Purple Rain Tour

Purple Rain Tour

Tour by Prince and The Revolution
Associated album	Purple Rain
Start date	November 4, 1984
End date	April 7, 1985
Legs	2
No. of shows	98 in North America 98 in total
Prince and The Revolution concert chronology

The Purple Rain Tour was the fifth concert tour by American recording artist Prince and The Revolution following up on the success of his sixth studio album Purple Rain and his 1984 film Purple Rain. According to Spin, the tour sold over 1.7 million tickets.

History

The tour marked the live debut of the band now named The Revolution as Wendy Melvoin made her appearance as the new guitarist in Prince's band, taking over for the departed Dez Dickerson, completing the iconic line-up of the band.

In addition to Prince and The Revolution, they were joined on tour by Apollonia 6, and Sheila E. and her band. Despite gaining fame from their appearance in the film and releasing a third album, The Time were not invited to tour, as by 1985 the group had been depleted, with many of its remaining key members quitting to embark on personal careers.

Opening acts

• Apollonia 6
• Sheila E.

Set list

The Purple Rain Tour was the first Prince tour to open with brand new material. In this case, it was with the album opener, "Let's Go Crazy". A triple dose from the 1999 album followed: "Delirious", "1999" and "Little Red Corvette". An instrumental interlude of "Yankee Doodle" usually introduced another 1999 song, "Free". The B-side "God" was often played, followed by a usual sequence of "Computer Blue", "Darling Nikki", "The Beautiful Ones" and "When Doves Cry" (featuring a mirror setup onstage to mimic the video of the song). As encores, the remaining Purple Rain songs closed the concert, "I Would Die 4 U", "Baby I'm a Star" and "Purple Rain". The three songs were extended, often taking 30 minutes to perform. "Take Me with U" was often worked in, completing all the album tracks. Other songs sometimes included were "Father's Song", "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?", the new "Temptation", "Let's Pretend We're Married" and "Do Me, Baby". On rare occasions, "International Lover", "Dirty Mind", "I Wanna Be Your Lover" would pop up. Later in the tour, an instrumental of "Under the Cherry Moon" was sometimes played. The B-side "Irresistible Bitch" was segued into the unreleased "Possessed" on the Syracuse venue.

Setlist of November 11, 1984, at the Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, Michigan, United States^[1]

1. "Let's Go Crazy"
2. "Delirious"
3. "1999" (includes Reveille interpolation)
4. "Little Red Corvette"

• Yankee Doodle (Instrumental Interlude)

5. "Free"
6. "Father's Song"
7. "God"
8. "Computer Blue"
9. "Darling Nikki"
10. "The Beautiful Ones" (includes 'backwards' "The Dance Electric"/wind chime intro)
11. "When Doves Cry"

Encore 1

12. "I Would Die 4 U"
13. "Baby I'm a Star"

Encore 2

14. "Purple Rain"

Setlist of November 22, 1984, at The Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States^[2]

1. "Let's Go Crazy"
2. "Delirious"
3. "1999" (includes Reveille interpolation)
4. "Little Red Corvette"

• Yankee Doodle (Instrumental Interlude)

5. "Free"
6. "Take Me with U"
7. "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?"
8. "Temptation"
9. "Let's Pretend We're Married"/"International Lover"
10. "God"
11. "Computer Blue"
12. "Darling Nikki"
13. "The Beautiful Ones" (includes 'backwards' "The Dance Electric"/wind chime intro)
14. "When Doves Cry"

Encore 1

15. "I Would Die 4 U"
16. "Baby I'm a Star"

Encore 2

17. "Purple Rain"

Setlist of December 2, 1984, at the Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario, Canada^[3]

1. "Let's Go Crazy"
2. "Delirious"
3. "1999" (includes Reveille interpolation)
4. "Little Red Corvette"

• Yankee Doodle (Instrumental Interlude)

5. "Under the Cherry Moon" (Instrumental)
6. "Free"
7. "Take Me with U"
8. "Dirty Mind"
9. "Do Me, Baby"
10. "I Wanna Be Your Lover"
11. "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?"
12. "Temptation"
13. "Let's Pretend We're Married"/"International Lover"
14. "Father's Song"
15. "God"
16. "Computer Blue"
17. "Darling Nikki"
18. "The Beautiful Ones" (includes 'backwards' "The Dance Electric"/wind chime intro)
19. "When Doves Cry"

Encore 1

20. "I Would Die 4 U"
21. "Baby I'm a Star"

Encore 2

22. "Purple Rain"

Setlist of February 23, 1985, at the The Forum, Inglewood, California, United States^[4]

1. "Controversy"
2. "Let's Go Crazy"
3. "Delirious"
4. "1999" (Includes Reveille interpolation)
5. "Little Red Corvette"
6. "Take Me with U" (Includes "Controversy" and "In a Spanish Villa (Instrumental)" interpolations)
7. "When You Were Mine"
8. "4 the Tears in Your Eyes"

• Yankee Doodle (Instrumental Interlude)

9. "A Case of You"
10. "Free"
11. "Raspberry Beret"
12. "Do Me, Baby" (Includes 'purple house' spoken intro)
13. "Irresistible Bitch"
14. "Temptation"
15. "Let's Pretend We're Married" / "International Lover"
16. "God"
17. "Computer Blue"
18. "Darling Nikki"
19. "The Beautiful Ones" (Includes 'backwards' "The Dance Electric" / wind chime intro)
20. "When Doves Cry"

Encore 1

21. "I Would Die 4 U"
22. "Baby I'm a Star" (Includes "We are Young" chant & "Bodyheat" and "Partyup" interpolations)
23. "America"

Encore 2

24. "Purple Rain"

Notes

• During performance of "I Would Die 4 U"/"Baby I'm a Star", Prince would invite Apollonia 6, and Sheila E. to jam with him for a 20-30 minute rendition of the songs.
• At the Landover, Maryland concert, the performance of "I Would Die 4 U"/"Baby I'm a Star" were recorded and used as a promo video for the song played on MTV.
• The Syracuse, New York concert on March 30, 1985 was recorded and released on VHS later in 1985.
• Singers Bruce Springsteen and Madonna joined Prince on stage during "Baby I'm a Star" at the February 23, 1985 at The Forum in Inglewood, California.

Tour dates

Date	City	Country	Venue
North America[5]
November 4, 1984	Detroit	United States	Joe Louis Arena
November 5, 1984
November 7, 1984
November 8, 1984
November 9, 1984
November 11, 1984
November 12, 1984
November 14, 1984	Greensboro		Greensboro Coliseum
November 15, 1984
November 16, 1984
November 18, 1984	Landover		Capital Centre
November 19, 1984
November 20, 1984
November 22, 1984	Philadelphia		Spectrum
November 23, 1984
November 24, 1984
November 26, 1984	Landover		Capital Centre
November 28, 1984
November 29, 1984
November 30, 1984
December 2, 1984	Toronto	Canada	Maple Leaf Gardens
December 3, 1984
December 5, 1984	Richfield	United States	Richfield Coliseum
December 6, 1984
December 9, 1984	Rosemont		Rosemont Horizon
December 10, 1984
December 11, 1984
December 13, 1984
December 14, 1984
December 15, 1984	Lexington		Rupp Arena
December 17, 1984	Buffalo		Buffalo Memorial Auditorium
December 18, 1984
December 20, 1984	St. Louis		St. Louis Arena
December 21, 1984
December 23, 1984	Saint Paul		Saint Paul Civic Center Arena
December 24, 1984
December 26, 1984
December 27, 1984
December 28, 1984
December 30, 1984	Dallas		Reunion Arena
December 31, 1984
January 1, 1985
January 3, 1985	Atlanta		The Omni
January 4, 1985
January 6, 1985
January 7, 1985
January 8, 1985
January 11, 1985	Houston		The Summit
January 12, 1985
January 13, 1985
January 14, 1985
January 16, 1985
January 17, 1985
January 19, 1985	Birmingham		Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center
January 21, 1985	Cincinnati		Riverfront Coliseum
January 22, 1985
January 23, 1985
January 25, 1985	Memphis		Mid-South Coliseum
January 26, 1985
January 29, 1985	Austin		Frank Erwin Center
January 30, 1985
February 1, 1985	New Orleans		Louisiana Superdome
February 3, 1985	Birmingham		Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center
February 4, 1985	Memphis		Mid-South Coliseum
February 14, 1985	Tacoma		Tacoma Dome
February 15, 1985
February 18, 1985	Inglewood		The Forum
February 19, 1985
February 20, 1985
February 22, 1985
February 23, 1985
February 24, 1985
February 27, 1985	Daly City		Cow Palace
February 28, 1985
March 1, 1985
March 3, 1985
March 4, 1985
March 5, 1985
March 7, 1985	Las Cruces		Pan American Center
March 8, 1985
March 10, 1985	Long Beach		Long Beach Arena
March 11, 1985
March 12, 1985
March 17, 1983	Uniondale		Nassau Coliseum
March 18, 1985
March 20, 1985
March 22, 1985
March 23, 1985
March 24, 1985
March 26, 1985	Hartford	Hartford Civic Center
March 27, 1985	Worcester	Worcester Centrum
March 28, 1985
March 30, 1985	Syracuse	Carrier Dome
April 1, 1985	Indianapolis	Market Square Arena
April 3, 1985	Tallahassee	Tallahassee–Leon County Civic Center
April 4, 1985	Lakeland	Lakeland Civic Center
April 5, 1985
April 7, 1985	Miami	Miami Orange Bowl (as 'Purple Bowl')

Personnel

• Prince: Lead vocals, guitar and keyboards
• Wendy Melvoin: Guitar
• Brown Mark: Bass
• Matt Fink: Keyboards
• Lisa Coleman: Keyboards
• Bobby Z.: Drums

During this tour, Prince added saxophonists Eric Leeds and Eddie Minnifield to certain parts of the show and often they would join The Revolution on stage for the extended jams of "I Would Die 4 U" and "Baby I'm a Star". A minor conflict arose within the band, as Prince began giving Leeds lengthy solos during other songs, in particular Wendy was upset that her opening guitar solo on the show closing "Purple Rain" was given to Leeds.^[6]

Tour photographer was Nancy Bundt.

References

1. Prince Vault - Detroit, MI Set list
2. Prince Vault - Philadelphia, PA Set list
3. Prince Vault - Toronto, Canada Set list
4. Prince Vault - Inglewood, CA Set list
5. Prince Tour History – Purple Rain Tour 1984–1985
6. Alex Hahn (2003). "Possessed: The Rise And Fall Of Prince". Billboard Books.