Purple: A Prince Tribute featuring Craig Mitchell

Big Heavy World is excited to announce that our DJ, host, and friend Craig Mitchell will be performing at the Higher Ground Drive-In Experience on Thursday, August 20th, as frontman of Purple, a Prince tribute band. Craig Mitchell and His 7 Piece Band have won Seven Day’s Best Band award the past two years, so take it from them, and from us, that this is a show you do not want to miss.

They do Prince their way, according to Craig. “We don’t do a cookie cutter P show…we do it our way and we do mix in, during jams, other songs and artists…mostly funk but we do have David Bowie and Radiohead in our back pocket.”

The group has been together, under assorted names like Operation Prince, and Craig Mitchell and Motor City for nearly ten years now. So though they haven’t performed since together January, there’s a lot of experience behind them. And we know Craig as a true frontman: captaining our Make Music Day event for six straight hours, and hosting his weekly Queerantined stream; so rest assured he’ll fill the stage, and his band will back him up.

Prince means a lot to Craig too. There’s a real connection between Prince’s music and Craig’s youth: I'm not sure what it is, but when I heard his first album, For You, something about the music, the lyrics, his voice, spoke to me. I was hooked. In a lot of ways, P, as many fans refer to him, saved my life.”

Prince did not equivocate. He wore wild outfits, high heels, make-up, and he owned the stage. His guitar was an extension of himself, and he played it like he knew he was the best to ever do it. This unabashed nature is what spoke to Craig:

“I was picked on for being too light skinned in a mostly black neighborhood growing up and I wasn't the most masculine kid around. I went to my 1st P concert at nearly 11 years old and all of the folks who made fun of me for being not masculine were screaming and dancing to a guy who was about my shade, in high heels and make up. I slowly started wearing GUYliner and wild outfits. The wilder I got, the more they left me alone.”

It is important to note that Craig does not make a mimicry of Prince. He doesn’t put on the wig and turn Prince into a character. The show, though it has Prince’s style, is Craig and his band’s own. This is due to both respecting the legacy of Prince and to Craig and the band wanting to have their own fun.

But you can still catch a glimpse of the in-character Craig below.

Tickets for his show on August 20th went on sale July 24th. They’re $65 per vehicle, and available here. Gates open at 5, and the show starts at 6. We hope to see you there!

OPERATION: PRINCE, featuring Craig Mitchell & The Purple Ones, filmed live at The Rusty Nail in Stowe, VT on October 7, 2016.