By Lyndsey Parker• June 25, 2019
Thirty-five years ago, young director Albert Magnoli, fresh out of USC film school, unknowingly embarked on a cinematic journey that would change the lives of everyone involved and make concert film history. “We didn’t know we were making a major motion picture,” Magnoli tells Yahoo Entertainment. “And working with Prince wasn’t working with the ‘Prince’ who became the worldwide star he became after the movie. … He was still considered by most people as a fringe artist. So, we went into the film believing we were making a fringe movie.”
But there were some people who seemed to believe that the movie musical Purple Rain, which had a modest budget of only $8 million but ended up grossing more than $80 million at the box office, would be a success: Its star, Prince, and his co-stars, his iconic band at the time, the Revolution.
“He was frantically telling us we were making history: ‘We’re making history tonight, this is history tonight!’” says Revolution drummer Bobby Z., recalling the night they shot their concert scenes — some of the greatest live footage ever caught on film — at the Minneapolis club First Avenue. It was then-19-year-old guitarist Wendy Melvoin’s very first public gig with the Revolution in 1983 (incredibly, three of the recorded performances from that night made it onto the Purple Rain soundtrack album), and she also says she had an idea, even that early on, that her new boss was on to something special.
