The Revolution Reunites To Salute Prince

At the end of April, shortly after the untimely death of Prince, we reported that members of his original Purple Rain-era band, The Revolution had posted a video announcing their intention to reunite and “do some shows.” Those plans are beginning to come to fruition  and according to published reports, The Revolution confirmed they will play two shows — Sept. 2 and 3 at the venue made famous in Purple Rain — the Mainroom of the First Avenue nightclub in downtown Minneapolis. The reunited lineup boasts original Revolution members Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman, Bobby Z., Brownmark and “Dr.” Matt Fink along with special guests and original band members Dez Dickerson and André Cymone. First Avenue GM Nate Kranz said, “When we first spoke to The Revolution, and the conversation turned to a possible reunion, it only seemed natural to bring them to First Avenue — to bring them home.”

The Revolution formed in 1979 prior to Prince recording his self-titled sophomore album. However, the band didn’t appear on a record with Prince until 1982’s 1999 and they famously appeared as themselves in the 1984 film Purple Rain. The Revolution underwent several lineup changes over the years before officially breaking up in 1986. These highly anticipated shows are ironically presented by the Minneapolis Triple A station KCMP (89.3 The Current). Station PD, Jim McGuinn stated, “We are just so excited that The Revolution is going to do some shows and start their reunion at First Avenue, Minneapolis’ legendary club where Purple Rain was filmed. Drummer Bobby Z reached out to The Current recently to include us in the rollout, and that means a lot to us as a radio station who loves this music community — which will always be home to Prince and the Revolution.” (Did other stations rebuff Bobby Z’s requests???) Tickets to the reunion shows went on sale this morning.