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Purple Rain Tour

Rosemont Horizon, Chicago

10th December 1984

2 CDR

Label: Free Boot Generation

Cat No:  #FBG 28

Running Time: 49:57 / 46:25

Source: Audience Recording

Quality: VG+

Released: January 2010

*Review*

Upgrade time again as FBG present us with a new version of this Purple Rain show. The original release You’re Gonna Break My Heart was a particularly poor recording, plagued with tape hiss and was just, well....bad. The version here comes direct from the original tape and the difference is obvious from the off. This is  much clearer and with quite a meaty bass to it (quite a surprise for a recording of its age) and, of course, all devoid of that horrible hiss from before. It’s not perfect by any means, suffering a little hollowness in the vocals and there’s the odd little waver here and there but nothing that significant to spoil the fun. And to be honest with you, for a 25 year old recording I’d go as far as saying it’s certainly one of the better ones out there and that’s helped no end by FBG’s solid mastering once again.

Unfortunately, and as with the older version, certain parts of this show are still incomplete, namely Baby, I’m A Star and Purple Rain which is a shame. God was also heavily incomplete but with this one they’ve tried to fix it by using the same track from their own Another Lonely Ex-mas release. It was a bit of risk to try it as the two don’t really compare ‘sound wise’ at all and the difference is very noticeable but I can see why they wanted to do it as the track falls right in the middle of the show.  To be fair, they’re quite open about this in the liner notes which makes me think they’re not 100% happy with it themselves but....it’s better than silence.

There isn’t really much to say about the performance itself. It’s a very straight forward, basic run through with not one surprise in the set and really nothing to get excited about..... BUT let’s remind ourselves of the real attraction with this release and that’s the huge improvement in the quality. That alone is reason enough to have this in your collection so trash your old copy and enjoy.

Disc 1

1. Let's Go Crazy   2. Delirious   3. 1999   4. Little Red Corvette   5. Yankee Doodle   6. Free   7. Take Me With U   8. How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore   9. Do Me, Baby   10. Let's Pretend We're Married   11. International Lover   12. Fathers Song   13. God (incomplete)   

Disc 2

1. Computer Blue   2. Darling Nikki   3. The Beautiful Ones   4. When Doves Cry   5. I Would Die 4 U   6. Baby I'm A Star (incomplete)  7. Purple Rain (incomplete)