Nude Tour

The Nude Tour was a greatest-hits concert tour by American recording artist Prince. While the previous tour drew critical praise, the high cost of the concert tour production made it a financial disappointment; thus, Prince eliminated much of the excessiveness of the previous tour to be more financially viable. Like several of his then-recent tours, with the exception of Lovesexy, Prince chose not to tour in the United States. It would not be till 1993's Act I Tour that Prince did a full tour of the U.S.

Nude Tour
World tour by Prince
Associated albumBatman
Start dateJune 2, 1990
End dateSeptember 10, 1990
Legs2
No. of shows51 in Europe
5 in Asia
56 in total (63 scheduled)
Prince concert chronology

Background

Unlike the previous year's Lovesexy Tour, the Nude Tour promised a stripped-down, back to basics concert that saw Prince eliminate many of the excessive and expensive set designs that were produced for the Sign ☮' the Times and Lovesexy tours, thus the "Nude" moniker. The setlist was reduced to a limited number of his hits from the 1980s with a few tracks from the Batman and then-forthcoming Graffiti Bridge albums, resulting in all the songs being played in their entirety and much shorter shows. In a move to promote a more youth-friendly image, as well as cut costs, Prince chose to eliminate the veteran horn section from the band.

Opening act

Band

After the stability of the previous two tours with a virtually unchanged band line-up, several departures forced Prince to rearrange his touring band. The departing members were Boni Boyer, Cat Glover, Sheila E. and the horn section of Eric Leeds and Atlanta Bliss. The young Michael Bland was added on drums, Rosie Gaines took over on keyboards, organ and co-vocals, and a trio of dancers known as the Game Boyz rounded out the new band. With the exception of Fink and Miko, this was the make-up of the original New Power Generation line-up.

The addition of The Game Boyz caused much upheaval in the Prince camp. They first came to Prince's attention in 1983 during the filming of Purple Rain; Mosely, Johnson and Dickson can be seen dancing during various performances at the First Avenue club. The trio continued to associate with Prince over the years, dancing as a group in the music videos for "Glam Slam" and with the band Madhouse. Around the time of Graffiti Bridge, Prince recruited the trio for the film and his touring band.

Many questioned Prince's choice to begin courting the hip hop audience through the addition of The Game Boyz and the increased contribution of Mosely's rapping on future Prince tracks despite the belief that Mosely's rapping ability was sub par. Previously, Prince was negative towards rap music, dismissing it as a fad, as noted by the songs "Bob George" and "Dead on It" from The Black Album.

Furthermore, Rosie Gaines complained that she was being mistreated by the dance trio. Tension developed between Gaines and Prince, as instead of disciplining the dancers, he simply removed Gaines from the tour bus and placed her on Mavis Staples' tour bus.[1]

After the tour, the last remaining members from The Revolution, guitarist Miko Weaver and keyboardist Doctor Fink, left the group. Miko's departure was especially dramatic. During pre-tour rehearsals, Prince had a number of conflicts with band members, but particularly with Miko. According to several members of the group, Prince felt threatened by Miko's popularity with the women. "Prince didn't like the fact that Miko was getting women as much as [Prince] was/On the road, Miko would have five or six women in his room, and some of them would want to go with Miko instead of Prince."[2] The tension boiled over when Prince kept picking on Miko, telling him to turn his "fucking guitar down" and yelling at him. After back and forth arguing, Prince challenged him "to take this shit outside?" and further verbally abused him. Miko walked out and briefly quit over the incident, but later rejoined the band at the last minute for the tour.[3]

Other official sources and tour personnel have also said that Prince sacked Miko Weaver because he caught him in bed with a Prince fan who was under the age of consent.

Mavis Staples went on tour as an opening act.

Set list
  1. "DAT Intro" (prerecorded samples of various hits)
  2. "The Future"
  3. "1999"
  4. "Housequake" (contains excerpts of "Sexy Dancer")
  5. "Kiss" (contains excerpts of "Let's Jam It")
  6. "Purple Rain"
  7. "Take Me with U"
  8. "Alphabet St." (contains excerpts of "It Takes Two" and "The Latest Fashion")
  9. "The Question of U" (contains excerpts of "Electric Man")
  10. "Controversy"
  11. "Ain't No Way"
  12. "Nothing Compares 2 U"
  13. "Batdance"
  14. "Partyman" (contains excerpts of "What Have You Done for Me Lately")
  15. "Baby I'm a Star" (contains excerpts of "Respect")
Notes

The following list is of songs Prince performed on select dates:

Shows
Date City Country Venue Attendance
Europe
June 2, 1990 Rotterdam Netherlands Stadion Feijenoord 80,920/91,200
June 3, 1990
June 5, 1990[lower-alpha 1] Copenhagen Denmark Gentofte Stadion 18,128/18,128
June 6, 1990 Kiel Germany Ostseehalle 11,500/11,500
June 7, 1990[lower-alpha 2] Hamburg Alsterdorfer Sporthalle 14,000/14,000
June 9, 1990
June 10, 1990 Hanover Niedersachsenstadion 37,000/37,000
June 12, 1990 Berlin Waldbühne 22,560/23,000
June 13, 1990 Dortmund Westfalenhallen 26,109/26,109 [lower-alpha 3]
June 14, 1990 Munich Olympiastadion 52,900/52,900
June 16, 1990[lower-alpha 4] Paris France Parc des Princes 45,677/45,677
June 17, 1990[lower-alpha 5] Lille Escape Foire 27,122/27,122
June 19, 1990 London United Kingdom Wembley Arena 179,120/179,120[lower-alpha 6]
June 20, 1990
June 22, 1990
June 23, 1990
June 25, 1990
June 26, 1990
June 27, 1990
June 29, 1990 Birmingham National Exhibition Centre 52,000/52,000[lower-alpha 7]
June 30, 1990
July 1, 1990
July 3, 1990 London Wembley Arena [lower-alpha 6]
July 4, 1990
July 7, 1990[lower-alpha 8] Cork Ireland Páirc Uí Chaoimh 56,010/56,010
July 9, 1990 London United Kingdom Wembley Arena [lower-alpha 6]
July 10, 1990
July 11, 1990
July 13, 1990 Birmingham National Exhibition Centre [lower-alpha 7]
July 15, 1990[lower-alpha 9] Basel Switzerland St. Jakob-Park 51,015/51,015
July 17, 1990[lower-alpha 10] Rome Italy Stadio Flaminio 34,760/34,760
July 18, 1990 Cava de' Tirreni Stadio Simonetta Lamberti 29,980/30,006
July 22, 1990[lower-alpha 11] Madrid Spain Vicente Calderón Stadium 64,912/64,912
July 24, 1990 Valencia Mestalla Stadium 48,127/48,127
July 25, 1990[lower-alpha 12] Barcelona Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc 49,455/49,455
July 27, 1990[lower-alpha 13] Marbella Estadio Municipal de Marbella 29,765/29,765
July 29, 1990 A Coruña Estadio Santa Maria del Mar 25,575/25,575
August 4, 1990[lower-alpha 14] Werchter Belgium Festival Terrein 22,980/22,980
August 5, 1990[lower-alpha 15] Heerenveen Netherlands Thialf 12,090/12,090
August 6, 1990[lower-alpha 16] Dortmund Germany Westfalenhallen [lower-alpha 3]
August 8, 1990[lower-alpha 17] Mannheim Maimarkthalle 79000/79000
August 10, 1990[lower-alpha 18] Gothenburg Sweden Scandinavium 10,550/10,550
August 11, 1990[lower-alpha 19] Stockholm Globe Arena 29,000/29,000
August 12, 1990[lower-alpha 20]
August 16, 1990[lower-alpha 21] Lausanne Switzerland Stade olympique de la Pontaise 32,080/32,080
August 18, 1990[lower-alpha 22] Nice France Stade Charles-Ehrmann 30,500/30,500
August 20, 1990 London United Kingdom Wembley Arena [lower-alpha 6]
August 21, 1990[lower-alpha 23] Manchester Maine Road 35,770/35,770
August 22, 1990 London Wembley Arena [lower-alpha 6]
August 23, 1990
August 24, 1990
Asia
August 30, 1990 Tokyo Japan Tokyo Dome 90,550/90,550
August 31, 1990
September 2, 1990 Nishinomiya Koshien Stadium 36,605/36,605
September 6, 1990 Sapporo Makomanai Open Stadium 22,500/22,500
September 10, 1990 Yokohama Yokohama Stadium 41,110/41,110
Total 1,208,605 / 1,219,351 (99.11%)

Cancelled shows
Date City Country Venue
May 8, 1990 Helsinki Finland Helsinki Ice Hall
May 9, 1990
May 15, 1990 Oslo Norway Oslo Spektrum
May 22, 1990 Lyon France Stade de Gerland
May 23, 1990 Strasbourg Stade de la Meinau
May 25, 1990 Vienna Austria Wiener Stadthalle
May 30, 1990 Rotterdam Netherlands Ahoy Rotterdam
July 28, 1990[lower-alpha 24] Würzburg Germany Talavera Wiesen
July 20, 1990[lower-alpha 25] Turin Italy Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino
July 30, 1990 Udine Stadio Friuli
August 7, 1990[lower-alpha 26] Dortmund Germany Westfalenhallen
August 14, 1990[lower-alpha 27] Oldenburg Weser-Ems Halle
August 18, 1990 Nimes France Arena of Nimes

Notes
  1. Originally scheduled for May 15.
  2. Originally scheduled to take place at Ostseehalle, Kiel, on May 17.
  3. This box office score data is representative of both shows on June 13 & August 6
  4. Originally set to take place at Palace of Versailles in Versailles, but was moved to Paris.
  5. Originally set to take place at Palace of Versailles in Versailles, but was moved to Paris then later moved to Lille.
  6. This box office score data is representative of all 16 shows at the Wembley Arena on June 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, July 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 & August 20, 22, 23, 24.
  7. This box office score data is representative of all 4 shows at the NEC on June 29, 30, July 1 & 13
  8. Originally scheduled for July 6.
  9. Originally scheduled for May 27.
  10. Originally scheduled for July 19.
  11. Originally scheduled for July 24.
  12. Originally scheduled for July 26.
  13. Originally scheduled for July 22.
  14. Originally scheduled for June 12 at Forest National, Brussels.
  15. Originally scheduled for August 8.
  16. Originally scheduled for June 5, to make way for the Copenhagen concert.
  17. Originally scheduled for June 10.
  18. Originally scheduled for May 6, but was postponed due to Prince performing at a benefit concert in St. Paul, Minnesota.
  19. Originally scheduled for May 12.
  20. Originally scheduled for May 13.
  21. Originally scheduled for May 30, but was moved to make way for a show in Rotterdam, which was eventually cancelled.
  22. Originally scheduled for August 19, after it was moved from its original date of July 15.
  23. Originally scheduled for August 2.
  24. Originally scheduled for May 24.
  25. Originally scheduled for July 17.
  26. Originally set to take place at Müngersdorfer Stadion, Cologne, on June 9.
  27. Originally scheduled for May 31.

References

    http://www.princevault.com/index.php?title=Prince_Vault:Selected_anniversaries

    1. Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince, Alex Hahn,
    2. Alex Hahn (2003). "Possessed: The Rise And Fall Of Prince". Billboard Books.
    3. Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince, Alex Hahn
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.