WARNING: NO MUSIC DOWNLOAD
Here's how I remember it
I started high school in the fall of 1982. I grew up and lived in deep south Minneapolis, a few blocks from the city line, but I had chosen to attend a high school on the complete opposite side of the city. Originally I chose to go to Minneapolis North High School for the radio broadcasting program. When signing up for my first trimester of freshman classes I forgot to choose an elective. Rather than having me bus all the way across the city my guidance counselor took it upon himself to enroll me in the television production class. After the first trimester of the school year I had given up radio and fully embraced the tv production program.
The teacher of the class, Dave Nielsen (that's MISTER NIELSEN until you get that diploma in your hand!!!) was a television sports producer and director, who for one reason or another decided to teach high school kids. I owe a HUGE debt to MISTER NIELSEN, and to the studio engineer he brought in (Paul 'Rug' Johnson, one of only 2 hippies I have ever met that were cool and not still stuck in the summer of love). Those two teachers changed my life for the better and set me on a path that was to sustain me for the next 30 years (off and on, when I could find the work). I loved that class, and excelled because of the passion I had for what I was being taught.
After my freshman year, in the summer of 1983 I was made an offer by a former student (I think his name was Rob something-or-other) of MISTER NIELSEN's to help video tape the 1983 Minnesota Black Music Awards (MBMA). Apparently Rob had called MISTER NIELSEN asking if there were any stand-out students he would recommend to assist in the shoot. Rob was given my name and number along with the name and number of a classmate of mine (Eric With-A-'C' not Erik With-A-'K').
June 29 rolled around and I met Rob at his house, and along with Eric we rode in Rob's van to the rental place we were picking up all of the video gear from. With the 3 of us it was a pretty quick job and soon we were on our way to the gig. The entire way there Rob kept repeating to Eric and me that as soon as the awards ceremony was over we were to pack up our cameras immediately. There was going to be a band called Mazarati playing and he was not given the rights to video tape them. Mazarati were some offshoot project Prince had put together, and even as early as 1983 (this is pre-Purple Rain) Prince had the reputation of keeping all of his cards close to his chest, so I wasn't really all that surprised.
We got all the gear loaded in and set up. Eric and I were on cameras as well as another guy Rob had brought in, and a guy running the audio, which consisted of 1 mic going into a 16 channel portable mixing board. A little overkill for 1 mic, but I was a novice and paid it no attention at the time.
The awards show started promptly at 7pm and were over by 9:30, at which time we were all reminded by Rob, via the headsets we were wearing, to pack up the cameras immediately. It took less than 10 minutes for all of us to get torn down and packed up, and another 10 minutes to reload the van. Then Rob told us to grab seats in the audience and watch Mazarati.
Mazarati came on and were your typical 1983 'Minneapolis Sound' / Prince clones, and sadly I don't remember much else, as at that time that style of music was not exactly my thing. I didn't hate it by any stretch, but in the summer of 1983 I was still obsessed with DEVO and the big discovery for me that summer; a band called Classix Nouveaux. However, the single most memorable thing was, after about 3 songs of Mazarati 'originals' (most likely penned by Prince), the singer said "now we'd like to take a few minutes and bring a friend of ours up to help us on a song or two". And with that Prince got up on stage and played about six songs. For the lie of me I have ZERO recollection of what was played, and chances are I wouldn't have recognized them anyway. But I then knew why it was so important that there was no recording equipment in play while Prince was on stage.
By about 11:00 the whole show was over and Rob was driving us all home. We swung by a Burger King that Rob's roommate managed and we got free burgers as part of the payment for our services. Since I wasn't driving at the time Rob dropped me off at my house and slipped me a check for $50 as the other part of my payment. I took the check, shook his hand, and promptly went inside and right to bed.
In hindsight I really wish I had a memory of that night's details. I eventually bought the debut Mazarati album and didn't recognize any of the songs. I bought all the Prince records from around that time; Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999, Purple Rain and none of those songs rang a bell either. I've pressed hardcore Prince fans to scour the collectors market for any kind of information but in 40 years have come up with a complete zero.
Here' proof it existed at one point but is sadly null
Apparently the awards show is discussed here but I'm not watching the entire video to see what they have to say about it.Video linked here
And I guess this was Mazarati's biggest hit - 100 MPH
ADDENDUM: I graduated from North High in June of 1986, having taken the Television Production class all four years. After the graduation ceremony, with diploma in hand, I b-lined it over to MISTER NIELSEN, pushing aside all of my family and their congratulations. Waving the diploma in hand and in front of his face I smirked "hello DAVE!!! Look what I have, DAVE!!! Diploma in hand DAVE!!!". He smiled and shook my hand, and in all sincerity I thanked him for all he had done for me over the ensuing 4 years.
