Prince #SAB 087-088 The Spanish Circus

Spanish Circus, The

2 CD
Label : Sabotage Records
Catalogue : #SAB 087-088
Disc Length : 61:22 / 66:10
Source : Audience Recording
Sound Quality : EX
Year Of Release : 1999

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Newpower Soul Music Festival Tour
Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona
18th December 1998

Disc 1

1. Push It Up   2. Jam Of The Year   3. Talkin' Loud And Sayin' Nothing   4. Let's Work   5. Delirious   6. Rock N' Roll Is Alive (outro)   7. Purple Rain   8. Little Red Corvette   9. I Would Die 4 U   10. Jingo-Lo-Ba - Get Yo Groove On   11. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man   12. Instrumental   13. Speech   14. The Christ   15. One Of Us   16. The One

Disc 2

1. (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear - Courtin' Time   2. 2001:Also Sprach Zarathustra   3. If I Was Your Girlfriend   4. Barcelona - Diamonds And Pearls - The Most Beautiful Girl In The World - Darling Nikki   5. Nothing Compares 2 U   6. Take Me With U   7. Raspberry Beret - Mr. Happy (outro)   8. Interlude   9. (Eye Like) Funky Music - Mo' Bass In The Place   10. Release Yourself   11. Alphabet St.   12. Come On   13. Gett Off   14. Baby I'm A Star   15. 1999

COMMENT

An excellent audience recording of the third NewPower Soul Music Festival European show. Whilst these shows are not exactly Prince's finest hour, they do contain enough quality to make them fairly enjoyable. As with the Zaragoza concert (listed HERE), Prince's voice is very hoarse throughout and his falsetto is barely used. Tracks such as 'Let's Work' and 'The One' are either sung in a very low-key, or are half spoken - it can be rather painful to listen to at times. The show itself is also one of the most basic of the entire (short) tour, and you get the impression that Prince really isn't in the mood. The one small glimmer of hope I had comes during the encore section where he cues up the band to play the Santana Medley; only to have serious technical problems with his guitar - thus having to launch straight in to 'Baby I'm A Star'. That's not to say the remainder of the show isn't fairly decent, as it is - it's just very straightforward and unsurprising. As mentioned previously the recording is of very high quality. The audience are very minimal, and the show appears to be complete. The accompanying artwork is stunning (Prince with bat wings!) and contains a report from the show, however the booklet bizarrely states the recording is from Frankfurt on 22nd December - quite a bad mistake for Sabotage to make.

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