#abrandnewkey

Prince “1999” A: So let me get this straight, not that I don't believe you because I do, but you really did get hit in the head with a guitar pick thrown from stage by Prince during The Purple Rain Tour? K: Actually, it was a little lower. The clavicle I think.

A: That explains the limp.

K: What?

A: Never mind. I’m tired! Why are concert memories and moments like these so… important? So special?

K: At that time, it was just another great component to a great night. My friend Carole and I were starting to spend time together again which was good. We bought this ticket-and-transport package deal where we got on a school bus at the Towers Plaza in Niagara Falls – and that took us to Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto for Prince’s Purple Rain Tour! It was December 3, 1985 and the price for the bus and ticket was in the 50-dollar range!

A: Wow.

K: Carole and I went to a restaurant in the Eaton Centre and had a something to eat along with a few cocktails. I remember having a happy buzz as we hopped on the subway to the Gardens.

A: Good seats?

K: Not fabulous. But one of the benefits of going to a concert with Carole was that bouncers seemed to love her. And before you know it, we were floor level about five rows back and everyone was on their feet.

A: Even though Prince’s appearance on the sitcom “New Girl” was somewhat brief and contrived, he seems like a mysterious and mesmerizing person.

K: Prince had crazy control over the audience. It really seemed like an innate skill – one he enjoyed and used to his advantage. I dream to one day work in a school where a teacher could manage a classroom as well as Prince managed that audience. Maybe teachers should throw-out guitar picks and yellow mums after every math lesson? I'm just sayin’!

A: And you not only walked away with memories but a souvenir.

K: The magic of that guitar pick really kicks in all these years later. I can stand up and say “I was at Prince’s Purple Rain Tour in Maple Leaf Gardens.” There's a lot of powerful history in that statement. Prince was at his peak. And a concert at the Gardens in 1985 really was like playing at the centre of the universe. 

A: Did the live music and his overall performance live up to the incredible soundtrack of that incredibly mediocre movie? K: I'd have to say “Yes” based purely on the fact I had a really fun night. Take away the cocktails and a chance to be at a great venue in a great city and I think it still would have been a great show. The energy was infectious. I can't say that the songs from “Purple Rain” or from “1999” two years before that have stood the test of time for me, but it's impossible to think of that time in my life without embracing that music as being important.

A: That being said, how then can a song become and remain a favourite of yours?