Came across this neat little article ranking every single tour. Doesn't get too in depth but an interesting overview nonetheless. Pretty cool that they included even the "minor ones" i.e. Celebration, 2001 Hit n Run, Japan '96. Figured I'd post it just because it's a different type of P ranking list.

Personally Parade, SOTT, ONA, and Controversy are my top favorite P tours. Have a look and see what you guys think

http://theundefeated.com/...the-stage/

1. Piano & Microphone

donnyenglish said:

1. Piano & Microphone

Heard a lot of praise from this one but wasn't there. Impressed that it made the top 10 here. I gotta hear these shows!!

Wondering if somewhere is an "official" record of the full sequence of Prince tours and if festival dates are included in such a roster. Or is the given list accepted as complete? Beyond that, happy cat herding with cheer.

[Edited 9/14/16 7:53am]

Germanegro said:

Wondering if somewhere is an "official" record of the full sequence of Prince tours and if festival dates are included in such a roster. Or is the given list accepted as complete? Beyond that, happy cat herding with cheer.

[Edited 9/14/16 7:53am]

Not 100% sure what you're asking

But I know that this site has full comprehensive tour lists including dates/setlists of the main shows, after shows, and one offs all throughout his career.

http://princevault.com/in...rformances

The only 2 times I saw him live was the Parade tour and Lovesexy tour. I guess I got lucky

HypnoBlue said:

Germanegro said:

Wondering if somewhere is an "official" record of the full sequence of Prince tours and if festival dates are included in such a roster. Or is the given list accepted as complete? Beyond that, happy cat herding with cheer.

[Edited 9/14/16 7:53am]

Not 100% sure what you're asking

But I know that this site has full comprehensive tour lists including dates/setlists of the main shows, after shows, and one offs all throughout his career.

http://princevault.com/in...rformances

I simply wondered whether the article's list of tours is comprehensive. I'd be tempted to add to that whether people may break the comparison into best show of whichever tour, but I guess that's for a new thread--apologies. I'd wondered offhand if the 20Ten Tour may have included European festival dates. Thanks--I'll go to princevault if it becomes a nagging concern.

>

I'd only the opportunity to attend a handful of his tours (plus a few one-offs that I felt were spectacular), and haven't viewed all of the recordings. I'll always wish that I had experienced more of Prince's live performances.

>

I'll rank The Lovesexy Tour as number one--such a shame to have been a dud in receipts, but I'd say it was his most dynamic stage show. My limited exposure may diminish my single ranking.

Germanegro said:

HypnoBlue said:

Not 100% sure what you're asking

But I know that this site has full comprehensive tour lists including dates/setlists of the main shows, after shows, and one offs all throughout his career.

http://princevault.com/in...rformances

I simply wondered whether the article's list of tours is comprehensive. I'd be tempted to add to that whether people may break the comparison into best show of whichever tour, but I guess that's for a new thread--apologies. I'd wondered offhand if the 20Ten Tour may have included European festival dates. Thanks--I'll go to princevault if it becomes a nagging concern.

>

I'd only the opportunity to attend a handful of his tours (plus a few one-offs that I felt were spectacular), and haven't viewed all of the recordings. I'll always wish that I had experienced more of Prince's live performances.

>

I'll rank The Lovesexy Tour as number one--such a shame to have been a dud in receipts, but I'd say it was his most dynamic stage show. My limited exposure may diminish my single ranking.

.

Yeah, the article's list of 'tours' is exhaustive.

.

I'm assuming that under #16. Welcome 2 America entry they're also including the Euro leg 2011 (including some festivals) + W2Canada 2011 & W2Australia 2012 dates.

.

20Ten Tour should indeed include the festival dates around Europe they were billed as being part of the tour.

.

There are a few other one-offs (e.g. Coachella 2008) but nothing that really constitutes a tour proper.

.

geetee71 said:

Germanegro said:

I simply wondered whether the article's list of tours is comprehensive. I'd be tempted to add to that whether people may break the comparison into best show of whichever tour, but I guess that's for a new thread--apologies. I'd wondered offhand if the 20Ten Tour may have included European festival dates. Thanks--I'll go to princevault if it becomes a nagging concern.

>

I'd only the opportunity to attend a handful of his tours (plus a few one-offs that I felt were spectacular), and haven't viewed all of the recordings. I'll always wish that I had experienced more of Prince's live performances.

>

I'll rank The Lovesexy Tour as number one--such a shame to have been a dud in receipts, but I'd say it was his most dynamic stage show. My limited exposure may diminish my single ranking.

.

Yeah, the article's list of 'tours' is exhaustive.

.

I'm assuming that under #16. Welcome 2 America entry they're also including the Euro leg 2011 (including some festivals) + W2Canada 2011 & W2Australia 2012 dates.

.

20Ten Tour should indeed include the festival dates around Europe they were billed as being part of the tour.

.

There are a few other one-offs (e.g. Coachella 2008) but nothing that really constitutes a tour proper.

.

Considering the overall general tone of the article, we could probably assume those are included in the mention. I do wish it was more exploratory but I have yet to have found any sort of list, on this site or anywhere else up until recently, that ranked the "major" tours so I figured it should've been posted here regardless

Maybe somebody here who has seen or heard stuff from all of these tours could do a proper comprehensive ranking. Nerdy AF maybe but hey most of us aren't here just cuz we only went to the Purple Rain or 1999 tours hehe.

Is there anyone here who has one or more of his millenial tours as their top favs? Just had to ask. The cliche-titled "Glory Years (1980-1992)" are obvious ones but it would be interesting to see if anybody places say Welcome 2 America above Parade or Lovesexy You get the hypothetical.

Thanks for the link. Anyone who knows enough about all of the tours to rate them gets my attention, even if I don't completely agree. I haven't gone to or heard recordings of many of the tours, though I am making up ground and will use the article as a reference point. I thought it was interesting that he bumped the ranking of two tours up because they really focused on the hits, which would not necessarily be a bonus for me. When I have been studying which boots to listen to, I am drawn to the ones that don't have the obvious selections.

HypnoBlue said:

donnyenglish said:

1. Piano & Microphone

Heard a lot of praise from this one but wasn't there. Impressed that it made the top 10 here. I gotta hear these shows!!

the shows got rave reviews but prince almost always got glowing reviews of his live shows. I loved the atlanta show that I heard, it was poignant because he came to the Black capital of America for his finale.

HypnoBlue said:

Is there anyone here who has one or more of his millenial tours as their top favs? Just had to ask. The cliche-titled "Glory Years (1980-1992)" are obvious ones but it would be interesting to see if anybody places say Welcome 2 America above Parade or Lovesexy You get the hypothetical.

i only personally saw two shows, lovesexy and musicology, lovesexy was better all around as far as visual imagery, music, showmanship but musicology was superior because the older Prince got, and the less he danced, the better he got vocally and instrumentally. also, there was nostalgia with 2004 concert, i cried when he did Little Red Corvette on acoustic guitar. Some people dislike the earlier shows because they were so structured, it's true but I believe part of the reason for that is with the revolution (particularly) they really were limited musicians, bobby z, Wendy and I'm not sure about Lisa, i've heard her do some great jamming recently, but pretty much everyone says that Bobby Z was a mediocre drummer. Prince said he liked him because he paid attention to him and didn't get lost in his playing. Matt Fink was maybe the best musician in the band, prince had said recently that he couldn't improvise, so that's a limitation, mark brown was probably the only guy who could have possibly done everything prince would have ever needed to do, very good, creative bassist. Prince said in the RS interview that he'd stop putting bass in his songs if Mark wasn't there, not true but expresses a real respect that he rarely afforded his musicians in those days.

PeteSilas said:

HypnoBlue said:

Is there anyone here who has one or more of his millenial tours as their top favs? Just had to ask. The cliche-titled "Glory Years (1980-1992)" are obvious ones but it would be interesting to see if anybody places say Welcome 2 America above Parade or Lovesexy You get the hypothetical.

i only personally saw two shows, lovesexy and musicology, lovesexy was better all around as far as visual imagery, music, showmanship but musicology was superior because the older Prince got, and the less he danced, the better he got vocally and instrumentally. also, there was nostalgia with 2004 concert, i cried when he did Little Red Corvette on acoustic guitar. Some people dislike the earlier shows because they were so structured, it's true but I believe part of the reason for that is with the revolution (particularly) they really were limited musicians, bobby z, Wendy and I'm not sure about Lisa, i've heard her do some great jamming recently, but pretty much everyone says that Bobby Z was a mediocre drummer. Prince said he liked him because he paid attention to him and didn't get lost in his playing. Matt Fink was maybe the best musician in the band, prince had said recently that he couldn't improvise, so that's a limitation, mark brown was probably the only guy who could have possibly done everything prince would have ever needed to do, very good, creative bassist. Prince said in the RS interview that he'd stop putting bass in his songs if Mark wasn't there, not true but expresses a real respect that he rarely afforded his musicians in those days.

I'd say ONA is the only tour post 2000's that could rank up there with the classic ones. THAT should have been called the musicology tour. The setlists were so vast and diverse for every show, including the afterhows. He dug up a ton of deep cuts for that one. I really dug the jazzy undertone of it all, and he was showcasing a new band that could improv along with him not seen since maybe the NPG '95.

Musicology was nice because it served as a reminder of his musical prowess to the casual listeners who dropped off after the name change or whatever other cases were. For that to happen though, it did need to be more commercial friendly

rob1965 said:

Great article. Whether the list is to one's taste is up to the beholder. But glad to see that SOTT, Parade and Lovesexy are ranked so high. Good to see that older tours from the early 80s even got quite a high ranking. That the D&P tour is relatively low on the list matches my remembering that tour. These kind of articles are a great read.

The D&P tour doesn't get much mention here it seems. What did you think of it? Were you there?

HypnoBlue said:

HypnoBlue said:

rob1965 said:

HypnoBlue said:

rob1965 said:

Great article. Whether the list is to one's taste is up to the beholder. But glad to see that SOTT, Parade and Lovesexy are ranked so high. Good to see that older tours from the early 80s even got quite a high ranking. That the D&P tour is relatively low on the list matches my remembering that tour. These kind of articles are a great read.

The D&P tour doesn't get much mention here it seems. What did you think of it? Were you there?

Yes I was at the concert in Maastricht on the 4th of July 1992. I don't remember much of it while from the other tour concerts I was at, I do have a vivid memory.
I do remember though that the D&P concert I was at, was somewhat messy and too much rap/hiphop style for my taste.
I have never seen Prince do a bad show, but this one just didn't stick with me so to speak. It just didn't leave any impression. One factor that could have played a role is that our seats were quite far off the stage while at other concerts we always had great seats or a spot right in front of the stage.
What I do remember feom the Maastricht concert is the color yellow. A lot of yellow...