Th e u n t o l d s t o r y o f Pr i n c e a s m y f a t h e r Ben Skelton
OK, so Prince isn’t my father. Obviously. So, The Prince Estate, no need for you to start any legal action – I’m not seeking any legal rights or entitlements. So, why the title: The untold story of Prince as my father. My mother pretty much raised me as a single mother. My dad left when I was 6 or 7 years old, and my disastrous stepfather was finally got rid of when I was 12. I was sent to an all-boys boarding school when I was 7, and stayed boarding through to the age of 18. When I moved schools at 13, my love of music soon got me connected to a few of the older boys. I was learning to play guitar and drums and practiced with a few of them. Despite being more into pop music at the time (1984’s Live Aid had introduced me to Madonna and Michael Jackson’s Thriller was an obsession), they
were more into Iron Maiden, AC/ DC, Fields of the Nephilim, The Cult and a few other, far more rock-based bands, which got me more into that kind of music. I started docking winklepickers (pointy shoes), wearing black, and was headed towards a goth image. I had heard Prince many times. I still have a strong memory of the first time I saw him, when I was 12 in 1984, in the When Doves Cry video on Top of the Pops. Hits Volume 1, a UK released compilation album, had Purple Rain on it, and Hits 2 had 1999. Pretty cool, but not much more. In November 1985, Hits 3 came out and featured Raspberry Beret, straight after Madonna’s Dress You Up (still one of my favourite Madonna tracks, with the 12” extended version right up there).
That was it. I was smitten. I dug out Hits 2 and listened to 1999... then Hits 1 and melted into Purple Rain. I needed more. Prince was about to have a huge influence in my life, redirect me from who I was becoming, and add a value set into my personality and soul to complement the amazing job my mum was already doing. Lesson: never prejudge where guidance in your life may come from or in what form...
Track 01: Raspberry Beret (New Mix) By: Prince & The Revolution Album: Around The World in a Day Released: 1985
Header font: Lovesexy. Body font throughout: American Typewriter. Track listing font throughout: Krungthep.
Prince with Sheila E. and Cat, Lovesexy 1988
Taking a step back, I got into music from a young age. My sister, ten years older than me, listened to some great stuff when I was really young. She was obsessed with Rod Stewart, but fortunately also listened to brilliant LPs like Supertramp’s Breakfast in America (still one of my favourite albums) and The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers (she had the LP with the real zip on the front – so cool). Thriller came out when I was 10, and went on to be huge in my life for the next three years. But, it was The Crusaders’ Street Life with Randy Crawford in 1979 that really got me into music. I must have listened to the single, which reached No.5 in the UK, over 100 times in just a month. I was seven and that song got me into music with more of a groove.
When Prince really came into my life, some 6-7 years later, I think it was Street Life that set my music tastes on a course that got me into Thriller, Madonna’s first LP Madonna, Janet Jackson’s Control, and Stevie Wonder. But, I can also see Breakfast in America and Sticky Fingers in there as part of the more anthemic or rocky Prince style.
Lesson: think ‘and’, not ‘or’...
Track 02: Street Life (Album Version) By: The Crusaders w/ Randy Crawford Album: Street Life Released: 1979
Records: Breakfast in America - Supertramp; Sticky Fingers - The Rolling Stones; Madonna - Madonna; Thriller - Michael Jackson; Control - Janet Jackson.
Another microphone gets it during the Parade tour.
Sexuality Going into 2016, I was nearly 14 and getting interested in girls. I had a holiday job, earning pretty good cash. I went to HMV and bought everything I could related to Prince. The Purple Rain VHS, all of Prince’s albums up to Around the World in a Day, and albums by The Time, Vanity 6 and Apollonia 6. I spent a lot of time with the covers and inlays for the Vanity 6 and Apollonia 6 LPs. Apollonia had me mesmerised in the Purple Rain film: my eyes glued to the TV screen the way my sister had been glued to any Rod Stewart performance when she was around the same age I now was. Sex Shooter is in Purple Rain, and the track, in hand with many Prince and affiliates’ songs, contributed to a lot of my sexual awakening.
I bought all the 12” singles on US vinyl (HMV was always good for that). Erotic City, the B-side to Let’s Go Crazy, chanted “We can fuck until the dawn”, with Sheila E. providing the vocals. I went back and forth, trying to work out who I had the hots for most. Vanity? Apollonia? Sheila E.? Lisa? Wendy? Or virtually every girl in the Raspberry Beret video. Damn! Prince had brought some amazing women into my vista.
Lesson: ‘the birds and the bees’ can come from unexpected places...
Track 03: Drive Me Wild (Expanded Version) By: Vanity 6 Album: Vanity 6 Released: 1982
Track 04: Sex Shooter (Dance Version) By: Apollonia 6 Album: Apollonia 6 Released: 1984
Header font: Still Time. Record spreads from Vanity 6 and Apollonia 6 LP covers and inlays.
Vanity and Apollonia in a rare picture together. [RIP Vanity - Denise Matthews died in February 2016, just two months before Prince].
B-Sides One of the things I hadn’t prepared myself for was just how prolific Prince was. I bought the cassingle (yes, you read that right) of When Doves Cry, which had the B-side 17 Days. It blew me away. I wasn’t expecting to hear a track that I possibly liked more than the A-side - how was that supposed to happen? What I was entering was a necessity to buy every Prince single, 12”, cassingle and bootleg I could get my hands on, especially if it delivered a non-LP B-side, alternate mix, or subtle edit. I had to have everything. That quest to collect and own everything I dig still lives on in me today. I have every US 12” single by Prince some 3-4 times over, and mostly still sealed for safe-keeping. I have every Columbia label Miles Davis release on virtually every
format going, box sets, individual CDs and hi-res FLAC files. Boring you yet? What I can see - from every official and unofficial Prince recording I own - is that he never did anything half-hearted. He might abandon an idea, sure, but whatever he did do he did it with determination and a desire for brilliance. We’ve not heard or seen anything like the mass of content Prince created in his lifetime. The legendary Vault contains 100s of unreleased songs, alternate takes and video, probably more than I will ever get to witness in the time I have left on this planet. The man was relentless in his creative pursuit, and I recall really admiring this as an impressionable teenager. Lesson: no matter what you do, whether it’s going to be public or not, or even if it’s not the main event, be excellent...
Track 05: 17 Days By: Prince Album: B-Side to When Doves Cry Released: 1984
Track 06: Erotic City (Extended) By: Prince & The Revolution (w/ Sheila E) Album: B-Side to Let’s Go Crazy Released: 1984
Track 07
Track 08
Track 09
Track 10
Track 11
1985
1983
1985
1986
1987
Records: She’s Always in My Hair (New Mix); Irresistible Bitch; Girl (Extended); Love or $ (Extended); La, La, La, Hee, Hee, Hee (Highly Explosive Mix)
Back in 1986, in case you don’t know, there was no internet. There were no smartphones. No Google. Nothing. To find out anything, you had to buy magazines, go to the record store, watch music TV programmes, speak to people (say what?!), and get VHS tapes of concerts or movies. Sheila E.’s Romance 1600 LIVE concert video came out and featured Prince & The Revolution on Sheila’s A Love Bizarre (see over). It remains one of my favourite Prince performances of all time. Along with Prince & The Revolution LIVE!, these two concert videos set me on a life-long crusade to get to as many Prince concerts as possible, totalling over 30 concerts from the Lovesexy tour in July 1988 at Wembley Arena to Hit And Run Part II in June 2014 at Roundhouse.
Watching Prince perform was a religious experience for me - nothing could or since has been able to top it in terms of experience or elation. My real father was a jazz musician and used to play Ronnie Scott’s with Ronnie and Tubby Hayes. I never saw my dad perform. The second Prince tour I went to was the Nude Tour in 1990 to promote Batman. It took place in June and required me to break out from my strict boarding school during A-Levels, get a train, travel the 125 miles in both directions, and sneak back into school way beyond midnight. Nothing could stop me seeing Prince in concert. Nothing. [Except once when my son was ill]. Lesson: if you love something, and are passionate about it, don’t let anything stand in the way...
‘Live’: recreated in Illustrator from the symbol used on the Syracuse concert video. Above: Prince during the Lovesexy tour - “It put my name upon my thigh...”.
Prince & The Revolution guest on A Love Bizarre at Sheila E’s San Francisco concert.
BLACK OR WHITE, STRAIGHT OR GAY, MALE OR FEMALE, WHATEVER
“Prince is gay’, the other boys would taunt. The school I was at was so parochial and full of white privileged kids (yeah, like me). My mum had always taught me to treat everyone equally and had friends from across every spectrum. But the way Prince was, his lyrics, his multi-cultural bands, the equal importance of males and females in his circle, and the way he blended gender, race, sexuality, and everything else really had a huge impact on my attitude to treating people equally and to rejecting prejudice from the high level of racism, bigotry and ignorance surrounding me. Sly & The Family Stone had a similar vibe, but Prince took it to the max. My mother had faced horrific violence from her second husband,
and so having this hugely contrasting human part-bringing me up - through his music, persona and brave stance on things - provided a powerful juxtaposition to the coward of a man who was supposed to be my stepfather. Fortunately, my mum is now with an amazing man who treats her well and makes her happy, but I hated what men had become to my mum and, differently, to me (my teachers were sheltered and small minded, so didn’t inspire). This man - this Prince - was beautiful. He helped me have the strength to stand for others, and encouraged me to surround myself with friends from across every spectrum. Much like my mum.
Lesson: stand for others and give everyone equal opportunity...
Prince & The Revolution - L to R: Brownmark, Prince, Bobby Z, Dr. Fink, Lisa, Wendy. Bottom L to R: Wendy & Lisa; Brownmark; Sheila E.; Boni Boyer (RIP); The Family/ fDeluxe.
UNDER THE SPELL OF
A typical question a Prince fan will ask another is: what’s your favourite period? You see, during the first 1015 years of his career, Prince changed everything up every year. Literally, a different look, a different style, different people added to or subtracted from his bands, different typefaces, clothing and overall imagery. You could follow that almost as much as you could follow the music. Parade is my favourite Prince era, and the body of work he created - both released and unreleased, for himself or for others - is huge, expansive, and really at the top of its game. Q1’86 ended with the release of Parade on 31st March. What followed was a tour de force of global touring, the release of the movie Under the Cherry Moon, three different album concepts (including Camille and Crystal Ball) that
would crystalise into 2017’s Sign O’ The Times, and various side projects for other artists and affiliates. The Prince Vault website lists 98 individual songs recorded by Prince in 1986. Parade arrived just as I was cementing my love for Prince. It’s an enormous tapestry of sound, experimentation, and style. Which made the stripped back ‘branding’ for the album - with its black and white imagery and stark Venus Medium Extended font - a wonderful juxtaposition by graphic designer Laura LiPuma. Everything about this era makes me happy. There was so much humour and character lashing about the hard and determined work that happened towards the end of 1985 and across 1986. Exquisite! Lesson: work your ass off to deliver brilliance, but always have masses of fun in the process...
Parade era fonts:
URSULA CAPS
Track 12
Track 13
Track 14
Tracks: 12. Kiss (Extended); 13. Mountains (Extended); 14. Anotherloverholenyohead (Extended).
Playing Christopher Tracy in Under the Cherry Moon - “If you wanted to buy a Sam Cook a’bum, where would you go?” ... “The wrecka stow” a shrunken Kristin Scott Thomas responds.
By the time Sign O’ The Times came along, I was into everything Prince, Minneapolis, Jam & Lewis, Morris Day, etc., and was now a full-on collector of Prince influences, such as George Clinton, Bootsy, Parliafunkadelicment, Richard Pryor, and Sly & The Family Stone. Released at the end of March 1987, it was blissfully during the school holidays. I waited for HMV to open its doors and ran home with the double vinyl, ready to listen. These days, I lazily press a button on Tidal for the latest releases, but back in 1987 it was an event to get a new record, and then a ritual to get the vinyl out of its sleeve, put it on the platter, and gently lower the needle onto the wax. I don’t know how many times I listened to Sign O’ The Times that day. It was, without a doubt, a religious experience, not just because of The Cross, but just because.
The mix of stripped-back funk and heavily-layered grooves and ballads intoxicated me. Rightly or wrongly, I never quite had the same 0-Day experience again. I was at school for Lovesexy and Batman, and Graffiti Bridge didn’t have anywhere near the same impact when I got the double vinyl home. 1987 to 1988 really expanded the horizons already pushed for me by Parade, and made me test my atheist stance during performances of The Cross and the whole Lovesexy album and tour vibe that played on all manner of religious overtones. In and amongst it all, I found this alternative version of spiritual guidance that I had rejected at school in its intolerance of others and singular vision of the world. Prince had become my spiritual leader.
I’ve met a number of great people because of Prince or forged deeper relationships because of the connection we’re able to share through him and his music. When I was 15 or 16, I finally plucked up the courage to ask this amazingly beautiful girl out from the nearby girls’ school. When I saw her, she looked somehow like she was part of Prince. My relationship with Rebecca was short, but she became a lifelong friend because of Prince. I’m pretty sure we listened to one of my favourite unreleased tracks, We Can Funk a lot together. The incessant beat and groove spooked me then and still blows me away today (it’s been recorded as We Can Fuck and We Can Funk over the years). At 17, a friend introduced me to Sunita because we were both Prince fans. I hadn’t met a bigger Prince freak than me, so it was heaven and a privilege to meet this beautiful girl and be her boyfriend for seven
years. She remains one of the most important people in my life. Shelina too - amazing person who has Prince in her soul. Gun is a great guy and a huge Prince fan. Very authentic, and I must thank him for taking me to see Sheila E. several years ago. I interviewed Alex for a job in 2010, and we hit it off straight away. It was like I’d found a long-lost brother. It soon transpired he was a big fan, with 17 Days his favourite track [good shout - Ed]. Of course, I try to convert any and everyone that gets close to me. My ex-wife Adiba had Prince pummelled into her. My ex-girlfriend Angelica was dragged to see Prince at Roundhouse. My girlfriend Gala is steadily getting a lesson in all things Prince. Prince is always there. Always..
Track 15: We Can Funk (#4) By: Prince Album: Unreleased track Recorded: 1985 Cover by me
Track 16: If I Was Your Girlfriend By: Prince Album: Sign O’ The Times Released: 1987
Prince at the top of his game during the Parade tour.
Emulation
They say ‘like father, like son’. I love it when my boy, Samir, gets into something I’m into. I love it that he has his own interests and music tastes, but it really makes me feel good when he asks to listen to Kamasi Washington or Prince or something I’ve introduced him to. It also makes me smile inside when he says something I’ve said or does something I’ve done. Naturally, I want to be his hero. And, I couldn’t not emulate mine. I formed a band when I was 15 and we started rehearsing Prince songs and affiliated artists for the annual school rock concert and just about anything we could perform at in the quaint little world of public school boarding, in the middle of nowhere. I had nothing to emulate from my own father, who I’d barely seen since I was seven, and I damn sure didn’t want to emulate my stepfather.
Of course, most of this is simply obvious emulation of a hero than conscious father figure, but - without the male guidance I respected or could access - Prince was the man I took influence from. He gave me a fearlessness that enabled me to be different, to dress up pretty bonkers at the gigs, to take a different track to the obvious or well-trodden one, and to take in quite different stimulus to the other boys around me. Like Prince, I became a girl’s guy. I could hang out with and relate better to females. I had a higher level of sensitivity to others and an emotional intelligence beyond my years, given to me also by my mother and her circle. These traits are still in me, and I hope I give my son every opportunity to emulate these from me. Lesson: be who you are even if others can’t see your values or try to wear them down...
Header font: Superstar Above: me performing an excerpt from Prince’s Housequake, 1990
Me performing Prince’s Purple Rain, 1990.
The Electric Man on the Purple Rain tour.
Epilogue So there it is. This guy had a huge influence on me just at a critical time in my life when I could have gone anywhere. Dismissive of an adult male input, one of the most distinctive and dynamic men on the planet came into my life and gave me direction. I didn’t know it at the time, but the degree to which Prince’s influence complemented the values and insight my mother was already giving me was doubly powerful. On 21st April 2016, Prince left us. I had just gotten home and I got messages from Shelina, Alex and Adiba within seconds of each other. I didn’t even have to read them. I knew. He hadn’t been well, and that combination of people messaging me at the same time told me everything I needed to know. I was numb. As I turned on the TV, my street had a total powercut. I donned my headphones and went for a walk, face starring down at the ground, the day turning to dark.
It hit home over the next 24 hours just what a huge person Prince was in my life, 1985-1990, whilst I was at senior school. I got message after message from people on social media that I hadn’t heard from in over 25 years: “you were the first person I thought of when I heard”, many of them said. Wow! That was surreal, and made me realise that, across that time period, Prince had been like a father to me - certainly far more so than any real one was. I try to be the best father I can be for my son, but I also hope he finds his Prince in life as well. Sharing some of Prince with him - his music and taking him to the My Name Is Prince exhibition - has been a real privilege. Today, all the things that have made me me in my 47 years add up to someone I’m proud to be. Of course, along the way, all sorts of things influence you to be the way you are. Bizarrely, my girlfriend Gala has almost exactly the same values as me and looks at life in the same way. Who was her Prince?
Th e u n t o l d s t o r y o f Pr i n c e a s m y f a t h e r CD 1
CD 2
1. Raspberry Beret (New Mix) Prince & The Revolution
1. Love or $ (Extended) Prince & The Revolution
2. Street Life (Album Version) The Crusaders w/ Randy Crawford
2. La, La, La, Hee, Hee, Hee (Highly Explosive Mix) Prince
3. Drive Me Wild (Expanded) Vanity 6 4. Sex Shooter (Dance Version) Apollonia 6 5. 17 Days Prince 6. Erotic City (Extended) Prince & The Revolution w/ Sheila E. 7. She’s Always in my Hair (New Mix) Prince & The Revolution 8. Irresistible Bitch Prince 9. Girl (Extended) Prince & The Revolution
Header font: Karnac. Above: Soundtrack to the book.
3. Kiss (Extended) Prince & The Revolution 4. Mountains (Extended) Prince & The Revolution 5. Anotherloverholenyohead (Extended) Prince & The Revolution 6. We Can Funk (#4) Prince 7. If I Was Your Girlfriend Prince
Not for sale or profit - simply to practice skills y’all. instagram: @benskelton1972
Ben Skelton, 2019
Prince Purple: Pantone ‘Love Symbol #2’
Created for my ‘Adobe Creative Cloud for Busy People’ course, Morley College - Q2 2019, tutor Stephen Hall.