Celebration of Prince at Black Box Theatre

Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@live.ie

A year after the death of the phenomenal performer Prince, Purple Rain: A Celebration comes to Galway City’s Black Box on Saturday, May 20. Led by Jimi Love, who has been leading this tribute act for 12 years, this show boasts a seven-piece band dedicated to the music of the Minneapolitan.

Jimi recalls the first gig the band played after Prince’s death.

“It was about two months after, we did a festival,” he says. “It was really sad, to be honest. There were a lot of tears in the audience as well as onstage. It kind of brought it home when we got to Purple Rain in the set – it was just all the emotions at once, and a massive sense of loss.”

Jimi has been a Prince devotee since the age of 10.

“I was in my godfather’s car, and he put the Purple Rain album on,” he recalls. “I think I got about 30 seconds into Let’s Go Crazy and I was absolutely blown away by it. I’d never heard anything like it. I did all the chores I could over the next few weeks, saved up my ten pounds and went out and bought the album on twelve-inch vinyl.

“The artwork of the album drew me in,” he continues. “It’s different nowadays with MP3s and streaming; people don’t have that physical thing. Reading the lyrics, finding out who played what and all of that stuff that was part of the experience of buying music, that you don’t really get anymore. It was all of it, the colours, the pictures inside.”

Although Jimi picked up a guitar at the age of 16 (another influence from his godfather), he didn’t start playing Prince songs until later in his career.

“I was in all sorts of bands, electronica, reggae, blues, funk, rock – all sorts of things,” he recalls.  “Then I was in a covers band and someone shouted out Purple Rain at a gig we were doing. So, we busked our way through it. The guy who runs the venue is a good friend of mine, and he basically gave me a kind of throw-down and said I should get a Prince tribute together.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.