Prince’s The Rainbow Children is an album that divides Prince fans: those who love it, and those who really love it (there may be some other fan-perspectives but I’m choosing to ignore them for now). For an experimental record, it also had a surprisingly wide impact, both at the time and subsequently. Prince played sizeable venues on the tour, with an uncompromising show, and the album and live set have been reissued in a recent set while other more mainstream albums languish. But when it was over it was over (Prince played few songs from it live in later years, and rarely discussed it). My talk will discuss some of the reasons for this and why it remains important to any understanding of Prince the man and musician.

Author of six novels, three children’s books, one film and critical study of pop star Prince, Prince: The Man and His Music (2016).