An after-party performance from Prince was put to an end by “twenty police officers” after just fifteen minutes.
The Purple Rain hitmaker had been keen to perform as much as he could in shows across his homecoming celebration, but on July 8, 2007, police cut short the rock and roll legend. Prince had performed at a department store downtown and a headline slot at a 19,000-capacity venue on the same day. But it wasn’t enough for Prince, who decided to keep the show rolling as long as he could, with an after-party on First Avenue set up to keep the music playing. It was not a long-lasting concert, though, as police would end the show just fifteen minutes after Prince took to the stage. Though the First Avenue venue had a license for live music up to 3am, Prince didn’t arrive until 2.45am.
Prince may have hoped the police would turn a blind eye to this noise breach, but there was no such luck. He managed to play I Feel For You and Controversy before being pulled by the police and having to scrap the show. The latter song may be a tad ironic as the decision to pull the Minneapolis native from the stage was met with fury from the performer.
He said: “The authorities say we gotta go. We always listen to the authorities. I promise I’ll be back.” First Avenue owner Byron Frank claims there were discussions between Prince’s crew and police before the show in the hopes of giving the veteran songwriter a little more time to perform.
Frank said: “It’s very sad they had to do it because everybody was having such a wonderful time.” A wonderful time it may have been, but police sergeant ET Nelson claimed more than twenty officers were working overtime to keep roads closed for the gig, which had breached its 3am cut-off.
He said: “I think it’s very arrogant of him to think he can hold us here like this. The law is the law for anybody.” It’s not the first time Prince has ran into problems with his live shows either, with his performances during an opening set for The Rolling Stones leaving the artist abandoning the show.
Mick Jagger managed to convince Prince to return to play out the rest of the shows, but it was a learning experience for all involved. According to Far Out Magazine, members of the crowd hurled homophobic slurs at Prince and the band. Recalling the incident, bass guitarist Brown Mark said it was the “crazied thing I had ever seen” with the crowd throwing food at the band.
He said: “Next thing I noticed was food starting to fly through the air like a dark thunder cloud. Imagine 94,000 people throwing food at each other; it was the craziest thing I had ever seen in my life. I got hit in the shoulder with a bag of fried chicken; then my guitar got knocked out of tune by a large grapefruit that hit the tuning keys.”
Despite promoter Bill Graham attempting to calm the situation, Prince and his band were left with no choice but to leave partway through their performance of Uptown. The legendary performer would play just four songs to the crowd, and Prince vowed not to return to the follow-up show two days later.
Speaking in 1983, Jagger confirmed he understood how Prince felt but told him that if he did become a headliner in future, getting chickens and debris thrown at him would be all part of the performance.
Jagger said: “I talked to Prince on the phone once after he got two cans thrown at him in L.A. He said he didn’t want to do any more shows. God, I got thousands of bottles and cans thrown at me! Every kind of debris. I told him, if you get to be a really big headliner, you have to be prepared for people to throw bottles at you in the night.”
