Prince’s former backing band have played their first reunion show in his honour.
The Revolution vowed to reform in honour of the ‘1999’ singer following his death from an overdose in April, and performed the first of three gigs at the First Avenue club in Minneapolis – where ‘Purple Rain’ was filmed – on Thursday (01.09.16) evening.
The line-up, singers Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, bassists Brown Mark and Andre Cymone, drummer Bobby Z, keyboardist Dr Fink and guitarist Dez Dickerson, played versions of Prince’s hits including ‘Little Red Corvette’, and ‘Let’s Go Crazy’, while Bilal was a special guest on ‘The Beautiful Ones’.
A number of Prince’s former lovers also took to the stage, including his ex-wives Mayte Garcia and Manuela and former girlfriend Susannah Melvoin, Wendy’s twin sister.
The Revolution formed in 1979 and backed Prince on tour from 1980 and on his albums ‘1999’, ‘Purple Rain’, ‘Around the World in a Day’ and ‘Parade’, before disbanding in 1986.
The Revolution reformed without Prince for charity shows in 2003 and 2012, while Prince played with Wendy and Lisa at the Brit Awards in 2006.
The group announced their plans to reunite days after Prince’s shock death.
In a video posted on Brown’s Facebook, Wendy said: "We have decided, after spending three or four days together now grieving over the loss of Prince, that we would like to come out and do some shows."
The Revolution perform reunion gig
