From: S.J.D
Category: Exhibitions
Date: 20 August 2003
In early 1986 saw the release of 'Parade' by Prince and the Revolution that accompanied the movie 'Under the Cherry Moon'. This terrible film saw Kristin Scott Thomas flying towards the 'English Patient', while Steven Berkoff slid down the tracks to work in BBC dramas like 'Jonathan Greek'.
This man, woman, an inbetweener and married is a creation of genius and certainly a workaholic by anyones standards. Prince 28, at the time decided to cut a new album with the Revolution, it was going to a group project unheard of in Prince circles - usually only Prince has the key to the vault and certainly the copyright. Accept for an early project called 'The Rebels' which had Lisa Coleman singing 'If I love U 2nite', a hit for Mica Paris in the late eighties and a minor hit for Mayte in the mid ninties.
Prince had probably expired his creative juices from the last album 'Parade' so he was searching for more material to fill this single later turned double album entitled Dream Factory. Wendy and Lisa 'the couple with talent' provided Prince with the backbone of the songs. This album had a diverse range of musical styles, elements from the last two trippy albums, 'Around the World in a Day' and 'Parade'. Songs like 'Dream Factory',A Place In Heaven, Movie star, Last Heart, Crystal Ball, Witness 4 the proscution and an sitar version of 'Strange Relationship' had new sense of new life, freshness and just a very popular sound. This unique album would have been the best, beating off any top ten acts of the time. It is a cohesive project, segued and diverse a world away from the 1984 LP 'Purple Rain'.
Anyway Prince decided to disband as he thought the band were getting more attention espically Wendy and Lisa, Prince wanted to go alone again like pre 1982. After the Parade tour Prince pulled the 2LP set Dream Factory one of the finest creations Prince will ever produce. He came up with another Lp 'Camille' which was catalogued and printed 100 promo copies, but again pulled.
In late 1986 he pestered Warners to release a new album 'Crystal Ball' a 3 Lp set contained a grap bag of old material selected from the vault dating back from 1982. Songs from Dream Factory, Camille were used but again Warners rejected the idea saying it was a costly project. So finally in March 1987 we saw 'Sign 'O' The Times' a 2Lp set which was the edited version of 'Crystal Ball'.
Prince was his most productive in the years 1982-86 but suffered in the 1990's for it.
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