Prince - Spanish Harem (Prince's Tale From A) [2CD] (1996)

If you only get one release documenting The Nude Tour, this should be the one! The Madrid show is fantastic, and features several rare performances. The sound quality is well above average throughout the show, as well as the rehearsal. There is virtually no crowd noise during the show, and the performances are inspired and energetic. The rendition of The Question Of U which should actually be titled The Question Of U/Electric Man is one of my favorite parts of this tour, and this has to be the best version I have heard. Pick up a copy of this release if you come across it.

This Nude concert was broadcast on Spanish radio, and is where this particular release is sourced from. During the initial broadcast the Spanish DJ proceeded to talk between songs, and Sabotage have attempted to edit this out. They have done a very good job, however it is noticeable that they have used an audience recording to fill in some gaps, and in other parts have tried to make the join as smooth as possible. It slightly jars with the flow of the show, but short of leaving in the commentary there really is nothing they could have done. The show itself is a great example of a Nude tour concert, and includes some less commonly performed tracks including a snippet from 'An Honest Man' during the piano medley, a full blown version of 'When Doves Cry', and the closing jam based loosely around 'We Can Funk'. The addition of the Nude tour rehearsal, whilst being welcome, is a strange choice. The running order is out of synch with the order in which the songs were rehearsed, and it is available in more complete form on Thunderball's 'Nudity' release. The packaging is, as one would expect, stunning.

The booklet is missing any form of info on the show, in fact there is barely a word of text written in it - just pretty pictures. The set also comes with a fold-out poster containing the Little Mermaid tale by Hans Christian Andersen - a strange choice. Unfortunately the track-listing on the back is incorrect and contains many errors, which is rather unusual and sloppy for a Sabotage release. Overall this is a fairly average release by Sabotage. They have tried their best to sort out the problems created by the broadcast, and have done an impressive enough job.