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1999 Triple Threat Tour (1982/3)

1999 Triple Threat Tour 1982/3
Dates & Venues

Controversy Tour
(1981/2)

1999 Triple Threat Tour

Purple Rain Tour
(1984/5)

Tour Timeline

1999 Triple Threat Tour

1982/3

Prince has everything it takes to be one of the biggest stars.

Supported by The Time and Vanity 6, Prince’s three act 1999 tour was dubbed the 1999 Triple Threat Tour. The music for Vanity’s 20-minute set was provided by The Time, hidden offstage behind a curtain. The vocals for Vanity 6 was likewise assisted offstage, by Jill Jones who sung for Susan Moonsie lip syncing. Yet it was the fact that The Time’s 45-minute opening set was as well received as Prince’s 60-minute headline performance. Tensions mounted and a jealous Prince fearful of being upstaged dropped The Time from the bill in the latter stages of the tour. This rivalry would form the backbone to the storyline of the movie Purple Rain.

Guitarist Dez Dickerson would quit Prince’s band on conclusion of the tour to form his own, The Modernaires. Dickerson was replaced by Wendy Melvoin, who had stepped in for him during missed rehearsals. Melvoin had come to Prince’s attention via her childhood friend, the band’s keyboardist Lisa Coleman. Switching from his Ludwig acoustic drums of previous tours, Bobby Z was on the Simmons SDS-V electric drums, which he retained for the two following tours, to recreate the claps and snares of the Linn Drum machine for the live shows. Its bass drum was rigged with a light that pulsated with the kick drum. The band line-up would be given a name on the next album and tour – The Revolution.

1999 Triple Threat Tour opened two weeks after the release of the album. The first leg ran from November 1982 to January 1983 performing throughout the US. The entire second leg was added on the back of the success of Little Red Corvette in the singles chart the following February. The staging was an upscaled version from the preceding Controversy Tour, although the Venetian blind backdrop was back again they were motorised. Neon lights that featured in promotional shots from the 1999 LP were also reincorporated into the new set’s features. The stage itself was the same split level set used for Controversy Tour, with an upper catwalk where Prince opened the show performing Controversy, complete with a fireman’s pole to transport him down to main stage. Theatrical elements were ramped up with the inclusion of a brass bed that would rise through the upper level for International Lover with Prince silhouetted against the red lit back blinds, and pulsating floor-level lighting. The tour also introduced Prince’s piano set, played on Yamaha CP-80 electric grand piano wrapped in purple vinyl. The piano set remained a staple in many of Prince’s tours since. All Prince’s promo videos for the album’s singles were recorded in this stage during off days on tour.

In the second leg, The Time featured less and less, and in the planned European run the support would be just one act, Vanity 6. 1999 Triple Threat Tour was also Prince’s first tour to see black and white audiences attending in equal numbers. It grossed $10 million and filled 20,000 seat arenas throughout its run of 93 shows played over 87 dates. Dates of the brief Europe leg were advertised on the back cover of the UK single Little Red Corvette, but the run was cancelled last minute so to allow Prince to focus on his soaring momentum in the US. After the tour, in May 1983 he took out a lease a former dog food warehouse where to set up a full time rehearsal space to hone his act even further. On 16 May, Prince performed at his first awards ceremony, the Minnesota Music Awards. He was now well on the road to stardom.

Professionally filmed footage capturing the 1999 Triple Threat Tour at Houston Summit in Texas on 29 December 1982 was released in 2019 when issued on DVD, packaged with the 1999 Super Deluxe Edition. The audio of the show was engineered by Prince’s home studio engineer Don Batts.

1999 Triple Threat Tour | Prince
Photography by Allen Beaulieu

Performers

Vocals/Guitar
Prince
Drums
Bobby Z.
Guitar
Dez Dickerson
Bass Guitar
Brownmark
Keyboards
Matt "Dr." Fink
Lisa Coleman

Total performances

  • 87 shows from 11 November 1982 to 10 April 1983

Sample setlist

Vanity 6

  1. Make-Up
  2. Wet Dream
  3. Drive Me Wild
  4. If A Girl Answers (Don’t Hang Up)
  5. Nasty Girl

The Time

  1. Get It Up
  2. 777-9311
  3. Girl
  4. Wild And Loose
  5. Gigolos Get Lonely Too
  6. Cool
  7. The Walk

Prince

  1. [“1999” spoken intro]
  2. Controversy
  3. Let’s Work
  4. Do Me, Baby
  5. Sexuality
  6. Let’s Pretend We’re Married
  7. [Lisa Coleman keyboard interlude]
  8. With You
  9. Free
  10. Still Waiting
  11. How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore
  12. Lady Cab Driver
  13. Little Red Corvette
  14. Dirty Mind
  15. International Lover
  16. 1999

Piano set

Supporting albums

1999

1999

Warner Bros. Records

Released
27 October 1982
US Chart Peak
7
UK Chart Peak
28
What Time Is It?

What Time Is It?

Warner Bros. Records

Released
25 August 1982
US Chart Peak
26
UK Chart Peak
Not charted
Vanity 6

Vanity 6

Warner Bros. Records

Released
11 August 1982
US Chart Peak
45
UK Chart Peak
Not charted

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