Prince Concert Film ‘Sign O’ The Times’ Headed To Showtime

Showtime is ready to let Sign o’ the Times mess with your mind. The premium cable net has acquired Prince’s 30-year-old concert film, which hasn’t run on U.S. TV in more than a decade, and will air at 9 PM Saturday, September 16.

Shot as a companion to Prince’s 1987 double album, Sign o’ the Times features live performances of songs including “U Got the Look” with Sheena Easton, the title cut — with its near-hypnotic though very mid-’80s groove — and the classic “Little Red Corvette.” Much of the film was shot at Prince’s Paisley Park Studios near Minneapolis, as well as on tour in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Sign o’ the Times was Prince’s first record after disbanding his band the Revolution, with which he’d had his greatest commercial success starting with Purple Rain. The disc spawned three top 10 singles and went platinum. The respected Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau declared that the Prince-directed 84-minute film was a contender to rival Stop Making Sense as the greatest rock concert movie ever, yet it was never issued on DVD. Sign o’ the Times was named the top album of 1987 in Village Voice’s Pazz and Jop Critics Poll.

The film was produced by Robert Cavallo, Joseph Ruffalo and Steven Fargnoli.