Dearly beloved, we have gathered here today
To get through this thing called life
Electric word life it means forever and that’s a mighty long time
But I’m here to tell you there’s something else
The Revolution has reunited and they are back! Embarking on a jammed packed tour that is taking them not only across the U.S. but also across the world. The set list is full of songs that you will want to either sing along to or maybe find yourself swaying to.
At it’s core though there is a lot of emotion to this reunion. I asked Mark Brown aka, Brownmark, how this whole thing went down. Mark tells SoundVapors, “Once we heard and I was one of the first ones to hear about his (Prince) passing, because I’m good friends with his security guards. I helped Prince in the early days when he was getting security. I was one of the guys that introduced him to my buddies that were weightlifters, bodybuilders and things like that. So I’ve always had an in with his security. Well they called me immediately, like right when they found him. I couldn’t believe it. I was like, no, no.. you need to find out and get some facts and call me right back. They then locked up the building and the police were there and it was confirmed and I kind of just dropped. I was in shock. Devastation.”
Mark continues, “then it went viral on the news and we all, in passing, were calling each other. We were like speed dialing and conference calling within an hour. We were figuring out what we had to do and we knew we needed to go to Minneapolis. We just didn’t have enough information on what happened or anything. So we all made that trek to Minneapolis to gather information and just grieve. I was all just so sad.”
It was all just so unreal. I told Mark that all of us outside of the band were so shocked and when the news started to hit that his death was real, it hit everyone so hard. I cannot even imagine what they were feeling that day. Mark says, “Even to this day, it’s like I still don’t realize it. I don’t grasp yet, fully, that he’s gone and he ain’t coming back. And when we hit that stage at night, it depends on the night and I feel it. It’s like something runs through you. This sadness. Because you realize that he’s not there. He’s not in the center and we have a guest singer. And I’m singing songs he’s supposed to be singing. It’s crazy.” You can hear the emotion in his voice a he tells me this.
He mentioned that the band playing those first three shows at the legendary First Avenue in Minnesota was done to help the band grieve but they quickly realized that it helped that fans grieve just as much.
At these shows you can expect excitement, pure joy and also some tears. While we were discussing the set list Mark told me about deciding which songs to include during the show. He says, “We are playing Prince and The Revolution music and we will play stuff that we played while we were with him. We started building the list from all of the hits and there’s a lot of them! 98% of the hits were stuff we were involved in.” The biggest emotional moment of these shows? Purple Rain. No doubt. Mark says, “we see a lot of people break down during that song.”
Mark says these shows are meant to be fun and a celebration. Just like the way Prince would’ve wanted it to be. So when you come see them live there is a lot of energy not only on stage but in the entire building.
The band plays The Majestic in Detroit tonight and there will be a packed house to do a little reminiscing with. Mark says there is a lot of mutual love between the band and Detroit and he is looking forward to this show. The band is definitely fired up!
Make sure you catch one of these shows when it comes to your town. You have the opportunity to see the original Revolution playing these songs that have meant so much to millions and millions of fans. Expect to sing along. Expect to see joy on the bands faces and possibly a few tears.. and maybe come out and shed a tear or two of your own.
Come back tomorrow as I will be posting a show review and a continuation of my discussion with Mark from The Revolution.
-Tommy Marz
Follow @Tommy and @SoundVapors on Twitter.
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