Hit And Run Tour - Prince 2014/5

2014/5

Concert tour

Have you ever heard nine hits in a row?

The Hit And Run Tour was the promotional tour for Prince‘s latest band 3rdEyeGirl, performed throughout 2014 and 2015.

The tour began as a series of very short notice ‘hit and run’ style shows staged at small and iconic London venues throughout February 2014. The shows were intended to be grassroots affairs – small, up-close and personal – even the tour’s press conference was held in the living room of friend Lianne La Havas at her house in Leyton, East London on 3 February. The initial phase was not in essence a fully fledged ‘tour’ as only few of the venues were booked in advance and received no coordinated marketing campaign. Indeed its shows were often announced on Twitter or on radio the morning of the event taking place. Tickets were priced at grassroot prices, some shows available for just £10.

Prince declared he and 3rdEyeGirl would remain in London for as long as the city wished them to play. The shows were extremely well received and garnered (and benefited from) considerable press attention due to the novelty of Prince popping up at venues seemingly at his whim. The format instilled a sense of occasion into every show and found fans darting around London to catch the shows – passing a black marker pen down the line to number their hands to ensure entry to the limited capacity venues. The shows began with Ford, Nielsen and Grantis coming on stage and ask the audience to enjoy the show rather than film it. Prince knew that creating memories would last longer than one picture among thousands stored on a mobile phone.

A special acoustic set was performed on Valentine’s Day as a matinee show. Having rehearsed over 100 songs, set lists adapted to Prince’s cues during the show and so varied considerably. One national newspaper remarked the act was one of the best funk-rock bands in music history. The run ended in Manchester on 22 February. The band continued this formula with a short Hit And Run Tour that March playing with three shows in California and two at Paisley Park Studios.

Hit And Run Part II

Owing to the success of Hit And Run Tour a more conventional series of the shows followed when the band returned to the UK in May 2014 for a second leg, which the tour was named Hit And Run Part II and up-scaled to arenas. The cost of the tickets for this leg was therefore more expensive, priced £65. These dates were announced and ticketed further in advance and a tour book was also produced. Hit And Run Part II focused on venues in northern UK and its averaged 150-minutes length. The tour then continued to mainland Europe to perform additional dates in other arenas, playing the final date on Prince’s birthday, 7 June. The band lineup for Hit And Run Part II was augmented to return Cassandra O’Neal on keyboards, and Marissa Jack (a.k.a. The Golden Hippie) and Liv Warfield on supporting vocals. After this phase in the tour, Prince and the band headlined Essence Festival at the New Orleans Superdome on 4 July.

HitNRun Tour USA

The guerrilla tour format was revived on 6 March 2015 with the announcement of HitNRun Tour USA, this time cropping up at venues across the US that spring – starting off on 14 March at the home town of drummer Hannah Ford, Louisville, Kentucky. Liv Warfield and her supporting singers Saeeda Wright and Ashley Jayy accompanied this tour. The day ahead of the final date of HitNRun Tour USA, Prince played the White House East Room as guest of Barack Obama for the occasion of African Music Appreciation Month. This would be Prince’s final tour backed with a band. HitNRun Tour USA closed in Washington DC on 14 June 2015.

Performers

Vocals/Guitar

Prince

Drums

Hannah Ford Welton

Rhythm Guitar

Donna Grantis

Bass Guitar

Ida Nielsen

Keyboards

Joshua Welton

Cassandra O'Neal ^{Hit And Run Part II}

Backing vocals

Liv Warfield ^{Hit And Run Part II}

Marissa Jack ^{Hit And Run Part II}

Saeeda Wright ^{Hit And Run Tour USA}

Ashley Jayy ^{Hit And Run Tour USA}

Sample setlist

1. No mobile phones – statement by 3rdEyeGirl
2. Let’s Go Crazy
3. Funknroll
4. She’s Always In My Hair
5. I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
6. Guitar
7. Plectrumelectrum
8. Fixurlifeup
9. Marz / Johnny B. Good [Chuck Berry]
10. Colonized Mind
11. Chaos And Disorder
12. How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore
13. The Beautiful Ones
14. Diamonds And Pearls
15. Purple Rain
16. Do Me, Baby
17. Adore
18. Forever In My Life
19. When Doves Cry
20. Sign O’ The Times
21. Housequake
22. A Love Bizarre
23. I Would Die 4 U
24. Hot Thing
25. 777-9311
26. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World
27. Mr. Goodnight
28. Breakfast Can Wait
29. Play That Funky Music [Wild Cherry]
30. Something In The Water (Does Not Compute)
31. Cause And Effect
32. Endorphinmachine
33. Dreamer
34. Screwdriver
35. I Like It There
36. Bambi

Sampler set

Supporting album

Plectrumelectrum

Warner Bros. Records

Released

30 September 2014

US Chart Peak

8

UK Chart Peak

11