Why didn't Prince come to Europe with his Musicology Tour. Prince made a huge comeback in the USA but speaking as a fan in England he still has to make a comeback here ie Prince hasn't appeared on UK television since 1999 and his last concert was 1 show had the Hammersmith Apollo in 2003. The Musicology album didn't make any impact here in the UK and I think some tv appearences and a tour would have put Prince back in the spotlight here in the UK.

I don't know about the rest of Europe but Prince is almost forgotten in the UK, you never hear anything about him in the mainstream media.

Isolar said:

Yeah...I never understood why he didn't tour Europe....Maybe he'll hit your shores in 2006...

Like the PR tour, he was making hay whilst the sun shines by staying on home turf.

He isn't forgotten in the UK at all. Everytime he tours there's stuff in the press about what a shit hot performer he is. Europe has always been a strong hold for Prince. He was here in 2002, it wasn't that long ago really.

You might not hear about him in the mainstream media because a) he has nothing to promote b) when he does have something to promote, he usually chooses to underpromote it (compared to many other artists) and c) he knocking on for 50, there aren't many pop acts who are still headline news at that age like they were in their hey-day.

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[Edited 8/27/05 11:44am]

Isolar said:

Prince didn't perform in the UK in 2003.

He performed 5 sell-out shows in early October, 2002 - 3 at Hammersmith in London followed by 2 in Manchester, (and then on to Dublin.)
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I wanted him to come back to England on the Musicology tour simply so that I could hear him perform some of his hits. In 2002 he hardly played any big songs and quite honestly I was left a little disappointed.
[Edited 8/27/05 12:02pm]

I think he's concerned he'll get blown up by some euro-terrorists.

SEXYMOFO said:

I'm guessing that's the first time you'd seen him live.

For others who had seen him before, the ONA tour was very exciting because he was playing music he'd never or rarely played live before in a set which was less dominated by the classics that he'd frequently played.
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I dunno. Why didn't he properly tour Canada?

Check your map, P. It's a big fucking country, and 2 or 3 shows out East just doesn't cut it.

langebleu said:

Yeah it was the first and only time I've seen him. I'm only 22 and got into Prince during the Spring of 2002 by downloading some of his songs. I knew he was famous but he's hardly talked about in UK mainstream media unless it's some Artist Formerly Known As Prince joke.

I was expecting Let's Go Crazy, When Doves Cry, Purple Rain, Little Red Corvette etc.

But he did play 7, Take Me With You and Raspberry Beret.

meow85 said:

You said it!!!! He came to my city in 2003 ONA tour. I was hoping he would do Musicology. There is more to Canada than Toronto!!!

luv4u said:

You'd think he'd know that, seeing as he lives here part-time. But maybe he's bought into the "T.O. is the center of the universe" mindset the rest of the city has.

He came to Vancouver on the ONA tour, but I didn't know about it until literally the day of the concert. I hear it was a good show. After that, I made up my mind to join the NPGMC so I could have adequate notice of upcoming shows nearby and get my tickets in advance. So far it looks like I wasted my money.

SEXYMOFO said:

So you attended the October 5 concert in London - it was the only occasion on the European tour that he played 7 (during the acoustic guitar set). As far as hits go, he also played 'Alphabet St' and 'Peach' during the encore that night (and 'Sign O' The Times' at the aftershow that followed the concert). Purple Rain was only played on the one night in the UK (first Manchester show), but after Dublin he played it every night in Europe, and 'Sign O' The Times' was frequently played.
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SEXYMOFO said:

Hard-core, long-time fans are a bit bored with Prince just playing the hits, when he has so much other interesting stuff in his enormous catalogue. Newer fans want the hits. It just goes to show that you can't please all of the people all of the time. You could argue that Prince should do shows with half hits and half lesser known songs, but actually that is exactly what he tends to do with his shows, it just comes down to whether your particular favourite is played. Also, unlike most artists, Prince changes the set-list frequently, so if you attend a second show you will most likely get a different set of hits.

Also, Prince can't be everywhere at once; it made complete sense to focus on his American audience, after the impact that the Grammys and the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame performances had. It would have made no sense to suddenly go off across the rest of the world where there was no buzz about Prince. The tour was long, so a rest to recharge his batteries is also logical, unless you would have wished we get a tired and jaded Prince?

Prince always does well on tours in Europe and beyond without any major publicity; that has not always been the case in the US, so he had to strike while the iron was hot.

Who knows, maybe he will set about creating a buzz in Europe next?
[Edited 8/28/05 4:21am]

langebleu said:

Yeah I attended the concert on that Saturday Night. The acoustic set was nice.

I made a spelling error as I ment 2002 not 2003, in regards to Prince not playing any concerts in the UK for a couple of years.

It's still leaves a ? as to why Prince choose to launch a full scale mainstream comeback in the USA and not the rest of the world.
[Edited 8/28/05 6:59am]

metalorange said:

Might be so, on the other hand, the version of SOTT on the ONA tour really kicked ass. What an intro,.... So if thats the way he would treat more of his hits, that would be great. On the other hand, newer fans might only be satisfied withe the originals? Hi there new kids on the block
[Edited 8/28/05 13:59pm]