After months of e-mailing and phoning and inquiring and pleading, Prince fans from all over got their wish as The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, decided to produce a live simulcast of the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Dinner, which is held every year at the Waldorf-Astoria in midtown Manhattan in New York City. It took the better part of two months, right after the turn of the new year, for the Rock Hall Foundation to re-start its annual unedited live simulcast of the dinner and musical showcase. Two of the deciding factors to fund and air the live simulcast were the induction of Prince (in his first year of elegibility) and that the CEO of the Museum in Cleveland is a huge Prince fan. After Prince stole the opening moments of the Grammy 2004 telecast in February with Beyonce Knowles, a feverent air of anticipation and excitment bubbled as the month ran its course. A new body of work, Musicology, and a new world tour was anounced, tickets to late nite gigs and one-offs in Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles were coveted and turned into star-studded affairs. A handful of television appearances brought Prince more and more into the spotlight. It seemed that nothing could stop Prince in the days leading up to his induction into the Rock Hall. You had two places to catch Prince live - in Cleveland for $10 per person or $2,500 a person for dinner and the induction at the Waldorf Astoria. Fans from all over Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Wisconsin, drove, flew, took a bus or the train, to witness this historic event. Many Detroit Crawl Motor Babies, members of Chicagonation and Chitown Generation and Children of The Sun from Florida - all part of the New Power Network - all traveled to Cleveland for this special event. There was another late nite event at Club Black in New York City after the induction ceremony. The aftershow sold out in mere minutes and numerous friends from Lovesexy DC and n e w p o w e r n e w y o r k took in the late-nite jam session. The evening in the Rock Hall in Cleveland was special. For $10 you could roam the museum while taking in the unedited and live simulcast of the induction. You pretty much had free reign to anywhere in the hall. There were three levels of TV screens and huge drop screens for you to see the simulcast at the Rock Hall - the main floor next to the U2 Zoo TV tour sign and Moby and Gwen (Stefani) signs and right below on the main lower level outside of the main viewing hall. There was another wide screen TV set up near the food area on the third floor, east of the hall of fame section overlooking Lake Erie. Metro Detroit was represented exceptionally well at the Rock Hall, not only to cheer on Prince, but for Detroit native Bob Seger, who also was inducted that special Monday night. This was the first simulcast of the Rock Hall's inductions since 2002 and the turnout was amazing. Over 1,000 showed up for the simulcast party, nearly 300-500 over the Hall's exceeded expectations. Maybe it was Prince and George Harrison and ZZ Top and Traffic that brought the faithful to Cleveland, or it could have been that last year's ceremony was not simulcast. Whatever it was, the ceremony and the warmth of everyone inside the Rock Hall was electric. We were told a few weeks ago that Prince and The Band were to kick off the proceedings, and he did, albiet a half-hour late. The doors opened at 7 pm at the Rock Hall and the extra 90 minutes allowed for many Prince fans from all over to meet and greet and talk about the man and his music. It was so cool to see a very large Detroit contingent make their way to Cleveland as well as a strong showing from all parts of Ohio - Stuebenville, Youngstown, Columbus, Cincinnati, Sandusky, Akron, Canton and Cleveland. We even mixed and mingled with Prince friends from as far away as Kentucky and Tampa, Fla. The local media covered the simulcast like a blanket - from local radio and television to The Cleveland Plain Dealer and Akron Beacon-Journal newspapers. After a short introduction by Rock Hall chairman Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records, a moment of silence for those hall of famers who passed away in the past year (Johnny Cash, Warren Zevon, George Harrison, and the Righteous Brothers' Bobby Hatfield who died recently before a concert in Dearborn), and a plea for everyone to visit the Hall in Cleveland, Prince and The NPG kicked off the evening in grand style. It was truly an awesome performance - Glamorous Life / A Love Bizzare intro, I Feel 4 U, Let's Go Crazy, Sign O The Times, Soul Man and Kiss brought everyone in Cleveland and New York City to their feet. I Feel 4 U and Soul Man / Kiss were just like the versions played on The Ellen DeGeneres Show as well as the recent tour stops in Hong Kong, Australia and Hawaii. We were told by Prince in a December 2003 interview during his 2-night stay in Honolulu and Maui, that whoever plays after Prince will have a hard time coming close. About two hours later, Prince appeared on stage again to help induct Beatles great George Harrison into the Rock Hall. He joined members of Traffic, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra, both members of the early 1990s side-group The Traveling Wilburys (that also included the late great Roy Orbison), and Dhani Harrison, George's son, in a rousing rendition of the classic, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Prince literally knocked Jeff, Tom and Dhani off the stage with a blistering guitar solo. Prince's purple sequiened jacket, that used to be on the main exhibition hall as part of a timeline of clothes (it used to be right in front of Michael Jackson's Billy Jean 1983 costume and right next to Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA torn jeans and red cap - across the aisle from TLC's No Scrubs video costumes). The Purple Rain- era coat (which I think is different than the Rude Boy purple overcoat from Controversy that was on display in this clothes exhibit is now on display at the end of a walkway ramp inside the actual hall of fame shrine area. Prince's crystal signature is not on display yet in the hall of fame. For those that have not been to the museum yet the crystal signatures go in alphabetical order. We all moved over to the free afterparty, set up by Cleveland deejay AMP at Spy Bar. Some of us stayed in Cleveland over the night and had to fend our way home in the snow that hit the region while others came home to Detroit before the sun came up. It was all worth it and we are all glad to be a part of history. Thanks goes out to DJ AMP and Bruce H. for being so instrumental in landing the simulcast. It was very hard work and it paid off. Enjoy the pictures. Have any more? Contact our webmaster. DatelineDetroit | Dance On | Glam Slam | Mission Statement Play In The Sunshine | 777 Update | Contact | Links | Webmaster Last Update: 17 March 2007 TheDetroitCrawl.Org is an independent unofficial fan/enthusiast club. TheDetroitCrawl.Org is not affiliated with, endorsed by, authorized by, sponsored by, or connected with Prince, NPG Records, Paisley Park Enterprises, Warner Brothers Records, or anewpowerdetroit/PrinceMusicGroupDet fan club.