SIGN O' THE
TIMES
Purple Rain will always be what Prince
is most famous for, but fans and critics
agree Sign O’ The Times was perhaps
his greatest artistic achievement. His
Royal Badness wanted to record concert
footage in Europe initially, but the
audio and video was deemed unusable.
Moving production to his own Paisley
Park studio in Minneapolis made all
the difference, as it allowed him to
put on more elaborate staging and
even film humorous segues in-between
songs. Eleven tracks from the Sign
O’ The Times album make the setlist,
and supporting members like dancer
Cat Glover and drummer Sheila E. get
plenty of chances to shine. Sheena
Easton even gets to appear for a duet
on “U Got The Look.” The film was not
as successful as the Purple One had
hoped, but became a cult hit on VHS
with fans long clamoring for a DVD
or Blu-Ray release. Prince was always
cagey about it (as he was with most of
his releases), but in honor of his passing
in 2016 the film is finally getting a
proper re-release.
QUEEN AT
WEMBLEY
If Queen performing at Live Aid was the
cherry on top of a delicious sundae, its
solo concert a year later at Wembley
Stadium is a gourmet meal, cooked
to perfection. The only issue with the
Live Aid show was Queen’s set was too
short at less than half an hour. Here,
the band gets a full 28 song set to
show what they can do, and it features
almost every Queen song you’d want
to see the band play live. Naturally,
the star is Freddie Mercury, who works
ToneReport.com
39