How did your local music scene compare to Purple Rain?

I'm wish I could say I was way to young in the 80s to know about the nightlife were we was living at the time.

In 1984 this place was still part of the soviet union and as a result we had strictly no fun allowed policy. The music scene consisted of bootleg cassette tapes people smuggled in from the west.

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The spirit of abysmal despair

My local music scene bore no resemblance whatsoever to the local scene depicted in Purple Rain, which is like a fat rich Hollywood producer's fantasy of what a "local music scene" must be like. What is shown in this film doesn't exist and never has.

Things in my scene were much like yours (OP). Very casual in every sense of the word. Dressed-down. Bands were indeed close friends with each other and shared the bill, in fact booked themselves as a whole night and brought each other on-board to help each other out. If one band got booked somewhere they were usually allowed to bring along other artists/bands to be the opening or other acts. The club owners just wanted people through the door buying drinks; the bar doing well at the end of the night was all they really wanted, bottom line. It's true all that matters in getting to play was, do you have a following who will show up and buy lots of drinks all night?

And nobody "made it big!!" just because they played one night and got a raving reception from the crowd there that night. Apollonia's comments about how just because her show went across well meant that suddenly she could think of herself as having "made it big" is ridiculous. In my old scene "making it big" would be that you actually managed to get seen and signed back in the day -- meaning, a record contract. Even then you had a long way to go to be successful in any meaningful way.

Nobody got paid shit. There would be a tip jar. Sometimes you got a portion of the door money. Everyone I knew, even exquisitely talented musicians and songwriters, worked a day job. The best songwriters I'd ever heard were waiters and busboys in my city. They certainly didn't make the kind of money that bought you purple suits and tricked-out motorcycles -- not from the day job or the gigs.

I never saw a lot of serious substance abuse, at least nothing that was obvious, maybe "behind closed doors" who knows.
The only thing I ever saw being popular was pot.

In Australia there were mostly rock bands playing in pubs whereas recorded music was more common in clubs. Unless the club was a hard rock or metal one.

Aussies are pretty down to earth so none of the ego trips and flashiness you see in this film.