More than 1,500 friends and fans from around the world packed First Avenue in Minneapolis to see the band play together for the first time in years.
Furthermore, the show brought back many of the original crew - drum tech Brad Marsh, guitar tech Mike Soltys, and respected FOH engineer Rob 'Cubby' Colby, who worked with the band from 1982 to 1989 and mixed the benefit show on a DiGiCo SD7.
DiGiCo national sales manager and Prince crew chief alum Matt Larson was the show's production manager, along with Mike Kranz as assistant PM and stage manager. Other key players in the production were lighting designer Roy Bennett, who helped support the First Avenue staff with Upstaging lighting, Greg Huber on monitors, and Eighth Day Sound.
"A show of this magnitude, which would've normally taken months to pull off, came together in a matter of weeks," said Larson. "Because it was a benefit, we really wanted it to be a first-class event as one would expect. One of the more difficult tasks was getting the original sounds that were used, as well as getting gear that we needed to pull it off. In addition, when you try to pull off an event like this with past members of a band, you usually get mixed up into all sorts of legal clearances to protect the rights of the brand. Prince was very gracious to make sure the lawyers did not get involved and allowed us to promote this as a true Revolution benefit, which we respected."
"Not only was the reunion an incredible show for an incredible cause," Larson continued, "but also, having all the crew and band together again put it all in perspective. Rallying around Bobby, we were reminded of how precious life is and it renewed the bond amongst the Revolution family-a brotherhood that grew out of touring together so many years ago."
(Jim Evans)
