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.
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.
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.
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