Moonraker Catalog # 132 Release Year 1996   CD Length 73:55 Date/Venue 8 March 1982 First Avenue Source Audience Recording Quality VG

Comments
Deane's Comments (rates this release 2.75/5.0)
This show is on many releases, however, this is the only one with the complete show. The inclusion of Dance 2 The Beat and The Stick make this well worth getting. Prince is having a lot of fun and has a few guests onstage including: Sue Ann Carwell, Morris Day & some other Time members.

Dale's Comments  (rates this release 3/5.0)
Not a bad release. The show is about average other than the ending where The Time comes onstage. Hearing Party Up being performed with the band members Prince throws together is rather interesting to say the least. Is that Morris on drums? Good Gawd!

Mike's Comments  (rates this release 4/5.0)
A fascinating one-off show. This was the first time 'All the critics...' was played and it has a different arrangement to the studio version (it's almost twice the length too). A few guests make good contributions - Sue Ann Carwell adds some searing vocals to 'Still waiting', while Morris Day takes over on drums near the end as well as singing lead on a couple of tracks. 'Dance 2 the beat' sounds like an outtake from The Time album; a throwaway rockabilly song similar in many ways to 'Jack U off' and 'Horny toad'. The show ends with a frenzied 'Partyup' which is unfortunately cut short on this bootleg, though it's still worth getting.

Fink's Comments  (rates this release 2.75/5.0)
This is one of only a handful of releases which contain the more complete concert (alas all are in some way incomplete), and certainly the only pressed disc which has been released. Bafflingly all others feature a heavily incomplete version of the show, usually not including the closing 'The Time' segment, or Prince's opening 'Bambi'.

This is a one-off concert by Prince, as he says himself "This is not a concert, this is a dance". The show starts out with a blistering, very fast paced version of 'Bambi' before moving on to an extremely lengthy version of (the as yet unreleased) 'All The Critics Love U In New York'. Sue Ann Carwell joins Prince onstage and adds some vocals to 'Still Waiting', which includes some hilariously ridiculous lines from Prince about shooting his girlfriend. 'Head' is again a rather lengthy jam, and closes out with a brief guitar line from 'Jingle Bells' - for whatever bizarre reason. Morris Day and The Time take to the stage for a few numbers before Prince's band come back (with Morris taking over the drums) for a fantastic closing 'Partyup'. The recording is a little painful on the ears as there is some distinct background hiss which gives it a rather gritty quality, and the crowd level is rather high in places.

My biggest complaint regarding the actual quality is that the pitch is evidently off, with the result that the recording runs far too fast, and in certain places (most noticeable when Prince is talking to the crowd) he sounds like he has the voice of a 12 year old. As with both previous releases, 'All The Critics Love U In New York' is heavily incomplete and both Dr. Fink's and Dez's respective solo's are missing from the recording - both Templar's 'International Lover' and Golden Stars 'Live In USA 1982' at least feature them in incomplete form, this Moonraker release has edited them out completely - and for this reason (along with the other problems mentioned), I'd say that it doesn't rate highly as a release of this show.