up, so takin the 5-minute drive back over to holiday was totally outta the question, too.

and there are no port-a-potties outside the park.

not to mention it was still winter time, therefore it was extremely cold that night.

oh lawd, it was bad. you shoulda seen me, i was sittin in the car cussin prince out n'stuff and makin jokes and stuff...finally, after about 20 minutes or so (felt like forever to me) the doors to the park opened and after we went through the security sweep--yep, the guards check ya for guns, recording devices (in case someone's hopin to record the next small club or whatever and is wired for sound, eheh) and other undesireables before they let you in--i made a mad dash to the women's bathroom. relief was at hand...

...till i made it to the very first stall. the bathrooms at paisley are pretty small and there's only like 2 stalls in the ladies' room. anyway, i got in the stall and tried to lock the stall door--the lock wouldn't lock at all! a helpful tip: attempting to pee while holdin a broken stall door closed with one foot is not an easy task. that shit was straight ghet-to. here i was, at paisley park...thinkin everything would be awright and in its place, nuffin outta line...and ol' boy ain't had nobody fix that fuckin door for at least a couple months prior to that. what. the. hell. still had fun that night, tho'...


:::to be continued:::

u betta finish,hilarious

btw what songs did he play,if u remember?

5 stars
[This message was edited Fri Nov 7 21:14:19 PST 2003 by hisroyalbadnessfan8485]

hisroyalbadnessfan8485 said:

the very first time i went to the park, i think he basically was just jammin with his band for the most part. it was so long ago i don't really remember. the other party i went to, i don't think he performed...that was just a plain ol' dance party.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

still cooler than hell!!!
i've neva seen him live an my dad saw him in '85 for PR,so it's been awhile... a long while.

i wanna c him live an in person!

Great story!

my turn. i was in minneapolis 4 a business trip. i was staying in roseville. i was told, by a friend, that Paisley Park was in Chanhassen. i am from Los Angeles and I didn't have any idea where it was. I asked around and with the people that worked/lived there in minneapolis if they knew where Paisley Park was. Or if they knew where Prince lived/worked at? i asked 9 different people in 9 different places and only ONE of them knew Prince. everyone else there had no idea who/what I was asking them about. when we finally made it 2 Chanhassen (Friday night July 26th) it was just after 11pm. we got our directions from an employee that worked at the Chanhassen Inn. I called information and he gave me directons from Roseville 2 their hotel. I figured once there I could find the Park. ya, right!! So, we found a fast food diner, i think it was Wendy's. they were closing but i drove up 2 the drive-thru window and honked my horn. an employee came and i asked him if he knew where Prince lived or where Paisley Park was. he asked me who I was talking about. I was stunned that everyone I asked the whole night were all saying the same thing. (1) they didn't know who I was talking about(2)didn't know where/or never heard of Paisley Park. so, I called my friend in Redondo Beach, California for directions, since he was there 4 the Emancipation Kick-Off. Since he was driven by a taxi he really could not help except 2 say that the building was white and if U drove by it during the day U would think it was a medical building. so driving around late at night we saw beautiful houses and deer running around on the streets in front of me while I was driving around lost. then low and behold driving over a little encline and just passed some bushes 2 my right was a building that had purple and blue flood lights pointing at it. I turned left and there were about 15 people standing in front of the closed gate waiting 2 B let in. I asked what time was it going 2 open up, they said probably around 12 midnight. so we drove back about a half a mile 2 another restaurant, Perkins. Had some coffee(i had a glass of milk) and shared our story with the waitress. She was the ONE that said she knows of Prince and knows where about the Park is at(doh!). we hung out there all night. Prince came downstairs about 3am with Manuela. I gave him the peace sign, he said hello; we went in2 the hall; he played "hot wit U(nasty girl)video" and then he and N.P.G. jamed from 3:30am 'til 4:30am(B cuz that was the time I left.) I have been back there about 10 other times since then.


PEACE N B WiLD!!!

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

That's my birthday, yo!

4jamiestarr said:

cool,i've neva been NEAR minnesota.period.i've been 2 georgia,but that's as north as i got

u got 2 c p in real life,lucky

awright, i got another story from when i first went to paisley:

my friend nicole had run into a couple of her friends when we were gettin outta nicole's car and gettin ready to go inside the park...we ended up hangin out together for a good part of the night in the soundstage. cameras were set up and the party wuz bein filmed that night (i suppose), and they had the film projector-thing and a large projector screen set up so you could see what wuz goin on in the smaller room that's adjacent to the soundstage...some of you paisley party veterans know it as the 'love 4 one another room' or sumfin. i just call it 'the party room'... anyway, all the sudden one of nic's friends went, "he's here!!" and i'm all like, "who's here?" she goes, "prince!" and she gestured toward the screen...i looked up, and there he was.

i still remember what he wore that night: the same outfit he wore in the "u make my sun shine" video, that red suit with the white shirt underneath, and he...he...he had...long hair...



::a moment of silence for the hair that once was::



...sowwy, i had to do that. anyhoo, we all went into the smaller room cuz the band started playin. nicole turned to me and said sumfin like, "this'll be your very first paisley party report for the org, go up closer to the stage so you can see everything!" so, i did...i was about 3 or 4 rows in from the front of the stage and thought i'd be able to get closer...till i got up to a couple of women who had a bit of space between 'em that i coulda squeezed through. i used my good manners and said "excuse me" to the both of 'em, hopin they'd move.

dont'cha know both of them heffas just turned their heads, gave me the dirtiest, uncalled for, 'we-ain't-movin-cuz-we-want-prince-to-see-us-and-hopefully-spot-us-and-fall-in-love-with-us-and-take-us-home-and-fuck-us' looks...and turned right back around, not movin an inch as they did so.

i so wanted to make like the three stooges and bonk their peezy heads together and knock 'em smoove the fuck out, but i didn't. in the end i could see the show just fine, i got a bit closer towards the stage in the end.


mo' stories to come from me!

My turn. My name is zach and I lived in minneapolis for about 3 years.

I had a friend that worked for prince then, not anymore. He used to come to my house once in a while and we'd finish off a bottle of mcillicuddy's and he'd tell me prince stories since I've been a big prince fan since 83'.

Anyways, he invited me to paisley park for a friday night party. I can't remember the exact date, but it was sometime in 98'. We slid in the back door, through a dark room lit up with electronic devices, and into the small concert room(standing room mostly, seats around 150-200 people). The room was red on some walls, and had a big afkap symbol on the wall. We walked in, then we used the bathroom in the lobby. When we walked back into the concert room single file through the door, the first of us through the door says "there he is", and I said, "there who is?" and I looked to my right and there stood AFKAP himself. I almost peed my pants. It was awesome. I looked at him and said wasssup and he looked me up and down and nodded at me. It was cooo. Then my friend who worked for him was standing around talking to us, and prince came up and talked to my friend for a bit and it must have appeared to others we were prince's friends. It was kinda neat.

Then prince and larry graham and the npg got up and played a whole crapload of songs which was the best part. The songs I remember are:

Everyday people
higher
Purple Rain
Some song about a revolution colorizing or something
You're still the one
Push it up
Days of Wild
and a bunch of improv jam stuff. Prince was reading from a notebook...
They prolly played a good 2-3 hours worth of music.


I also attended the Party for the release of "The One" video. That night he played a while, too. And a lot of stuff off of the NPS album. And like a 20 minute version of purple rain.

My friend liked working for prince and he saw the world over and over again from 96' until 2000. Got the job mowing prince's lawn.

Anybody know if prince still has these parties and if they are still friday nights?

zachypoo said:

the last ones he did were this past july...he hasn't been doin friday night parties as often as he used to nowadays. sux too, cuz they're too much fun...it don't matter if p's there or not, you'll have a ball...'cept for this one time earlier this year where we basically paid $7 bux to dance for cameras n'chit.

shudders at the memory...worst. paisley party. ev-er. then again, the ride back to mpls afterwards with my friends was fun as hell.

zachypoo said:

You were at the fabled "War" session.

zachypoo said:

Just curious...what was your friend's job?

Videotaping almost everything.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

HAHAHAH that's good...

great stuff

jam on

Keep 'em coming, people.

As a huge P fan over in chilly Northern England, your tales are as close as I'll probably ever to get to PP.

I got as far as the dumpsters... nana and madhouseman know what I'm talkin about!

man,we NEED 2 get a huge meet up there just 2 c prince.

PEJ said:

I aint sayin chit Pej! Man, that was too funny!

Hey Deja ~ 2 words...

"Mr. Nelllsssooonnn"

hehehe




"...I ain't leaving till you come down here! I know you're here!"

EskomoKisses said:

omg, the 'mrs. wellington' lady!!! i gotta tell that story about her later on!!!

Hey, do they do tours there at all any more?? and kinda of an odd question maybe someone can tell where to find out. is they do and if they're wheelchair assecable. I'm planning a trip this spring. to Chicago,and Minn and New York and one place I really wanted to go was at least to see the outside of the building. at most due a day tour. {in my dreams see the Man himself}. my last trip so to speak before my disease gets worse.
Can anyone point in the direction to find the answers.
Thanks All,JadedAngel

JadedAngel said:

unfortunately no, i don't think he does tours of the building anymore.

unfortunately no, i don't think he does tours of the building anymore. [/quote]



Crap, was hoping not so, but well atleast I'll take pics of PP. from the outside. all I was really asking for anyway. Sigh. Gal can dream...

Thanks Anyway. JadedAngel

JadedAngel said:

Crap, was hoping not so, but well atleast I'll take pics of PP. from the outside. all I was really asking for anyway. Sigh. Gal can dream...

Thanks Anyway. JadedAngel[/quote]

This is a great thread!!!

I have a couple of Tales from The Park,

First off I live in Detroit so to get to The Park we would either fly or drive and sometimes both.

My very first time going out to MPLS was when we had heard of a comfirmed Friday nite Party and a friend from Canada and I decided just to go. I had gotten brief directions and ended up going the LONG way thru Chicago and following 94west all the way. Ended up taking me close to 13 hours to get there (now it a flat 10 hour drive) so I didnt get in. So I sat outside and listened and couldnt believe I heard Love Thy Will Be Done.(sniff sniff) from the parking lot. That was the one and only time I wasnt able to get in.


Now for a bit of a happier time...
It was the Nov 5,1999 party (and by the time we got in it was Nov 6,1999 my birthday!). We were told that they would be filming that nite and to make sure to let the camera people do their jobs. Well to start out Larry G comes out with a Detroit Red Wing jersey on, Yeah! and they began to Rock the House. I ended up dancing on stage at the end of the nite and had a blast!!!

So you never know what can happen when you travel to out to The Park. My only rule when I go and take anyone with me is you dont go with any Xpections, that way you can enjoy everything that does happen.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

awright, as promised...btw, for those of you who were at this party (i forgot exactly when it was), you might remember who i'm talkin about here if you seen the woman:

me and my friend gretchen (EskomoKisses up there ) went out to the park for a party like about a year or so ago...a lotta people showed up that particular night and we were all in the soundstage, from what i remember. whenever i'm at the park i like to people-watch more than i like to dance. anyway, i was lookin around at everyone and i spotted this older woman. she was dressed really sharp, with a white dress on and this hat with a huge floppy brim that covered her face. she was just this...very mysterious sista, y'know...she stood mostly by the wall with another woman, she didn't dance at all. i nicknamed her 'mrs. wellington', cuz she was all dressed in white.

prince didn't play that night, it ended up bein just a normal dance party. the lights in the soundstage turned on, signifiying that it was time for all of us to get the hell outta there. me and gretch were headed towards the exit door when all the sudden the 'mrs. wellington' mystery lady started yellin, at the top of her lungs, "hey, mister nelll-sooon!!! i know you're here, i ain't leavin till you come out here!" and kept carryin on for a bit like that.

ain't seen the woman since then, but that shit was pure co me dy.

I've been there numerous times between 1995 and 1999. About half of the times it was announced that there was a party/performance going to happen, it didn't. Waiting outside the gates for a good hour or two kinda sucked especially after driving almost an hour and a half to get there each time. Twice I went up there and was denied entrance. The first time was because my friends and I didn't get enough of an early start to get there before the place filled up. The second time really pissed me off. I got there in plenty of time and stood in line for nearly two hours in the rain with a friend waiting to get in while people showing up after me (and there were many of them) went and found people they knew further up the line and just cut in. So, I was about 10 people away from getting in the door when a guy from security comes out and said that they were full and weren't letting anyone else in. I was so mad with rage that I would have went postal on any of those people who should have been behind me in line that were now dry inside and dancing to the music. That was the WORST experience I've ever had there, and it was because of these damn inconsiderate people that my friend vowed never to come back to PP again. I wish they would have gotten struck by lightning when they left because they deserved it.

NCC2012 said:

that rots!!! i woulda told those cats off a bit before i left...