WERE YOU THERE ?? I AM BURNING TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE ...

No... unfortunately, Prince decided to cut this tour short, before it hit Denver.

Yes, and it changed my life 4ever!

YES! In New York! It was my first concert. My mom took me. I was 13.
It was one of the greatest days of my life!

It was in Chicago. I was so excited but my seat was so nosebleed! P looked like an ant. Twenty years later thanks to the n.p.g. I got to see him up close and personal!

YES I WAS!!! Feb. 1985, Daly City, CA. I was twelve years old. I'll never forget it!!!

Actually I was going to the show at the Superdome in New Orleans that Friday evening. I live in Mississippi so it was going to be a three hour drive.

It hardly ever snows here in Mississippi but wouldn't you know, when I woke up that Friday morning, it was snowing very lightly. I turned on the radio to listen to the school closings and we were the only school in Mississippi that had school that day simply because the principal had drove from his house to the school and saw no ice.

Being a huge Prince fan since 1979, I said the hell with school that day but my mother told me "dammitt, you're going to school". When I got to school, there were hardly any other students there (they had all skipped school and were on their way to New Orleans). We got out of school early at noon that day because of the ice but by that time it was too late, the interstates were already closed.

When I got to school that Monday morning, many of my classmates (many of them had just discovered Prince that year) were talking about the concert and how great it was. You know I was pissed!

I was there - December 28, 1984 at the old St.Paul Civic Center.

I was 16 and I went by myself on a 'Fan Bus' that a local record store owner in my hometown had organized to take down to the concert (four hours away from my hometown of Fargo, ND) and it took some begging for my mother to allow me to go, and I was so excited and thrilled when she finally agreed.

Back then I'd had a part-time job at the concession stand of a bingo parlor (ugh) and I worked SO many extra hours so as to earn enough money for my ticket and fee for the bus, although in the end my mom had to lend me a few bucks anyhow.

That concert was my first rock concert EVER and my very first Prince concert. It is one of my most wonderful, cherished and special memories for so many reasons - the music, seeing Prince live for the first time, the excitement of an actual concert, plus for a few more personal reasons too.

I even had a camera with me that day and snuck a few pictures during the concert when the security guards weren't looking.

A few memories I have of that day & of the concert itself:
- getting up at 4 a.m. so as to get ready and down to the record store parking lot
- bringing a boxed or canned food item with, as requested, for the bins P had arranged to be there to collect stuff for the local food pantry (I brought a box of macaroni and cheese)
- the stage curtain with the huge Purple Rain face on it
- Sheila E. as the opening act. (SOOOOO GREAT!!!)
- My first discovery of how expensive all the extra shit at a concert is... i.e. tshirts, tour book, posters, that puppet thing Prince had in the movie, that black lace eye mask thing like he wore in PR, fake purple roses, etc! I had no money left over for any of that good stuff though I did have enough left to buy this cheap, tacky light-up purple rose that some dude was selling out of a big bag near the outside of the building. He wasn't supposed to be there selling that unauthorized stuff and I literally bought that crummy rose from him while we were both essentially jogging - me to get back to the bus, and him to avoid getting arrested for selling unauthorized merchandise! That tacky cheapass rose meant a lot to me, though.
- right after Prince came out and all that fog was being pumped onstage I'd noticed a weird sweet smell. well, young, innocent me assumed it was from the onstage fog! it wasn't until a few minutes later, when I'd mentioned the odor to the young guy sitting next to me and he said it was from a joint that he and his friend had, and did I want a hit? that I discovered the actual source of the smell. I was such a clueless youngster, my first thought when he told me it was pot was (and I actually said this!) "Oh sure! Quit pulling my leg!" was that nobody would actually smoke pot out in public like that! I was so naive.
- at the end of the show, all this confetti/flower petal things showering down from the ceiling onto the audience

When the bus was leaving to head home I remember wishing we would drive past First Avenue so I could see it and take a picture. haha

Another person on the bus had snuck a tape recorder into the concert and I remember hearing him up at the front of the bus playing that tape for awhile on the ride back home.

Well I could go on and on but I've bored you all enough.

It was just such a wonderful day. I can hardly believe in a month or so it'll have been 20 years. It doesn't seem that long ago.
[Edited 11/9/04 0:07am]
[Edited 11/9/04 0:08am]

Not boring at all. I would have loved to have been there and I also would have spent all my money on the merchandise and the tacky flower. I was that far into Prince at that time.

vainandy said:

Thanks, vainandy. I wish you could've made it to the concert in New Orleans. I can imagine how upset you were when you weren't able to go.

If I'd had the money that day, you can bet I'd also have bought up all the available tour merchandise! I definitely wanted to and I felt sad I wasn't able to buy everything. I was that far into Prince then, too.

Oh you know I was pissed. It practically NEVER snows down here. Not only did it start snowing lightly that Friday morning but later on that day we got several inches of snow and were snowed in for the entire weekend. The electricity even went out that Saturday. Wouldn't you know it, by Sunday afternoon, the sun came out and melted all the snow in time for us to go back to school on Monday morning.

vainandy said:

Yeah, don't things always seem to work that way?

If the apocolypse began over a weekend, it would clear up by Monday morning in time for school to resume on time!

(or at least that's how it would've worked back when I was still in school! )

I envy You Guys so! I've never had the chance to see Him live on stage! He was near twice - in Vienna (1987 - I was only 8 and I didn't know anything about the Man; and in 1993 - I was 14 and crazy about Prince but Vienna was too expensive for my kind...)
So I hope that next year the Musicology Tour will arrive somewhere in the EU!

AsianConnection said:

COW PALACE - ye-uh!!!!! I was there on a Sunday. It was at 4pm or something like that. I think he did 2 shows that day. My friend tortured this woman in front of us at the concert. She kept hitting her over the head with a Sheila E poster or something. We later met this same woman at a party years later. F'ing crazy huh.

Miguel

I was about 17 years old and I got to see the show twice. The first show was with my high school friends. We rented a limo and my mom had made me a purple satin and lace outfit just for the show. The limo driver got lost and we missed Sheila E's performance. The rest of the show was amazing!! I loved every minute of it!!

I got tickets to see him again a few days later (had to beg my mom). Went with my younger sister and we had floor seats!!! When the light went down and the curtain came up, everyone stood ON THEIR SEATS! I am 5 feet tall. The guy in front of me was about 6 feet tall. I saw practically none of the show!!! I cried pretty much for the whole thing because I couldn't see. Anyway, when the show was over, the curtain comes down and everyone starts to leave. I dragged my sister towards the stage so that I could check it out. The place was less than half full when I see these boots and shoes walking behind the curtain. next thing you know the curtain goes up and there is Prince and the Revolution! They had their coats on but started playing again. The people who were still there started running down to the floor seats. I jumped up on a chair in about the third row. The band played for about another 20-30 minutes. I can't remember what they played but it was wonderful!
[Edited 11/9/04 17:37pm]

SnowQueen, I really enjoyed your memories from the Purple Rain Tour! (Yours, too, uptown26) I saw 3 of the at least 7 sold out shows he did in DC in November 1984! The tickets were 17.50. I paid $100 for one (which was a lot in 1984), but the best seat I had was on Row 2 (and I only paid $50 for that one!) on the last night. When they turned this light on we could see a little of the band changing under the stage through this black drape they had across it. I just remember thinking I would faint when I heard "Let's Go Crazy" start up and all that fog started, knowing he would be rising up in the center of the stage! This was one of the most fun times of my life, I think. The memories are all good. On one of the earlier nights when I was up kinda high in the stands, I took pictures, too (even though I was so scared I was gonna get caught!) Remember when he went up high on that contraption and started unfastening his pants? Well, that's when I was taking pictures---in between screaming, wondering how far he'd go...which wasn't very far.LOL Anyway, my girlfriend who was with me the last night has never, even after all this time, let me forget how I just cried and cried during Purple Rain at the end. I remember thinking that maybe I wouldn't see him again. Little did I know that I would see him MANY times after that!! I've never been disappointed. Weirdest thing,though, is that, as corny as it sounds, I still kind of well up any time I see him live when the opening notes to Purple Rain start.

Great thread!

THe purple rain tour was "kinda" my first concert. I graduated high school im 1984 (what a year!) and that summer I saw Howard Jones open for the Eurythmics..... I left early cuz I really wanted to see Howard Jones and the Eurthymics only had 1 album out and we didn't kbenow the other songs. That was at Garden State Arts Center in NJ, now PNC Bank center.

Then I started college in the fall of 1984 and I was REALLY into Sheila E. I had seen PR the movie twice and like Prince but I really wanted to see Sheila live.

I was going to COrnell and the local paper had an ad that Sheila E and Prince were going to be at Buffulo and there was some package deal for tickets and a bus to Buffalo from Ithaca. My best friend and I got tickets and we were excited to being Sheila live. We used to listen to her first album on tape over and over in her dorm room like every night.

So we took this charter bus to Buffalo (I'd never been there) and get to this giant auditorium and our seats were so high up it was crazy! We could barely see anything. But it turned out the concert was after my last final of my first semester.... so I finished my first term, took all my finals, and was on a bus to see Sheila and Prince.

My best friend and I were so happy up in the rafters watching the show. Seeing Sheila live.... it was great. All wse knew then was the album and the video which we'd only seen a few times on MTV.

THen Prince starts his set, and basically it did change my life I guess. I was BLOWN AWAY. I had loved Purple Rain, and had the album, but seeing and the Revolution live changed me I guess. From then on I become so into Prince, and every Protoge..... everyone I knew from that point on knew how much I was into Prince. A couple years later I bought a synth and even wrote a song that was very "protege like" with drum programming including Sheila like percussion.

Oh and that next semester the PR tour came to NY and I got tickets to a show in Long Island (I dont' know if it played the Garden) and I had tickets and came back to NJ to go to the show. The guy who I was going with ended up being late and we got there 1/2 way into Sheila's set. I was really mad.

But the show was great.... and afer the PR encore... I heard people scream and I RAN BACK in to the stadium, leaving the guy I wasw with and the lights were on and the Reovlution came out and was playing "America". THose of us back in the arena were all in teh front area standing on chairs going crazy. It was the first time I heard "America"..... ARTIAD had not yet come out. So it was cool.

I left very happy.

The song that they came back and played was America!! Thanks GaryMF!! I couldn't remember the song. It was awsome wasn't it??

GaryMF said:

I was at one of the Long Island shows at Nassau Coliseum also. (Was there more than one show?) I was 15 years old and it was my very first concert. My dad drove me and my brother, a friend and her mom there. My friend's mom was the one who got the tickets. She slept on the sidewalk waiting in line all night to get them. Remember when people did that?

sextonseven said:

That tour had lots of dates at each venue. I'm in California and we had 7 nights at the Cow Palace in Daly City. So I'm sure he played that much at Nassau.

I had to stay the night at our local record store. It was crazy. One guy was on PCP. It totally ruined the vibe that night. In the morning they passed out flyers. Whoever had flyers was guaranteed a ticket. Well as soon as the flyers were presented somebody rushed the poor guy and ended up selling them. I did not get a ticket. I was pissed!!!!! We went to another venue and saw someone we knew in line. Lucky for us we got our tix.

Miguel

Sextonseven said "She slept on the sidewalk waiting in line all night to get them. Remember when people did that?"[/quote]

I did that for the tickets for the first night. My friends and I slept outside of Nassau Collesium. It was like 0 degrees. Very early in the morning people began cutting the lines and rushing the doors and there was a huge mob of people pressing from all sides. I LOST MY SHOES! The crowd was pushed together so tight that i stepted out of my sneaker and couldn't get them back. Mounted policemen had to get me and one of my friends out of the line. My other friends stayed in line and got our tickets. Man, those were the days!!
[Edited 11/12/04 14:57pm]

uptown26 said:

My parents brought my friend's mom a chair and a blanket for the night. They were both lost amid the crazy morning rush never to be seen again.

Thank the lord for Internet pre-sales. I wouldn't have been able to get first row back then like I did for the Musicology shows this year.