Prince And The Revolution: Live Prince video

Warner Music Video

video

Hello Syracuse and the world.

Prince And The Revolution: Live is footage from the first of two shows Prince and The Revolution performed at the Carrier Dome football stadium at Syracuse University, New York during their Purple Rain Tour, with 35,000 in attendance.

Tour tour had began on 4 November 1984 and its Syracuse date was toward of the end of the US itinerary, which it was afterwards promised to continue to Europe as a world tour. But approaching 100 dates played in the US and all with the same setlist, to Prince each show played began to blend into another and he simply lost the spirt of performing it and took the decision to pull the tour to a stop. He wanted to move on to his next project Around The World In A Day and so would substitute the Europe leg of the tour by having the 30 March 1985 Syracuse show simultaneously broadcast on European TV.

The Syracuse show is the 92nd of 98 dates ultimately stage for Purple Rain Tour. Under the direction of Paul Becher, who previously shot promo videos for AC/DC and later TV specials for Guns N’ Roses and Michael Jackson’s HIStory Tour, the concert was filmed by a team of eight cameras. The footage was beamed live by satellite to a German television audience of 12 million – aired as part of a concert series for the show Rockpalast. Prince And The Revolution: Live was the first ever live satellite broadcast of a rock concert and provided the first opportunity for audiences outside America to see Prince live.

At the conclusion of Purple Rain Tour that April, the recording was released on home video cassette as Prince And The Revolution: Live containing the full unedited version of the concert. It became the only format the outtake Possessed was officially available, until the track was eventually issued on Purple Rain Deluxe Edition in 2017 following Prince’s death.

The VHS distribution was handled in the US by Warner Home Video in partnership with Prince’s then new label Paisley Park and was released on 29 July 1985. Prince And The Revolution: Live was distributed in Europe by Castle Communications, which released it on 10 January 1986.

Retail sales of the home video were certified Platinum in the US by RIAA on 6 August 1985 and double Platinum on 9 August 1988. Prince And The Revolution: Live topped the US Billboard Music Video Cassette chart for twelve consecutive weeks and received a Grammy nomination for Best Long Form Music Video of 1985. The cover image for the release is a shot of Prince and the band taken by the tour’s official photographer Nancy Bundt.

2017, 2020 & 2022 reissues

Prince And The Revolution: Live stream 2017 — Streaming premiere 14 May 2020

In the year following Prince’s death in 2016, the original footage Prince And The Revolution: Live was upgraded to DVD format as part of the Purple Rain Deluxe Edition released on 23 June 2017 by Warner Bros Records in partnership with The Prince Estate.

On 14 May 2020 a restored, rescanned and colour corrected version was streamed free via the Estate’s official YouTube account in support of the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organisation. The remastered audio tracking of this recording was followed on all popular music streaming platforms from May 15th. A physical format release of the remastered audio followed on 3 June 2022, issued in deluxe packaging plus a booklet accompanying the audio version put onto two discs, plus the restored footage issuing Prince And The Revolution: Live for the first time in Blu-ray format.