9/6/2023 0 Comments Dr fink dallasPrince being Prince, though, it wasn’t enough for band members to know their parts inside out - they had to be able to change them at a moment’s notice, too. "Yeah, we really pulled it off well,” agrees Matt Fink. It's a downtempo song, but it's got a lot of stuff going on." Like The Beautiful Ones - live, that was really a really spectacular moment. "Those two live were really cool, though,” adds Bobby Z, “because you're playing all his parts and adding embellishments to something really incredible. And then the songs that he did all by himself pretty much in the studio - like The Beautiful Ones and When Doves Cry, things like that - those you had to really rehearse carefully." And then, obviously, with Purple Rain, we played on half of the record we pretty much knew a lot of it getting ready to record those songs. “He would request ideas sometimes or arrangement ideas from time to time, like, 'Hey, I'm trying to find a better transition here and I haven't quite nailed this - have you got any thoughts?' You know, that kind of stuff. If he likes what you're doing, it's in - if he hates what you're doing, you know in about one second."ĭid that mean that Prince was happy to take feedback from his band, then? And then he can change the variation of it. Any innovation is based off the album, that's kind of like the Bible. And if he said, 'No, that's not the part', then you have to know how to go back to the album. So any day could be long or short, at his whim, but the rehearsals themselves, as Matt is saying, I mean, we had to pick a part and go with it, or a way to play it, and go with it. “That happened to me one time when I came to rehearsal unprepared and he just dismissed everybody and said 'OK Matt - you get to work on the songs for a while while we take a break’.”īobby Z also recalls the intensity of the rehearsals, and the standards that were expected: “Like a professional team at any level, you arrive at his time, and you leave when he's done. It was kind of like, other than changing arrangements or adding parts, he just wanted you to know the recorded version really well. “You know, do your homework, listen to the songs at home as much as possible and be ready to play them perfectly. “You had to be prepared,” says Matt Fink. It comes as no surprise to learn that the shows were high-stress occasions, but rehearsals weren’t exactly a walk in the Paisley Park either. I mean, he would pile challenges on nightly.” So we just rose to that level the best we could to keep up with him emotionally and spiritually. “Prince put the pressure on himself, too,” Bobby Z reminds us, “so you had to rise to his level. Could playing with Prince ever be enjoyable? Describing him as a perfectionist is like saying that he ‘had a bit of a thing’ for the colour purple, so how were the stress levels? But I just remember that any dome stadium like that, or the Superdome in New Orleans, anywhere else we played like that was not fun, necessarily." Fail to prepare.įun. “You know, the rest of the venues were all arenas - it's not as difficult to play in those as that large of a space. Your body and your mind were shaken to the core.”ĭespite the difficulties of playing in such a large space, Matt Fink has no regrets about the way the gig turned out: “I think we pulled it off just fine in spite of that,” he says. “Your head would be vibrating after those shows. put it this way - your ears would ring on the pillow,” confirms Bobby Z. "Prince liked it loud on stage so, you know. Matters improved once the dome started to fill up with people, but there were still the extreme volume levels to contend with. “It's hard to find the one in that,” adds Bobby Z, drily. And the worst part is that playing in that big venue was difficult because it's so huge that the slapback echo in there was difficult to judge - at soundcheck the drums were just flying back at you out of time." “We knew that, boy, we got to really concentrate hard, not make mistakes. "I just remember that it was nerve wracking because we had to be on top form for the show,” remembers keyboard player Matt “Dr” Fink, another musician who was by now well-embedded into the Prince universe. The film has been digitally enhanced for the Blu-ray, which offers selectable stereo, 5.1 surround and Dolby Atmos audio mixes. The show has now been remixed and reissued - Prince and The Revolution: Live is available as a 3-LP set, a 2-CD/Blu-ray bundle, and a limited-edition Collector’s Edition that can be purchased exclusively from the official Prince Store.
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