Controversy Tour - Prince 1981/2

1981/2

Concert tour

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Prince was joined by The Time as support act on the Controversy Tour, whose live performances were (too) well received. Tensions sparked between Prince’s band and The Time, which started with Prince throwing eggs at The Time from offstage, and when they did the same to Prince coming off stage it culminated in a fistfight in Cincinnati back at the hotel after the tour’s final show. This band rivalry was later immortalised in the movie Purple Rain.

Funk band Zapp & Roger opened the shows on some dates too, putting three acts on the bill. Prince’s main set averaged 80-minutes in length. Mark Brown, who joined Prince’s backing band only weeks earlier for their two performances opening for The Rolling Stones on 9 and 11 October 1981, having been enrolled in replacement of André Cymone on bass who quit to start a solo career. Controversy Tour opened in Pittsburgh on 20 November 1981 three weeks after the release of the LP and performed over 59 dates.

In the throes of his soaring momentum, Prince spent the three week break between Legs 1 and 2 of the tour to record his breakthrough album 1999. When Controversy Tour resumed in 1982 it focussed on east coast college towns, with only a handful of shows performed in the west. The tour wrapped in March 1982 to continue with the recording of his breakthrough 1999 album.

The venues of Controversy Tour were larger than Prince’s two previous tours, with capacities between 2,000 and 8,000. Many dates were sold out due to his growing popularity and media exposure. The theatrics were ramped up too, taking advantage with full-scale lighting rigs and the first stage set designed by LeRoy Bennett, to a cost £45,000. To create a sexy vibe, Bennett incorporated a backdrop of Venetian blinds. Accessed via a ramp, 8ft above the main stage was an upper catwalk from where Prince would open the show silhouetted performing Sexuality, which on occasion was interchanged in the setlist with Uptown. He then dropped to the main floor via a fireman’s pole to continue with Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad? The keyboards and drums were on risers behind, with Prince, Dez and Mark stage level up front, for periods cloaked with dry ice.

The tour was designed to court controversy. Performing the title track, a crucifix was suspended over the backdrop lit like a church window. Controversy Tour would introduce all the signature elements of the Prince concert subsequent fans would grow to recognise. The band was rehearsed down to their every move, always in front of a mirror, so that the performance was faultless, choreographed and didn’t miss a beat. Unlike his two previous tours, Prince this time was fully clothed, sporting his New Wave look. More white people began attending his shows too, showing real sign Prince was crossing into the music mainstream. Due to the debacle being pelted offstage when supporting The Rolling Stones, when Controversy Tour began that November, Prince put a bodyguard on the payroll, a 6ft 6in club bouncer named Charles “Big Chick” Huntsberry.

The Second Coming

As Controversy Tour was winding down to its 14 March 1982 conclusion, and with Prince clearly on the cusp of stardom, plans were put in place for Warner Brothers to finance a feature movie with Prince in the central role. Music video director Chuck Statler was hired to film the 7th March performance of Controversy Tour staged at the Met Center in Bloomington, for Prince’s sole Minnesota date on this tour. That night he played to a half filled arena.

Extra scenes of Prince with current girlfriend Susan Moonsie and ex Kim Upsher were shot afterwards by Statler and a professional crew, in three days of intense filming to incorporate a storyline into this concert footage. Prince intended to release the material both as a live album and concert movie entitled The Second Coming, named after the taped acapella intro played over the PA at the start of every concert during the tour. Although the movie remained unfinished and the live album also abandoned, Prince’s concept for a concert movie would evolve into Purple Rain two years later. Prince’s vision to interweave a storyline with live concert footage would be realised in full with Sign O’ The Times movie in 1987.