NEED TO KNOW
appearance, the interior lighting still casts a purple glow.
For three nights after the untimely death of the man who lived amongst them, up to 15,000 people packed the club and the streets outside in homage, dancing and singing until 7am.
Dylan needed the creative hothouse of New York’s Greenwich Village to develop his fame in folk and protest music. However, his year in Minneapolis saw him find his feet, and you can savour his time there by visiting the quaintly named Dinkytown area where he lived.
In homage, there’s Positively 4th Street, and Gray’s Campus Drug Store – now the Loring Pasta Bar – is where Dylan had an upstairs room. Some of the clubs and the music shop he used are now different businesses but the area still has the character Dylan would recognise.
If Prince is more your bag, then the narrated minibus trip – not cheap at just over £100 – takes you to all the places that were important in his life.
There are regular showings of Purple Rain at the First Avenue club, which is still adorned with purple lighting.
Then there’s the Dakota Jazz Club, where Prince encouraged local musicians; Lake Minnetonka, where the Purple Rain character Apollonia “purified herself”; there’s the startlingly named Electric Fetus, Prince’s favourite record store.
You see the huge Prince public murals on the sides of buildings, and Prince’s costumes in the Hard Rock Café at the nearby Mall of America.
The tour also takes you past his $10m Paisley Park home and studio complex 40 minutes drive from Minneapolis.
Entry, for a separate tour inside, costs a further £30. A VIP tour is a cool £80.
LINDSAY SUTTON flew from Manchester to Minneapolis via Chicago with American Airlines for £796 return – see www.aa.com
He stayed at Sheraton Duluth Hotel (rooms from £74 a night –www. sheraton.com/Duluth); the Radisson Hotel, Bloomington By Mall of America (from £70 – www.radisson. com) and Radisson Blu Minneapolis Downtown (from £126 – www.radissonblu.com).
Car hire, for an Intermediate Toyota Corolla for six days, was £234.73 (www.hertz.co.uk)
For further information see www. exploreminesota.com; www.minneapolis.org and www.greatlakesusa. co.uk
Manchester Airport Hilton offers overnight accommodation with car parking included, and free shuttle to all terminals – http://tinyurl.com/ jy9ncuv