I've heard this different places through the years, but I don't think it was ever confirmed by anything reliable. Did Prince not tour Europe so he could move on and release ATWID?

Mikado said:

Mikado said:

I've heard this different places through the years, but I don't think it was ever confirmed by anything reliable. Did Prince not tour Europe so he could move on and release ATWID?

my impression from what I read was that the megastardom had worn out it's welcome with him. There was some interview where he describes being backstage and some stagehand hit's him in the face with his guitar and he's bleeding and he said something like "that's it". He wasn't crazy about that level of fame or all the expectations like the watw fiasco to keep that many people happy. So, although purple rain, from what our euro-orgers tell us, wasn't huge in Europe, that's not the reason he didn't tour over their, he was exhausted, any true fan from that time remembers the drama of it with him saying he was never performing again and would instead be "looking for the ladder". He just needed to scale back and he did, he didn't however seem to take any time off in any real way. He didn't seem to throughout the years. The break between 2010-2014 is the longest break in albums that I'm aware of but even then he seemed to have been working on live music, saying he and his band could play 300 cover songs. The man was awesome.

PeteSilas said:

Purple Rain was a big phenomenon in Europe, too, although probably not as big as in the USA. In the years after Purple Rain Prince was more popular in Europe though, see for instance the Lovesexy tour that was quite a success in places like Germany, whereas some arenas in the US were quite difficult to fill. The audiences in Europe seemed to be a bit more enthusiastic, too.

As far as Purple Rain is concerned, there were some plans and talks to take the show to Europe, and you can see that it was originally planned to be a world tour when you take a look at the tour program and some of the jackets and T-shirts of the roadies of that tour. It says "world tour".

Prince even flew to Germany and talked with the guy from German TV station WDR to discuss the tour but then decided that a satellite broadcast instead of a proper tour should suffice.

Hence the Purple Rain Syracuse concert which was broadcast via satellite ( and later released on video cassette and much later on DVD).

For many years I wondered why Prince shouted "Eric Leeds ! Germany ! " during that show because Eric is definitely not German.

Years later I found out why. Because that concert was part of the deal with WDR and the German "Rockpalast" program which was known for its live concert broadcasts. Rockpalast hosted many great concerts over the decades, from Bob Marley to Prince to Parliament/Funkadelic.

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So, in a nutshell, the Syracuse show was more or less a substitute for a proper European tour.

By the way, the guy who was in charge of Rockpalast and who met with Prince in Germany, Peter Rüchel, passed away in February. He was 81 years old.

[url]https://www.deutschlandfu..._id=441789[/ur]

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I can't remember who it was but someone from that time said in an interview that Prince was sick and tired of playing that same setlist over and over again and that he gave-up on taking the tour abroad so he could move on.

databank said:

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I can't remember who it was but someone from that time said in an interview that Prince was sick and tired of playing that same setlist over and over again and that he gave-up on taking the tour abroad so he could move on.

Yes, I remember that but I don´t exactly remember who said it either.

I think Alan Leeds or someone from the band but I am not 100% sure.

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It would´ve been interesting to see him take the Purple Rain tour to Europe but perform without the typical Purple Rain pompadour hairdo because he had to get it cut short at that point due to getting it bleached before. And I doubt he would´ve played a whole tour with a wig.

databank said:

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I can't remember who it was but someone from that time said in an interview that Prince was sick and tired of playing that same setlist over and over again and that he gave-up on taking the tour abroad so he could move on.

It was Alan Leeds who said that.

Bobby Z said at Celebration that the band were under the impression that the tour would go to Europe early on, but it very quickly became apparent that Prince was getting restless and wanted to move on.

KoolEaze said:

It would´ve been interesting to see him take the Purple Rain tour to Europe but perform without the typical Purple Rain pompadour hairdo because he had to get it cut short at that point due to getting it bleached before. And I doubt he would´ve played a whole tour with a wig.

Huh?? Bleached?

Mikado said:

GaryMF said:

KoolEaze said:

It would´ve been interesting to see him take the Purple Rain tour to Europe but perform without the typical Purple Rain pompadour hairdo because he had to get it cut short at that point due to getting it bleached before. And I doubt he would´ve played a whole tour with a wig.

Huh?? Bleached?

Well.....dyed blond but the result was bad.

KoolEaze said:

GaryMF said:

Huh?? Bleached?

Well.....dyed blond but the result was bad.

ya hear so much crap but ya, they say he died his hair blond but it didn't take so he chopped it off and we got the liza minelli cut for razberry beret. how the hell a superstar of his magnitude kept it under wraps for even a few days is beyond me. no pics, nothing, and it's not like the media wasn't as bad then as it is now.

He pretty much explains what happened during the PR tour here in an interview with Essence in 2014

https://www.essence.com/c...june-2014/