Famous Minneapolis Music Club ‘First Avenue’ Still Rocking Strong In Its 53rd Year
The Iconic First Avenue & 7th St Entry Hit Its Stride As An Indelible Part of the Backdrop For Prince’s film Purple Rain in 1983. And Is Still Forging Its Place in Music and Culture's Future, With A Woman at the Helm.
Prince frequented and performed at First Avenue & 7th St Entry in his hometown of Minneapolis years before becoming a rock superstar. Many say that First Avenue was “instrumental” in Prince becoming an internationally celebrated musician and Prince was instrumental in First Avenue achieving its status as one of the country's best-known and loved music clubs.
In the months after “Purple Rain” came out in July 1984 — featuring performance scenes filmed at the club over three frigid weeks, plus songs recorded live on a hot August night — media outlets were on-site, filing Prince stories on a weekly basis. Fans from around the world kept coming even after the media left, making it Minnesota’s №1 tourist destination in the mid-’80s. (Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 30, 1996, article by Chris Riemenschneider.)
The same article notes that on April 21, 2016, the day Prince died at his nearby home and studio Paisley Park, in Chanhassen…
That First Avenue and Prince would forever be tied at the hip was reiterated in the hours…
