I mean has he ever performed or played any concert(s) on stadium(s)?

yes, wembley stadium 1993

Was it sold out?

I was there when he did Celtic Park in Glasgow, for the Diamonds & Pearls promos. That one pretty much sold out (well, looked like it to me) as it was his first visit to Scotland.
He also did Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh for the O)+> album. Well attended, but not sold out.

Oh yeah he's performed in stadiums, I've seen him at the Oakland Coliseum about 5 times.

He performed two songs at the HHH Metrodome in Minneapolis (Home of the Vikings and Twins) during the Special Olympics opening ceremony in 1991 (I was there, but not as a contestant ).

Joefantastic said:

take a look:

www.prince-live.com

lovemachine said:

Lol

Thanks for the info!

Aaaah Wembley Stadium '93

This brings back great memories! 'twas my first ever Prince gig and I didn't have a ticket, so me and a fellow friend took a gamble and went up to the stadium to try and get a couple of tickets from touts (that's scalpers to our American friends .)
On the tube platform on the way to the stadium, the station announcer got on the microphone and repeated these imortal words... "Dearly beloved. We are gathered here today to go to Wembley to go and see Prince and The New Power Generation! Electric word Prince it means "small!" Needless to say we (everyone on the platform) cracked up no end!

When we got to Wembley, we found a guy who had a pair of tickets that were going for £7;50 each because his daughter couldn't make it cuz of some kind of hospital drama. Needless to say we took these tickets that were worth approx £25 and made our way up to the stadium! After paying nearly the same price that we had paid for the tickets for a hot dog and Coke, we went inside the stadium.
Having been there several times that year as an Arsenal fan (FA Cup semi final, Coca Cola cup final, FA Cup final and FA Cup final replay and I think an England game against the USA) I was very familiar with the place!

Unlike at the football matches, the pitch area was completely covered up with a surface for all the fans to party on! We got a real kick from standing on the hallowed turf and knew that where we were standing was a place full of memories, both sporting and musical. I believe that U2 had either just done their Zoo TV tour at the stadium or were just about to. But the real big news on that July 31st afternoon was that the most prolific live performer of the time was about to perform!

D Influence were the support act and they got the crowd going and littered their performance with comments such as "There's a guy backstage about this high [holds hand up to chest level] and he's itching to get out here and perform for you guys!" The anticipation for seeing the guy that we had spent many a weekend watching on videos such as Lovesexy Live and Purple Rain was rising!

We couldn't see a damn thing from the floor area and so we used cunning tactics that I'm not too proud of now, but at the time it was awesome! Yes, we decided that the people in the wheelchair area had a much better perspective than us and so with camera in hand, we climbed up to that area and was unbothered for the rest of the show! (In our defence, there was room for about 50 wheelchairs there and there were only about 6, so we reasoned that it was OK and we weren't blocking the guys in the wheelchairs view!)

So it gets around to Prince time and The familiar sound of the start of "My name is Prince" blasts out from the HUGE speaker system! the NPG take the stage and there are huge video screens following the action! But no Prince! We start to hear him rapping the first part of the song and then one of the loudest roars I have heard errupts! I couldn't see what they were screaming about until I looked up and there is our man on a swing chair, being lowered from the ceiling with his Gold Chain hat from the My Name Is Prince Video! Then we get into Sexy MF and for a teenage London male, seeing an 80,000 capacity crowd chanting "YOU SEXY MOTHERFUCKER!" was one of the bigest highlights!! I still grin when I look back at that! Purple Rain was an awesome spectacle, with huge Purple Floodlights sweeping over the Wembley skyline as the guitar solo blasted out! "One time for the sky! We're gonna sing one time for the sky!" Our man yelled!
The Hornheadz were on top form that night and Prince was lively, jumping on and off his piano and busting out splits left, right and centre!

He made a couple of encores and a surprise encore, when about 20% of the people had started to make their way out, he comes out to play "Johnny" and then all those who had thought it was all over rushed back in! Amazing show, great atmosphere, very upbeat positive vibe in the air and a day I will never forget!

That was my purple baptism

Jimmy, that is such a great story, but you have ruined it for me with your Arsenal fan admission. Any chance of editing this piece of knowledge? How can someone really love the funk whilst also growing up on such dreary 1-0 to the Arsenal football circa 1993??

1987 Utrecht, 4 times, my first concerts
1988 Rotterdam, 3 times
1990 Rotterdam, 2 times, in heavy rain...

DreamInWs said:

Nothing wrong with the gunners today though! 4-0 to the Arsenal, 4-0 to the Arsenal. I do admit that the 1-0 got a little tiresome, but it did the job and a win was always good enough for me.

Wembley '93 was also my first Prince gig, a great day. I went with two friends who weren't too bothered about seeing Prince but wanted to go along and dance to the funky music. They were happy to hang out near the back where there was plenty of space, I had other plans. I decided to get as close to the front as possible and slowly began edging forwards. My plan was scuppered though, when I encountered a barrier about a 3rd of the pitch from the stage. So didn't get to see Prince too well, got really squashed, almost died of thirst, but had a great day.

Although I have managed to see him up close since, there remains something special about that first gig.

Many!
SF Cow Palace sold out 5 nights during Purple Rain tour. Seating around 16,000 per night.

Oakland Coliseum seats around 20,000 and sells out almost everytime he plays, which has also been many.

If this is just the Bay Area...imagine adding all other major cities into that

Played Wembley for a record breaking 17+ times in 1990.

Also, in 1990, he played Yokohama in Japan three nights which I believe holds 80,000 and each night was sold out.

Also, L.A. Coliseum in 1981 (90,000+) where he opened for the Stones twice and was booed off both times within 10 minutes. =-/

Berry said:

Yep those were all great shows weren't they Berry?

I went to the Wembley Stadium gig. Got my tix from Eileen from the good 'ole Controversy fan club. We didn't realise 'til we got there that even though we had "Priority Booking", we had really bad seats to the right of the stage, couldn't see half of what was going on. Also, the sounds was really bad.

Just before the gig started, Eileen came round with what looked like bookmarks, but turned out to be tickets for an aftershow at The Forum in Kentish Town. Left the show early (before the encore) and made my way up there. Was about fourth in line, and got right to the front of the stage and witnessed my all-time favourite aftershow experience. I could literally touch his feet where I was standing, but decided against it as the heels would have caused some major damage if I'd have tried I'm sure . The one thing I remember was a girl standing next to me at the aftershow with hair which could best be described as "frizzy". She'd been placed there by Prince's management about 5 minutes before the show started. I had a bit of a stubble thing going on at the time, so every time either of us turned round, her hair kept getting caught in my stubble! She tried glaring at me once but I gave her some South London phrases and she backed off. At the end of the gig, Prince's management said he wanted to "meet her", so she got pulled up on stage and was taken round the back (unintentional inuendo there guys, honest!).

Another thing I remember this night for was the next day finding out that Controversy was closing. That was the night Eileen had been "used" by Prince's management for their own gain and she'd decided enough was enough.

Paris, Parc des Princes stadium june 1990, I was there

Germany, Frankfurt Waldstadion Lovesexy-Tour 1988

I was there but I was sooo far away from the stage...

I saw the guy in France at the "Parc des Princes" -litteraly Prince's park- in June 90. Between 15.000 and 20.000 in the audience. Waited 16 hours under the sun 4 a front row. The show was 90 minutes only. great deception.

Vg

how about the superdome in new orleans for the 'purple rain' tour. i was there. it holds about 60,000.

Berry said:

Those sound like arena's (indoors) to me by the number of seats you are talking about. A stadium typically holds 50,000 to 100,000 seats and is outdoors unless covered by a dome. So has Prince ever played Candlestick Park?



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[This message was edited Sun Jan 12 17:00:31 PST 2003 by lovemachine]

JimmyNothing said:

Hell, besides aftershows, didn't he used to play only stadiums back in the day??

CalhounSq said:

I thought he mainly played auditoriums and arenas. Stadium shows are very rare as he rarely plays outside.

Stadium by definition is a large venue with no roof...so... my new answer would have to be yes, but certainly not many. I think in the begining he did... wasn't it a stadium show where he got boo-ed off stage when opening for the Stones in 1980?


Other than that I have never seen him outdoors.

lovemachine said:

My bad. I'm thinking a stadium is just a big-ass venue, forgot about the whole roof thing. I never said I was smart...

lovemachine said:

My first PRince concert was at the Feijenoord Stadium (aka De Kuip) in Rotterdam in 1990. Defeinately a 'real'stadium, it holds about 5000 people and it was sold out.

I'm glad he doesn't do stadium shows anymore, since they usually have lousy sound and you have to be very lucky on the place you end up to actually see what's going on.

With "stadium" I really meant a BIG venue, without the roof and a capacity of over 20 000 people. Like a football/soccer stadium. Wembley stadium and arena are two separate things...

Rico said:

Yeah that was a cool gig and aftershow. At Wembley Stadium we were on the pitch but halfway back on the second barrier. So we approached a steward and asked how u get in the section right at the front. (There was an area seperated right at the front below the stage that could hold a couple of hundred people.) The steward told us if we gave him £10 he could get us the passes.

I gave him £10 and he disapeared. We waited by the side of the pitch having lost our places. We were prepared to just accept our mistake and disappear to the back of the stadium. Just as we walked away he appeared with 4 wristbands and ushered us thru 2 the front enclosure. WOW! Wembley Stadium, thousands and thousands of people and he we are literally leaning on the front barrier at the very front of the stadium!

Michael B and Sonny T came out and chatted in the pit at the front of the stage. Needlees 2 say the show was awesome and to be so close and then to turn around and see 60 000-70 000 people behind u was a buzz! Plus this section at the front was not full and there was space to dance around and really party! Fantastic!

By the way Rico, what exactly was the situation where Eileen was "used" by Prince's management? I remember being gutted when Controversy closed and never really did find out what exactly happened.

Could u enlighten me?

DreamInWs said:

Ha! Ha! You beat me to it DreamInWs. I used to go round telling people that I've got the best taste in music and football teams - Prince and Spurs!

I'm glad you had such a great time JimmyNothing. One thing you missed was that it was Mayte dressed up as Prince being lowered from the rafters on the swing. The chain mail hat was covering her face but you could tell it wasn't Prince 'cos Mayte is chunkier than him! Anyway Prince was singing My Name is Prince from behind the stage and towards the end of the song Mayte wipped off the "Prince clothes" to loud roars from the crowd. I suppose if you were way back in the stadium you couldn't see the difference. So Prince cooly strolls out from the back of the stage and we're off and running into Sexy MF.

The highlight for me was the encore of Come, Endorphinemachine and Peach. Three killer guitar rockers!