Sly Stone at his Marquette Park piano. We should have written a song together. (Photo by Phil Moloitis.)
I don’t recall the tip that led me to the Prime & Tender, an oddball nightclub-restaurant at the corner of 63rd and Harlem in south suburban Stickney. It was the spring of 1983 and I was a staff writer at the Suburban Chicago Sun-Times and was freelancing for the Reader and the Illinois Entertainer.
The Prime & Tender was not the Pump Room. Patrons walked through a cheesy, long mirrored hallway as if they were boarding an old cruise ship. They sat along the perimeter of the multi-colored dance [...]
MINNEAPOLIS—One of the greatest baseball promotions in recent years was “Prince Night” at Target Field in downtown Minneapolis. The event was on June 8, a day after the fallen rock star’s 60th birthday. The first 10,000 fans received inflatable purple guitars that replicated the custom made Prince symbol guitar he played at the rainy Bears-Colts Super Bowl in Miami.
A special ticket package included commemorative purple baseball caps with the Prince symbol. A post-game fireworks show was themed with Prince hits like “Raspberry Beret.” The Twins struck up an exclusive merchandising deal with the Prince estate, so yes there were commemorative baseballs with the Prince [...]
