im a relativly new prince fan and have yet to see him in concert. i was just wondering, the next time he tours, what kind of setlist should i expect? i heard he doesnt like to play his hits anymore(which is ok i guess, but id love to see some of my old favorites). for example, what was the setlist like on his last tour?

My guess would be songs from "The Rainbow Children" and One Night Alone. I prefer him to do nothing but new stuff. Last time I saw him was "The Emancipation Tour. He played some of the old stuff. But mostly Emancipation songs.

If you're a new fan, for the time being, I would say don't expect to hear the old stuff, and even when he does play the old stuff, it's probably going to be the lesser known tracks.

If you only want to hear the hits, then I think that unfortunately you became a fan at the wrong time in Prince's career because I just don't think that's the direction he's headed in right now.

But with Prince, you never know... so, stick around, who knows what he'll do next.

yeah, i know what youre saying. dont get me wrong, i LOVE his new stuff. but i like his old stuff in a different way. i just saw him play pussy control on some VH1 award show and it was too funky. so i was wondering if i might hear some songs in that vein. plus of course id love to hear some purple rain live. i wouldnt have a problem hearing rainbow children and on night alone though.

in terms of becoming a fan at the wrong time, this is pretty much as early as i could possibly be a fan. i just turned 16. i dont think my parents would let me listen to prince if i was any younger.

Prince's setlist can at times become impossible to second-guess. During the european leg of the ONA tour the setlist was dramatically revised (take the Copenhagen gigs as an example).

I would recommend you sneak into one of his aftershows, though. You may likely be rewarded by a brilliant heavy-bass rendition of '777-9311', and absolutely no-one can do this one better than Prince. It may read like a cliche but such is the joy of watching the man live, you just never know what you're going to get.

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jonno said:

he still plays his old stuff...last tour I heard Poplife, Sometimes it snows in April, Adore, just to name a few...

pejman said:

Yeah, and, interestingly, he played 'Empty Room', another one of his "oldies" for the first time ever during the ONA tour.

Nothing prepared me for that one!

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[This message was edited Sat Apr 26 12:55:24 PDT 2003 by giotto]

And generally, he'll probably never stop playing Purple Rain, Take Me With U, and Raspberry Beret. Those are regularly played. Plus, he always has a "Prince at the piano" portion of his shows where he usually plays snippets of old songs.

jtgillia said:

I think he'll soon realise this and, since there is now an official document(the ONA Live box set) chronicling this modus operandi, Prince might - just might - feel compelled to stop playing those tunes altogether and phase out the piano sit down segments to boot.

Now, wouldn't that be cool?


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Yeah, you may be right about the hits. I don't know if I want him to completely take out the piano portion though. Maybe just shorten it. I mean, that's a really great part of the show- live, when you're there. However, it doesn't translate very well on CD...

jtgillia said:

I agree with you as far as that piano segment not translating too well onto CD (the official ONA Live CD, mind).

jtgillia, I strongly urge you to get Sabotage's 'ONA @ The Apollo'... during the piano segment Prince had the entire audience eating out of his hands!


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