theres a lot of stuff on here about various tours like lovesexy and the nude tour and how

good they were, but not much is said of gold experience.i had been a fan since i saw lovesexy

on tv and i finally got to see him live on gold exprience at sheffield england, i thought that

what he did was very good but the atmosphere was very flat, i think the casual fans must have

been very dissapointed that he wasnt playing hardly any of his most famous songs,in fact quite a few

had already left when he played gold as an encore,i would like to know what other fans thought

of it.

wasnt flat up front where the bass made my legs shake. never heard a louder "NO!" when he told everyone to go out and buy the Get Wild single so he could "buy Mayte some new pants to cover up". Bought another ticket the next day just so I could hear Gold again even though it meant I couldnt eat properly for the next week. Very exciting time to be a Prince fan searching record fairs for one or two tracks that might be on the official Gold Experience configuration. Strange thing too, never knew of a bootleg of the concert and the aftershow to surface so quickly and in such good quality pre internet. Curious that one, almost as if it was condoned.

I caught 3 gigs on this tour.

I personally enjoyed them more than the previous Act II shows. All of what I had heard and read about these shows beforehand, about there being little to no known material played only added to the excitement and mystery for me. It made the shows a bit more special than usual, at least that's the way I experienced it.

The audience response was good at the shows I attended and at the two Scottish gigs the crowd were going totally nuts from what I could see/hear.

My girlfriend at the time decided it was shit as she didn't know the songs so I attended the second night alone. I still have a few of those NPG Sampler Experience tapes they were giving out.

The NPG, Days Of Wild and Prince swinging his symbol guitar and calling us all motherfuckers. What more do you need?

Great times.

this was one of my fave tours, so was the ONA tour. out of his entire career, the live stuff from that period was the best

I caught 2 of the wembley shows, thought they were ruddy marvelous, recognised a few of the tracks from The Beautiful Experience tv special, the day after the first show there was a record fair where i bought la premier gold experience and i made up a mock track listing on a cassette from the Platinum boot, the live gold boot and audio rip from the tv special what i thought the album might be, i remember that Dolphin was played on the radio at one point around that time. march 95. those were the days.

glasgow was on fiiiiiiiiiiiire

my lass at the time LOVED it too and she wasnt bothered not one single hit was played!

oh apart from 7 and love thy will be done

i had the luxury of an older brother who had previously sought out the Beautiful Experience boot from a record fair in, i dunno, London or something, AND with his keen Record Collector senses bagged two front row tickets for Wembley. Obviously, row four is technically front row compared to the size of Wembley Arena and the narrowness of the seats.

No beers!

Rapped/Sang along to every last song of the set. Hadn't heard endorphinemachine before - loudest conveyor belt ever. Gazed into Mayte's eyes during Days O' Wild, nice spotlight on the Gretsch. Jewellery fell off. Went home haunted by Empty Room off the intro vid for a year until another boot was sourced in 1996.

Nice one MI5.

Saw a middle aged bloke with shaved head in a home made florid light blue suit. Kept the boomy glitter from Gold for a little while then took up shaving.

I am willing to believe that this was the Ultimate Live Experience.

Brilliant cartoon in the [insert forgotten newspaper name here] - "in concert free? in concert twenty eight quid more like!"

absolute pisstake dancing during 'Loose', none of that SOTT stage bullshit.

Cx

[Edited 5/19/12 17:58pm]

[Edited 5/19/12 18:09pm]

Yeah!!

I was at the Gold tour in Den Bosch in Holland.

Fantastic, especially the encore with Get Wild and Gold.

unique said:

this was one of my fave tours, so was the ONA tour. out of his entire career, the live stuff from that period was the best

I concur.

The general reception was very poor though, like the OP says - I saw people walking out early, sat po-faced, arms crossed and bemoaning the lack of hits - I was too busy jumping up and down like a lunatic to 'Now' to be taking too much notice though.

NouveauDance said:

unique said:

this was one of my fave tours, so was the ONA tour. out of his entire career, the live stuff from that period was the best

I concur.

The general reception was very poor though, like the OP says - I saw people walking out early, sat po-faced, arms crossed and bemoaning the lack of hits - I was too busy jumping up and down like a lunatic to 'Now' to be taking too much notice though.

being front row, i didn't give a fuck about anyone behind me, or even turn around and notice during those 95 shows

I never really noticed anyone being unhappy or walking out of these shows. I heard a few fuckheads near me moaning that the band were miming, so there was that and my moaning girlfriend, but other than those two fly like annoyances I would say a good time was had by most.

I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that the tour only lasted a month and most of the shows were in England. I saw a ton of shows in 94/95 in Minneapolis and the exclusion of hits didn't bother me at all. Another factor had to be that the material wasn't officially released yet, not everyone was in the know on how to obtain bootlegs pre internet. I have to admit when I saw the Beautiful Experience concert in Feb 94, although it was awesome, it was a little weird not knowing any of the material he was playing. My second favoritle line up of the NPG, the first being with Rosie included. The Jam of the Year tour was really disappointing, for many reasons.

I was at the MTV Awards Aftershow at the Tränenpalast in Berlin in 1994 and I also witnessed two shows of this tour plus one superb aftershow at the Paradiso where he played a fantastic, organ heavy and guitar oriented version of 18 And Over. I´m not a big fan of that song but that live version is still one of my favorite live renditions to this day. It was amazing how he completely changed the vibe of that song.

The main shows were good but I think in hindsight they are a tad overrated. Yes, he was on fire, yes, he wanted to prove a point and he played very rare or brandnew songs but the swearing was a bit too much at times. I have always regarded Prince as a man of class and style but the overuse of "motherfucker" this and "motherfucker" that, and those "Play that motherfucking bass!" gave me the impression that Prince was trying to come across like some ghettoish thug rapper, chasing trends instead of staying true to himself. All those thug rappers were showing nothing but admiration and respect back in the day for being himself. No need to come across all tough and cursing up a storm.

The other low points were the troubled stage production and sound issues. I loved the shows that I saw but it was sad to see him leave a bunch of stage props in the UK and other places because of logistic problems, and it was also sad to see dozens, if not hundreds of people leave his shows just because he wouldn´t play his hits.

It was a great, energetic tour with a very bold and daring but, looking back, I think it could´ve been an even greater tour if he had played some catchy new songs like I Hate U a bit more often instead of using it only in a few medleys. I Hate U had the potential of becoming a big hit back then, it almost made it into the Top Ten without any support or promotion, and to waste that opportunity because of his feud with WB was quite tragic.

And I loved the GCS songs that he used to play back then. These days playing the same old Sly Stone songs is a bit tiresome but back then he´d play I Believe In You, Hair, The Jam and also a variety of Ohio Player songs instead of Love Rollercoaster all the time.

His rendition of Skin Tight is unforgettable.

Tight tour, tight shows, superb aftershows.

One of his poorer tours and I say that having seen most of them from the front row. As already mentioned way too much emphasis on being some kind of gansta. Prince, it works best when its sublte mate, I thought you knew that.

The over reliance on loops and tapes was annoying. Hearing 319 with no one with a guitar in hand was bothersome. If he had got Eric in to add some horn lines that would have rerally helped.

Great set lists though

swanny said:

One of his poorer tours and I say that having seen most of them from the front row. As already mentioned way too much emphasis on being some kind of gansta. Prince, it works best when its sublte mate, I thought you knew that.

The over reliance on loops and tapes was annoying. Hearing 319 with no one with a guitar in hand was bothersome. If he had got Eric in to add some horn lines that would have rerally helped.

Great set lists though

Co-sign. The prerecorded stuff got on my nerves, too. I completely forgot about that. Eric was at the Emporium aftershow. It would´ve been cool if he had employed him a bit more often during that tour. The band, despite relying on samples, was extremely tight though. With that powerful sound he had I never really understood his need for those triggered samples. Tommy Barbarella is such a talented musician but during that tour I felt that he was kind of reduced to triggering samples, playing the purpleaxxe and flying through the air. Or was that just Mayte flying? My memories are a bit blurry.

It was a very paradoxical show in hindsight. Some great moments and some not so great moments, and lots of malfunctions. But I still have the utmost respect for how he did what he did back then.

Takes balls to drop your wellknown name and use an unpronouncable symbol instead, plus he had no backing by a major company during this tour.

The Japan leg was a bit less gimmicky as far as the stage props are concerned but I thought the sound was much better.

Did he use the Endorphinmachine conveyor belt in Japan? I don´t think so.

LOVED THIS TOUR! until it got 2 hawaii and then here comes purple rain again ..ugh

loved the music, the energy, the passion, the guts it took 2 prove a point

i would love another tour like this, no hits NADA!

KoolEaze said:

It was a very paradoxical show in hindsight. Some great moments and some not so great moments, and lots of malfunctions. But I still have the utmost respect for how he did what he did back then.

At the time I thought it was kinda ballsey too what he did. But more on the side of being overtly negative and arrogant.

Great show for the hardcore, but I remember the casual not enjoying it thast much.

Takes balls to drop your wellknown name and use an unpronouncable symbol instead, plus he had no backing by a major company during this tour.

Wasn't TGE a WB release? Balls or insanity, your pick.

It's the tour that took me from casual fan to this man is a complete genius.

I only got to see and hear it through boots as I didn't get to a Prince show till ONA, But oh my god the music was on fire

So funky so nasty so nothing I had ever heard before it was like this thing appeared from space.

Even now I have a much wider musical reference it still blows me away to hear Days Of Wild, Funky Stuff, The Jam, Loose and Endorphine Machine. Plus OMG the aftershows, The best aftershows damn it the best shows he's ever done

chopingard said:

It's the tour that took me from casual fan to this man is a complete genius.

I only got to see and hear it through boots as I didn't get to a Prince show till ONA, But oh my god the music was on fire

So funky so nasty so nothing I had ever heard before it was like this thing appeared from space.

Even now I have a much wider musical reference it still blows me away to hear Days Of Wild, Funky Stuff, The Jam, Loose and Endorphine Machine. Plus OMG the aftershows, The best aftershows damn it the best shows he's ever done

great answer! i'm glad that u were a casual to wanting 2 know more of the legacy. something prince needs 2 do more of today in his shows ..CONVERSION!

L4OATheOriginal said:

chopingard said:

It's the tour that took me from casual fan to this man is a complete genius.

I only got to see and hear it through boots as I didn't get to a Prince show till ONA, But oh my god the music was on fire

So funky so nasty so nothing I had ever heard before it was like this thing appeared from space.

Even now I have a much wider musical reference it still blows me away to hear Days Of Wild, Funky Stuff, The Jam, Loose and Endorphine Machine. Plus OMG the aftershows, The best aftershows damn it the best shows he's ever done

great answer! i'm glad that u were a casual to wanting 2 know more of the legacy. something prince needs 2 do more of today in his shows ..CONVERSION!

I went to 4 of the Wembley shows, taking different friends each time who've seen/not seen him before. Gotta admit, was very wary initially as not possible to hear the album prior to the tour. But no need for wariness - fantastic shows. Each time you came away thinking Prince has upped his ante in regards to funk - more hard, big, brash and dirty. Loved it. You truely sensed a change of direction in his music akin to the excellent liner notes in "The Gold Experience" by Jon Bream. I must admit, I thought he got good crowd response for the shows considering and my friends certainly enjoyed them too - it was hard not to bop yer head when he's Tora Tora'd up with the One Eyed Bass. I've also got a huge soft spot for "Gold" and looked forward to hearing it each time he ended each show with a bang of gold ticker tape - to me it was a mighty fine successor to "Purple Rain"

I look back and imagine what it would have been like to experience the tour after spending time with the album, getting to know the tunes first. Shame. That would've been absolutely wicked.

i was amazed at when he did the shows in nyc in 94 how many in the audience knew the songs he did since they weren't released at the time. i think it even surprised him how much the audience knew or realizing how much the bootleg world was in effect at that time. i still smile when i hear him say 'new york knows what's up!"