One of the major coups for Bogart’s was the 1984 appearance of Prince, who had booked his new band for a short run of rehearsal gigs prior to the his extensive tour to promote the just-released Purple Rain film and soundtrack.
After booking the date, which was billed as the Red Hot & Blue Tour, clubs were sworn to complete secrecy; details were tipped in Chicago and Denver and the shows were cancelled. Presumably, the Chicago date was rescheduled at Bogart’s — Prince had played the club nearly a decade before and had attended the James Brown/Wilson Pickett show at Bogart’s in 1982.
“As soon as they got into the building, we disabled all the phone lines,” then-manager Al Porkolab says. “When the show started, there was a backlight on Prince. I was standing on the middle deck, and people started screaming and this crescendo kept building. In front of me there were these two young women, early 20s, and one turned to the other and said, ‘Look at that guy trying to be Prince.’ And the other one said, ‘You idiot. That is Prince.’ What a great show.”
Cassandra Steppe, who took my place as promotion/publicity coordinator in 1983, recalls the epic madness that surrounded the Prince show.
“They booked a show … and said it would be cast members from the movie and a band called Red Hot & Blue that Prince was producing,” she recalls. “I talked to a friend of mine that happened to be touring with Prince at the time, and he told me Prince would actually be there, as long as nobody found out about it. They booked it in Chicago, and the club owner called the Chicago Tribune right away and (Prince) canceled it. So I knew Prince was playing there and I never told Al, because I knew he would call every newspaper and radio station in the city.
“I called my friends and let them know, and I called (local daily newspaper writer) Larry Nager and said, ‘What are you doing Sunday night?’ He said, ‘I’ve got to cover Huey Lewis at Riverbend.’ I said, ‘Can you get somebody else to do that and be at Bogart’s?’ and he said, ‘OK.’ (Prince’s management) was doing all of the advertising. They told us to charge $5 a ticket and we got to keep all the ticket and bar revenue. We made a lot of money that night, and it was a great show. I think one lady fainted up front when Prince came out.”
This article appears in Jul 22-28, 2015.