The UK’s Channel 4 has announced its plans air a documentary about the final days of Prince. According to the press release, Prince’s Last Year “will examine the last 365 days of his life, following him from a secret gig at the White House to his first ever solo concerts, called the Piano & a Microphone tour.” Cee-Lo Green, George Clinton, Al Sharpton, Van Jones, and collaborator Andy Allo (who was once rumored to be, and is fact listed on the press release as, a girlfriend of Prince). Adrian Sibley, who helmed the excellent 2014 BBC talking-head doc The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill, is directing.
It will be particularly compelling to see how the doc handles Prince’s drug abuse, especially given how in his music he was outspoken against drugs—for years (“Pop Life”: “Whatcha putting in your nose? Is that where all your money goes?”; “Letitgo”: “Trigger here, Trigger there / Everybody’s high except for me”).
In other Prince news, his estate has launched a web store hawking mostly T-shirts featuring pictures of Prince and his record artwork through many of his eras. If you look back through eBay at Prince’s official merch that was released while he was alive, it’s both expensive and...not great. A lot of this new stuff is, particularly that Parade shirt. It may only be up for a limited amount of time (the top of the page reads, “HITNRUN STORE NOV 29 - DEC 3”), so take advantage of the opportunity to wear big renderings of the greatest pop star ever on your body while you can.
