#fdeluxe

The Family

L-R: Susannah, St. Paul, Jerome, Jellybean and Eric.

The Family was a band based out Minneapolis, Minnesota. Formed by Prince, utilizing former members of The Time, Jellybean Johnson, Jerome Benton, St. Paul Peterson and adding saxophonist Eric Leeds and Susannah Melvoin, twin sister to Prince And The Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin. Susannah was romantically involved with Prince at the time. Much like his other protégé acts, the band would serve as an outlet for Prince to release more music. Prince wrote, produced and performed most of the album himself. The track “River Run Dry” was written by Bobby Z. from The Revolution. Wendy added guitar to the track “Yes”. As St. Paul takes front stage in The Family, singing lead vocals, Susannah provided co-lead vocals. Eric would contribute saxophone pieces. They released their first and only album as the Family in August 1985, becoming the first Prince act to release music on the new Paisley Park Records. The album has a sophisticated air to it, with a mixture of funk, pop, jazz and orchestral overdubs by Clare Fischer added, resulting in funky as well as elegant.

The Family played only one show at the time of the album’s release, on August 13, 1985 at downtown club First Avenue in Minneapolis. They were joined by Miko Weaver, who came from Sheila E.’s band on guitar, Allen Flowers on bass, Bill Carrothers and another Melvoin sibling Jonathan on keyboards and former bodyguards Wally Safford and Greg Brooks as dancers and background vocalists.

The Family project was short lived. Prince took girlfriend Susannah and Jerome to France to shoot the motion picture Under The Cherry Moon. The rest of the Family members were just left hanging. The Family publicly disbanded when St. Paul quit to pursue a solo career. St. Paul was approached by a other record labels to lure him from Prince which resulted in a bidding war to break out and he eventually signed with MCA Records. Prince was not happy. Prince would call him out on stage and have the audience chant "St. Paul, Punk of the Month." St. Paul was present at the First Avenue nightclub to hear this personally.

Sheila E - fDeluxe A Family Affair at BB Kings

29th August 2012 BB Kings, New York

Sheila E. and fDeluxe will perform at Paisley Park for Celebration 2018 this spring, the venue announced this morning. Paisley Park also announced a list of guest speakers — including the likes of photographer Steve Parke, the Time’s Jellybean Johnson, and close Prince confidante Kirk Johnson.

The three-day event, scheduled for April 19-22, is the second annual Celebration hosted by Paisley Park to remember Prince’s legacy. Celebration 2017 took place at the one-year mark since Prince’s 2016 death, and this year’s event lands at the two-year mark. The events are held in the spirit of Celebration gatherings hosted by Prince himself during his lifetime.

Last year’s inaugural Celebration featured performances by the Revolution; members of the New Power Generation and 3RDEYEGIRL; and surprise guest George Clinton. Like last year’s event, this year’s Celebration will also include film screenings and panel discussions.

A new element of this year’s Celebration is the April 21 show entitled Prince: Live on the Big Screen. The Target Center performance promises “newly remastered and never-before-released audio and video of Prince accompanied live on the Target Center stage by a super-group of musicians who performed alongside Prince throughout his legendary career.”

Tickets to that show are available separately, and are also included in the price of tickets to the overall Celebration event, which a press release from Paisley Park calls “nearly sold out.”

Celebration 2018 will be immediately preceded by a University of Minnesota symposium titled Prince from Minneapolis. The symposium, which takes place on the U of M’s Twin Cities campus from April 16-18, will climax with the awarding of an honorary doctorate to Prince. An associated exhibit, now on display at the Weisman Art Museum, features various artists’ photographs and interpretations of Prince.

Both Sheila E. and fDeluxe took the Nicollet Avenue stage last month for Super Bowl LIVE, a series of free outdoor concerts curated by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Of Sheila E.’s performance, Andrea Swensson wrote,

Sheila hit the stage like a bolt of lightning, powering through her short set with an unbounded energy. Each song she chose had a special connection to Prince, starting with the 1985 single they co-wrote, “A Love Bizarre”; a track from his 2006 album 3121, “Get on the Boat”; and one of the first songs they made together, “The Belle of St. Mark.”

FDeluxe is the current name for the band founded by Prince in 1984 under the name the Family, as a successor project after the Time dissolved. “Tearing through ‘High Fashion,’ ‘The Screams of Passion,’ and ‘Mutiny,'” I wrote about their Super Bowl LIVE performance, “fDeluxe wound the clock right back to 1985, when the Minneapolis Sound was hot and fresh.”

Here’s the complete list of guest speakers announced as participants in Celebration 2018. The schedule of specific panels and performances has not yet been announced.

Marcus Anderson Kip Blackshire Nancy Bundt Adrian Crutchfield Damon Dickson Josh Dunham Kat Dyson Sheila E. Lynn Grissett Chance Howard Shelby J BK Jackson Jellybean Johnson Kirk Johnson Eric Leeds Mayte Maya McClean Nandy McClean Susannah Melvoin Tony Mosley Mike Nelson Cassandra O’Neal Steve Parke St. Paul Peterson Joey Rayfield Xavier Taplin