Dirty Mind Tour

1980/1

You can’t take his music seriously.

With the exception of Lisa Coleman, who replaced Gayle Chapman on keyboards after the previous tour, the backing band’s line-up remained the same. The act had drawn recognition, for at the personal invitation of Mick Jagger, Prince became the support for The Rolling Stones. These dates would become the final two shows performed for the Dirty Mind Tour, but during the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum show, in front of 94,000 Rolling Stones rock fans, on 11 October 1981 he was famously booed off stage after completing just two songs Bambi and When You Were Mine, and again on the 12th during Jack U Off – the commotion of this incident is recalled in the song Pop Life in 1985.

The tour’s 10 December 1980 show at The Ritz, New York City was of particular importance to Prince, being the show that truly got him truly noticed on the music scene, being attended by a slew of A-list celebrities including Nile Rodgers, Andy Warhol and the rock band Kiss. The tour returned to the venue on 22 March 1981, this time with Mick Jagger in attendance. The Ritz dates seem to provide the catalyst when Prince began being viewed as a serious musician and performer.

It was also during the Dirty Mind Tour that Prince had his first European appearances (the Paradisco Club at Amsterdam, 29 May 1981, London’s Lyceum on June 2nd, and the Theatre Le Palace in Paris the 3rd). André Cymone quit the band upon the conclusion of the tour, citing that Prince was denying Cymone his creative input. 30 shows were performed in total.