4 CD
Label: Eye Records
Cat No: #097/098/099/100
Running Time: 88:04 / 88:48 / 90:41 / 89:51
Source: Audience Recording
Quality: VG+ / EX+
Released: November 2009
Label: Eye Records
Cat No: #097/098/099/100
Running Time: 88:04 / 88:48 / 90:41 / 89:51
Source: Audience Recording
Quality: VG+ / EX+
Released: November 2009
One-Off Performance
Grand Palais & La Cigale, Paris
11th October & 12th October 2009
11th October & 12th October 2009
Disc 1
Show #2, Grand Palais, Paris - 11th October 2009 - EX
01. Thunderstorm Intro 02. 1999 03. I Feel For You 04. Controversy (part 1) incl. All Day, All Night [chant] 05. Sexy Dancer - Le Freak incl. All Day, All Night [chant] 06. Controversy (part 2) incl. All Day, All Night [chant] 07. Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad? 08. Take Me With U 09. Anotherloverholenyohead 10. Rock Lobster (instr.) 11. Guitar incl. All Day, All Night [chant] 12. Raspberry Beret 13. All Day, All Night* 14. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man* 15. The One U Wanna C* 16. Sometimes It Snows In April* 17. Mountains 18. Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground) 19. Everyday People 20. I Wanna Take You Higher 21. Long Train Runnin’ 22. Play That Funky Music 23. Purple Rain 24. Kiss incl. Miss You - Thieves In The Temple
* acoustic set
Disc 2
01. Honly Tonk Woman 02. All The Critics Love U In Paris incl. All Day, All Night - Freaks This Side - Housequake [chants] 03. A Love Bizarre
Show #1, Grand Palais, Paris - 11th October 2009 (incomplete) - VG+
04. Girl incl. All Day, All Night [chant] 05. Play That Funky Music 06. What Have You Done For Me Lately 07. Partyman
08. Uptown 09. Let’s Work 10. Cool 11. Cream 12. You Got The Look
Show #2, Grand Palais, Paris - 11th October 2009 (soundboard)- EX+
13. Thunderstorm Intro 14. 1999 15. I feel For U (edit)
Le Grand Studio RTL, Paris - 12th October 2009 (soundboard) - EX+
16. Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful 17. Mountains 18. Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground) 19. Interview By Anthony Martin
Le Grand Journal Canal+, Paris - 12th October 2009 (soundboard) - EX+
20. Dance 4 Me 21. No More Candy 4 U 22. 1999 23. I Feel For U (aborted) 24. Controversy incl All Day, All Night 25. Interview By Michael Denisot
Rehearsal, Paisley Park - 21st September 2009 (soundboard) - EX+
26. Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?
Disc 3
La Cigale, Paris - 12th October 2009 - EX-
01. Ol’ Skool Company incl. Purple Rain Intro - Also Sprach Zarathustra 02. Crimson & Clover 03. Stand 04. Turm Me Loose
05. I Want You Back 06. Dance 4 Me incl. (Not Just) Knee Deep 07. No More Candy 4 U 08. Shhh 09. Stratus 10. Girl
11. Forever In My Life incl. Single Ladies (Out A Ring On It) 12. Baby Love 13. Peach 14. Sexy Dancer - Le Freak incl All Day, All Night 15. I Want To Be Free 16. Sing A Simple Song 17. Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)
Disc 4
01. Be Happy 02. 7 03. Come Together 04. Dreamer 05. The Bird 06. Jungle Love 07. The Glamorous Life 08. 3121 - Thieves In The Temple 09. Purple Rain
Press Conference, Paris - 12th October 2009
10. Interview
NRJ Radio, Paris - 14th October 2009 (broadcast 15th October 2009)
11. Interview
Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux - 18th July 2009 (soundboard) - EX+
12. Eye Love U But Eye Don’t Trust U Anymore (show #1) 13. Peach 14. Eye Love U But Eye Don’t Trust U Anymore (show #2)
Show #2, Grand Palais, Paris -
01. Thunderstorm Intro 02. 1999 03. I Feel For You 04. Controversy (part 1) incl. All Day, All Night [chant] 05. Sexy Dancer -
* acoustic set
Disc 2
01. Honly Tonk Woman 02. All The Critics Love U In Paris incl. All Day, All Night -
Show #1, Grand Palais, Paris -
04. Girl incl. All Day, All Night [chant] 05. Play That Funky Music 06. What Have You Done For Me Lately 07. Partyman
08. Uptown 09. Let’s Work 10. Cool 11. Cream 12. You Got The Look
Show #2, Grand Palais, Paris -
13. Thunderstorm Intro 14. 1999 15. I feel For U (edit)
Le Grand Studio RTL, Paris -
16. Feel Good, Feel Better, Feel Wonderful 17. Mountains 18. Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground) 19. Interview By Anthony Martin
Le Grand Journal Canal+, Paris -
20. Dance 4 Me 21. No More Candy 4 U 22. 1999 23. I Feel For U (aborted) 24. Controversy incl All Day, All Night 25. Interview By Michael Denisot
Rehearsal, Paisley Park -
26. Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?
Disc 3
La Cigale, Paris -
01. Ol’ Skool Company incl. Purple Rain Intro -
11. Forever In My Life incl. Single Ladies (Out A Ring On It) 12. Baby Love 13. Peach 14. Sexy Dancer -
Disc 4
01. Be Happy 02. 7 03. Come Together 04. Dreamer 05. The Bird 06. Jungle Love 07. The Glamorous Life 08. 3121 -
Press Conference, Paris -
10. Interview
NRJ Radio, Paris -
11. Interview
Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux -
12. Eye Love U But Eye Don’t Trust U Anymore (show #1) 13. Peach 14. Eye Love U But Eye Don’t Trust U Anymore (show #2)
*Review*
A lot to get through so let’s start at the top. First off we have the second show from the two that Prince played on the 11th at Grand Palais. It’s a very respectable effort and qualifies for the EX rating it’s being given. As a bit of an audiophile, what keeps this back from any EX+ (at least for me) is I feel the stereo is a little narrow and the bass is maybe just a little too strong in places. Call me picky, but that’s how I see it. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s a sharp and clear recording and considering the difficulties of the venue (echoes galore, to be expected from a large, glass building) the taper has done an admirable job. The show itself is fairly typical of Prince’s performances this year, I Feel For U, Controversy etc are all present and correct as well as the usual covers being wheeled out for the umpteenth time. The recurrent chants of ‘All Day, All Night’ start to annoy after a while but it’s all in good fun so can’t complain too much (and it’s great to see ‘Mountains’ in there). Regardless of that, Prince is in good spirits and is clearly having fun and there’s no taking away from him that he’s still great live, no matter how many times you’ve heard the material. The highlight of the set, though is the acoustic portion. Not had a lot of this since the Musicology tour and it’s always good value hearing some of his more famous songs played this way. Overall, a solid effort.
Disc 2 is a huge let down. Eye don’t have a complete version of Show #1 on offer, so what we get here is a collection of what they did manage to get and I’m not sure it was worth it. The quality really isn’t that good compared to the rest. The audience are very prominent, Prince sounds as if he’s miles away and overall it just isn’t that clear. We can be thankful they captured Girl as this is the only highlight of this recording, the rest is just as you’d expect. The remainder of the disc is made up of straight audio rips of Prince’s various promotional appearances in Paris ranging from the RTL show to his Canal+ performance.
Disc 3 see us onto the 3rd show of his Paris visit, performed at La Cigale on the 12th. This show has already been released by Free Boot Generation here and comparing the two isn’t as straight forward as you’d like, as both have their ups and downs. This recording suffers none of the audience problems (in particular, the screaming woman) that FBG’s had but on the flip-side, I find that their recording was just a little clearer and crisper. It’s a little hard to choose between the two really so I guess it’s up to personal taste so this receives a more than fair EX-rating. As commented in the other review, the show itself if an absolute stunner. It’s been a while since he’s pulled out a performance like this and it’s simply a joy to listen to. You won’t find a better or more tightly performed show from the man this side of 2004. Sure, there’s a few too many covers again but it’s all done with such grandeur and fun you really won’t care.
Dics 4 finishes of the rest of the La Cigale show and then fills the rest with er, well.....filler. The Montreux stuff just doesn’t need to be on here especially when it’s nothing more than a straight rip of the videos from LF.com. Nothing has been done to them, improvement wise, and even the glitch during Peach has been left in. Really, sometimes more is less but seeing as these guys are in it for the money, I don’t see their habits changing any day soon. So what are we left with here. Overall, it’s a solid release from Eye Records, with some great quality recordings but again you’re left with the nagging feeling of it all been a little hurriedly put together. Eye always get dangerously close to releasing a stunning set but consistently, at least recently, let themselves down by either the lack of care or unnecessary filler. At the end of the day it’s not the perfect release we were hoping for but certainly worth owning, if only for Show #2’s quality.
A lot to get through so let’s start at the top. First off we have the second show from the two that Prince played on the 11th at Grand Palais. It’s a very respectable effort and qualifies for the EX rating it’s being given. As a bit of an audiophile, what keeps this back from any EX+ (at least for me) is I feel the stereo is a little narrow and the bass is maybe just a little too strong in places. Call me picky, but that’s how I see it. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s a sharp and clear recording and considering the difficulties of the venue (echoes galore, to be expected from a large, glass building) the taper has done an admirable job. The show itself is fairly typical of Prince’s performances this year, I Feel For U, Controversy etc are all present and correct as well as the usual covers being wheeled out for the umpteenth time. The recurrent chants of ‘All Day, All Night’ start to annoy after a while but it’s all in good fun so can’t complain too much (and it’s great to see ‘Mountains’ in there). Regardless of that, Prince is in good spirits and is clearly having fun and there’s no taking away from him that he’s still great live, no matter how many times you’ve heard the material. The highlight of the set, though is the acoustic portion. Not had a lot of this since the Musicology tour and it’s always good value hearing some of his more famous songs played this way. Overall, a solid effort.
Disc 2 is a huge let down. Eye don’t have a complete version of Show #1 on offer, so what we get here is a collection of what they did manage to get and I’m not sure it was worth it. The quality really isn’t that good compared to the rest. The audience are very prominent, Prince sounds as if he’s miles away and overall it just isn’t that clear. We can be thankful they captured Girl as this is the only highlight of this recording, the rest is just as you’d expect. The remainder of the disc is made up of straight audio rips of Prince’s various promotional appearances in Paris ranging from the RTL show to his Canal+ performance.
Disc 3 see us onto the 3rd show of his Paris visit, performed at La Cigale on the 12th. This show has already been released by Free Boot Generation here and comparing the two isn’t as straight forward as you’d like, as both have their ups and downs. This recording suffers none of the audience problems (in particular, the screaming woman) that FBG’s had but on the flip-
Dics 4 finishes of the rest of the La Cigale show and then fills the rest with er, well.....filler. The Montreux stuff just doesn’t need to be on here especially when it’s nothing more than a straight rip of the videos from LF.com. Nothing has been done to them, improvement wise, and even the glitch during Peach has been left in. Really, sometimes more is less but seeing as these guys are in it for the money, I don’t see their habits changing any day soon. So what are we left with here. Overall, it’s a solid release from Eye Records, with some great quality recordings but again you’re left with the nagging feeling of it all been a little hurriedly put together. Eye always get dangerously close to releasing a stunning set but consistently, at least recently, let themselves down by either the lack of care or unnecessary filler. At the end of the day it’s not the perfect release we were hoping for but certainly worth owning, if only for Show #2’s quality.