The name Catherine Glover might not mean a lot in isolation, but when you know it’s who Prince commands “Cat, we need you to rap” on Alphabet Street, memories might come flooding back. Beautiful, energetic and comfortable with being wheelbarrowed around the stage in skimpy peach-coloured costumes, Glover – who has died aged 60 – brought brilliant, witty sexuality to Prince’s late 80s era via her choreography and occasional rapping.
It’s now not really a shock to see Sabrina Carpenter playfully dressed in lingerie or Megan Thee Stallion shaking her booty, but Glover pre-empted them while operating in more sanitised times. Born and raised in Chicago, she came on the scene in the late 80s, when Tipper Gore was trying to keep kids safe by slapping a Parental Advisory label over explicit lyrics – and Prince was top of Gore’s hitlist.
Prince was always surrounded by beautiful and talented women. Sheila E, Jill Jones, Vanity, Apollonia; I fell in love with Wendy and Lisa watching Purple Rain and listened to the soundtrack over and over again (except Darling Nikki, which I self-censored like a young Gore in case my parents heard me playing a song that centred on a “sex fiend masturbating with a magazine”). But as a geeky white British girl who turned 16 in 1988, there was one woman I really worshipped: Cat.
She was often dismissed as a sexy dancer or a beautiful backing vocalist, but she was so much more – a powerhouse working in one of Prince’s most groundbreaking eras, around the albums Lovesexy and Sign o’ the Times. Her choreography took Prince’s stadium shows into the big league and her skills are in evidence in the Sign o’ the Times concert movie. She also contributed vocals to Cindy C on 1987’s The Black Album (which Prince pulled from release but unleashed in 1994) as well as the iconic “horny pony” rap in Alphabet Street, and choreographed the MTV award-winning video for Prince’s duet with Sheena Easton, U Got the Look. She also released a solo EP, Catwoman, in 1989, collaborating with Tim Simenon from Bomb the Bass.
Glover began dancing aged five and got her big break at 22 on TV show Star Search as part of dance duo Pat & Cat. She later said she hoped Prince would spot her, having fallen in love with him when she saw him live on the Dirty Mind tour, when she was a “punk girl with a fake ID”.
Prince’s manager Steve Fargnoli invited her to choreograph girl group Vanity 6 after seeing her dancing in a club and by 1987 she’d been to Paisley Park and caught the attention of the man himself. David Bowie offered her the opportunity to choreograph his Glass Spider tour but she opted instead to work with Prince – and brought out the best in him. Her choreography, and their chemistry, gave a visual dimension to his funk and raunch as he left behind the raw rock of Purple Rain and slick art pop of Parade.
The pinnacle of their partnership was the Lovesexy tour in 1988. When it came to the UK, the only act I’d seen live was the squeaky clean Five Star, and making that pilgrimage to Birmingham NEC (by coach, with my mum) changed the way I saw life, opening my eyes to a way of being sexual that was fun rather than scary.
Those dance routines were a duel between Prince and Glover, who had a basketball hoop, a giant bed and a car to play with. Raunch was on the menu from the get-go as he kicked off with Erotic City, Head and Jack U Off before embracing the bigger, newer hits such as Kiss and Glam Slam. Glover was his glamorous, athletic foil, using every bit of the stage, only pausing to open her legs for Prince to slide through on his knees. At this time, the considerably more conventional Yazz, Kylie Minogue and Glenn Medeiros were nestling at the top of the UK charts; Prince operated, as ever, in his own creative universe, and Glover was at his side.
Now when I watch Janelle Monáe switch from playing Prince-like guitar to playfully pointing her bottom at a Brixton Academy crowd, see Girls Aloud’s male dancers crawl hungrily across the floor at the O2 Arena or rewatch Beyoncé’s Crazy in Love video for the thousandth time, I see Cat’s choreography and sexuality all over them. As well as facing a female gaze as much as a male one, few have brought sex to pop with quite so much elan.
