Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to through this thing we call life …
Are you ready to rock? It's been announced that Showtime has acquired the rights to distribute Prince's 30-year old concert film SIGN O' THE TIMES, a live and in-your-face display of glamorous rock n' roll power that hasn't aired on U.S. TV is more than a decade.
The concert film features the "Purple Rain", "Little Red Corvette", and "Kiss" showman lighting up the stage with his fellow bandmates as a companion to the artist's 1987 double-album, Sign O' the Times. For the upcoming release, a vast amount of footage was shot at the Purple One's Paisley Park Studios near Minneapolis, Minnesota, and will include materials from the band's tour in the Netherland and Belgium. A while back, Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau had the stones to declare that Prince's 84-minute concert presentation could rival The Talking Head's STOP MAKING SENSE – my personal favorite concert films of all time.
Sadly, the prince of passionate metal passed away on April 21, 2016, as the result of a fatal overdose of the drug fentanyl. The flamboyant rocker was found at his recording studio home in Chanhassen, Minnesota.
SIGN O' THE TIMES was produced by Robert Cavallo, Joseph Ruffalo and Steven Fargnoli, and will air on Showtime starting at 9 PM Saturday, September 16.