david z

INTRO

2mins - The Dirty Mind era, the Prince persona begins to form, riding the New Wave...and that Trench Coat!

3mins - The 1979 period and working with costume designers...

7mins30s - The second punk period: Slave and the 1990s

10mins - Veils and Masking - the Exodus Has Begun...

11mins30s - Count The Days, style signifiers and finely tuned 'unconventional tailoring' in the new millennium

15mins30s - Art Official Age, moving away from tailored garments with age...and softer fabrics, kinder to the body

18mins - Memories of Lovesexy posters in Virgin Megastore in Edinburgh

20mins - Casci's sartorial take Lovesexy...and Prince's working wardrobe department at Paisley Park

21mins30s - "Prince in Polka Dots is just perfection..."

23mins - Working with very well known designers?

25mins - First concert costing £31.21 pence... getting the Mega Bus down from Galashiels to the O2 and 'getting my first tattoo in Camden'

31mins - Legacy as a fashion icon, 'his influence is all encompassing', and Prince's passing...crying with Mum and blaring his music on the double-decker bus.

33mins - Prince's influence on other artists and fans around the world.

34mins - Thank You 

How Can U Just Leave Me Standing? In Search of Prince... is produced and arranged by Sam J. Bleazard - but couldn't exist without the fabulous contribution from all of our guests!

The show also features significant original music compositions from Gavin Calder.

LINKS

Please follow me on Instagram and Facebook if you'd like to interact with the show on social media.

Email me at: bleazas@hotmail.com if you have any ideas for future episodes, or if you'd like to share any feedback on the show. 

#prince4ever #love4oneanother

INTRO

2mins - First memories of Prince, and standing next to the TV...feeling the static from Gett Off! Listening to Prince's Hits cassette in the Green Mondeo.

4mins - Born in the year of Lovesexy!

5mins - When did you realise that Prince's work could become a lifetime pursuit? "First and foremost I'm a fan...". Obsessed with John Waters, Pee Wee Herman and Bette Davis too. 'Eccentric, creative and fabulous people'.

6mins - Seeing Purple Rain at 14 and getting into fashion. "Prince was always on my mood board."

7mins30s - Studying Prince for years as an independent researcher alongside work...'when you do a PhD it's just the beginning of your research.'

9mins30s - 'The idea of Prince & Fashion, with a focus on the labour aspect and fan culture as well...'

11mins30s - What's going on with the Prince of the late 1970s? Casci unpacks the different sartorial elements. 'Very typical of a young adult finding themselves...through dress.'

14mins - Prince's experiments in fashion, thrift stores, borrowing, wearing women's clothing...

17mins - 'Becoming Prince': The Beautiful Ones book, and understanding elements of Prince's early imagination and dress-sense. The influence of his parents, musicians in North Minneapolis...and getting dressed to the 9s in the 1970s.

22mins - Heroes and influences...

23mins - Make Up.

26mins - World Building...'in a world called Fantasy'

30mins - Prince's female kinship. 'He surrounded himself with incredible women...and loved female energy.' Sly Stone's fashion, and James Brown's performances...expressing sexuality and sensuality. 'He liked the way particular fabrics felt on his body...'

How Can U Just Leave Me Standing? In Search of Prince... is produced and arranged by Sam J. Bleazard - but couldn't exist without the fabulous contribution from all of our guests!

The show also features significant original music compositions from Gavin Calder.

LINKS

Please follow me on Instagram and Facebook if you'd like to interact with the show on social media.

Email me at: bleazas@hotmail.com if you have any ideas for future episodes, or if you'd like to share any feedback on the show. 

#prince4ever #love4oneanother

INTRO

2min - Do you have a most cherished Prince related possession (from the 9 years you worked together)? "I joke with my friends that I only buy vinyl with my name on it!"

4mins - Biggest 'pinch-me' moments working with Prince...? 3121 era, cherished memories.

6mins30s - Which kind of people engaged Prince best behind the scenes?

7mins30s - Prince and his heroes...and a fierce competitive streak.

8mins - Memories of the Musicology tour, Sam's favourite shows.

10mins - When did you last speak to Prince?

11mins - Where were you, when you heard...

14mins - View of The Prince Estate and posthumous releases overall

17mins - What was it like getting tapes in the post from Prince??

17mins30s - Any tracks that you personally heard for the first time that blew you away?

19mins - Studio version of Prince & The Band

22mins - What's the piece of work that you're proudest of?

23mins - The creative process of working with Prince

26mins - NPG Ahdio Shows

31mins30s - DJing on Twitch: how does it work?

33mins - Prince album battles! Lovesexy vs The Black Album...Cindy C vs Alphabet Street??

36mins30s - Legacy

How Can U Just Leave Me Standing? In Search of Prince... is produced and arranged by Sam J. Bleazard - but couldn't exist without the fabulous contribution from all of our guests!

The show also features significant original music compositions from Gavin Calder.

LINKS

Please follow me on Instagram and Facebook if you'd like to interact with the show on social media.

Email me at: bleazas@hotmail.com if you have any ideas for future episodes, or if you'd like to share any feedback on the show. 

#prince4ever #love4oneanother

Intro

1mins30s - Wishing he could have spoken to Prince during the making of his Cloud guitar, the instrument specs, and making something great instinctually.

3mins30s - Guitar specific questions for Dave on the Cloud guitar and how it was made - how much was stock, and what was bespoke?

5mins - Prince and his heavy strings, and Takumi the guitar tech.

6mins20s - One month and a half to come up with a world famous guitar!  

9mins30s - Wendy Melvoin's clear body guitar...and the story behind it.

12mins - Sam asks Dave how he felt when he first saw Prince play the guitar in the movie...and also when he first saw Prince playing the cloud guitar live.

13mins - sitting in on the Purple Rain rehearsals with Prince 'every day was exciting'

15mins - going to Paisley Park, and taking part in 'the Celebrations'

18mins - How did Dave feel when Prince passed away? "I couldn't say anything, I was just speechless..."

21mins - The Prince Estate asking Dave to give up the trademark on his guitar design.

25mins - Which Minneapolis musicians did you get to know along the way?

26mins30s - Still making the signature White Cloud guitar, and taking orders from around the world.

30mins - Meeting other Prince guitar makers, and knowing a network of musicians.

33mins - What happened to the original cloud guitars that Dave made?

How Can U Just Leave Me Standing? In Search of Prince... is produced and arranged by Sam J. Bleazard - but couldn't exist without the fabulous contribution from all of our guests!

The show also features significant original music compositions from Gavin Calder.

LINKS

Please follow me on Instagram and Facebook if you'd like to interact with the show on social media.

Email me at: bleazas@hotmail.com if you have any ideas for future episodes, or if you'd like to share any feedback on the show. 

#prince4ever #love4oneanother

Duane Tudahl has spent his career working on TV series, but also producing numerous documentaries and music videos.  

He is a writer and researcher, who has contributed many articles for Uptown magazine – the key Prince fanzine – for 12 years, from 1991 to 2003.  

In recent years he received praise for his books documenting Prince’s studio sessions in the 1980s, which are extensive in their research, and give further insight into one of the most fascinating periods in popular music.

A big thank you to all of our listeners around the world who've been tuning in and downloading the show from Paris, to Detroit, from Bombay to Brazil, we really appreciate your support.

And our thanks to Gavin Calder for the music on today's show, which features a Quiet Storm remix of True Funk Soldier, from the album Deep Field, by Balveda. Go to the Bandcamp website to hear more.  

Please keep clicking on subscribe, leave your reviews and spread the word, whether you're listening on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon music, Gaana or Jiosaavn.

How Can U Just Leave Me Standing? In Search of Prince... is produced and arranged by Sam J. Bleazard - but couldn't exist without the fabulous contribution from all of our guests!

The show also features significant original music compositions from Gavin Calder.

LINKS

Please follow me on Instagram and Facebook if you'd like to interact with the show on social media.

Email me at: bleazas@hotmail.com if you have any ideas for future episodes, or if you'd like to share any feedback on the show. 

#prince4ever #love4oneanother

Ronnie Fieg is a footwear and clothing designer and the founder of Kith, a retail establishment and streetwear brand that he launched in 2010 with stores in New York, LA, Miami, London, and most recently Tokyo.

Over the last decade, Kith has absolutely taken over the streetwear game, collaborating with brands such as Calvin Klein, Versace, Nike, Adidas, Tommy Hilfiger, and many others, as well as launching their own collections of men’s, women’s, and kid’s clothing.

In this episode, we did a deep dive into Ronnie’s humble beginnings growing up in Jamaica, Queens, NY, falling in love with fashion and hip-hop culture at a young age, how he got his start working in retail, how his very first collaboration with footwear brand Asics came about, launching Kith and the early days of building out the brand, his insane work ethic and mindset when it comes to the brand’s evolution, and much more.

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In the Jewish religion, a bar mitzvah is the ritual induction of a boy into manhood at the age of thirteen. It’s recognized as the time when he, not his parents, becomes responsible for his actions. 

Ronnie Fieg took this transition quite seriously. 

Fieg’s first cousin is David Z, a legendary sneaker and sports- wear retailer in New York City. Ronnie’s parents were paying off his bar mitzvah celebration with the gifts from the guests, and as is customary, David came to the celebration with his gift in hand: an envelope of cash. Ronnie saw this as an opportunity and said to David, “Thanks, but no thanks; I’d rather have a job working for you instead.” The next day, Ronnie started as a stock boy at David Z. 

In the late 1990s, David Z was located on Eighth Street in Greenwich Village, one of the most influential blocks in the country for street culture. All the big hip-hop artists spent their weekends hanging on the block. They would start on the corner with a Gray’s Papaya hot dog, maybe grab a pair of Parasuco Jeans in one of the lesser-known shops, and end up in David Z’s buying a pair of GORE-TEX boots. 

This was where Ronnie learned the business of sneakers and streetwear. As he tells it, “When Lauryn Hill spits ‘In some Gore- Tex and sweats I make treks like I’m homeless,’ the week that she recorded that album, I sold her the boots. And when you see Ma$e and Diddy in the ‘Been Around the World’ video and they’re wearing Dolomites, I sold them their boots. Anytime you’d see Wu-Tang with custom Wallabies, I used to get them custom-made for them. Jay-Z was there every weekend. ‘Cruising down Eighth Street’—when he spits that on the [‘Empire State of Mind’] track, that was him every Saturday, cruising down Eighth Street. I used to help him with his Timberlands every Saturday.” For Ronnie, working at David Z was like going to the Harvard of street style. 

Ronnie worked his way up from stock boy to sales clerk to assistant manager to manager to assistant buyer and, eventually, buyer for multiple David Z stores around the age of twenty-five. As the head buyer, Ronnie had direct exposure to the brands, and luckily for him, David Z moved volume, which gave him influence. He formed a relationship with ASICS at a Vegas trade show, and the brand performed well in the stores, so ASICS decided to give him the opportunity to design his own silhouette. 

This was propitious; back in the day, his mom had bought him a pair of ASICS Gel-Lyte IIIs at Tennis Junction in Great Neck instead of the more popular Reebok Pumps he wanted. At first, Ronnie hated them, but eventually he grew to love them, wearing them until they had “holes in the soles.” He wanted to replace them, but they’d been discontinued. When ASICS gave him the chance to design his own, the Gel-Lyte III was his obvious choice. He pulled them out of the archive and created three versions, of which a total of 756 pairs were manufactured. He called in some favors from a few friends, and they threw an event at David Z. The next day, they sold a few pairs, and he shared the story of the shoes with one of the buyers. The day after that, Ronnie’s mother called him, exclaiming, “Your shoe is on the cover of the Wall Street Journal!” The guy Ronnie had told the story to was an editor at the WSJ, and he wrote a story about limited-run sneakers. The next day, there was a line around the block. That same day, the president of Adidas America showed up and, as Ronnie tells it, “I told him the story, and that’s how we started talking about working on a shoe called the Black Tie.” Ronnie had begun to build his following.