Lovesexy Tour - Prince 1988/9

1988/9

Concert tour

Technically (even to this day) it supersedes any in the round show that’s been done.

Despite being completely sold out of its entire 500,000 allocation of tickets across its 32 date European run, and a further 600,000 tickets in the USA, the massive $2 million production cost of Lovesexy Tour and the fifty trucks and two 747s required to transport it and crew of ninety, found the tour barely break even. It would become the driver behind Prince accepting Batman OST as his next project.

The staging of this arena tour comprised a circular outer stage surrounding a central riser, this was in turn bridged by three catwalks arranged in the appearance of a CND logo. The layout created two recesses where Sheila E’s drum kit sat within one of the spaces and Fink and Boyer’s keyboards in the other. To incorporate backdrops within the stage’s circular arrangement, three elastic trellises rose through the stage floor on telescopic poles to add the sense of structure to the set. The sound system and lighting were rigged above, so that the whole arrangement allowed unobstructed views of Prince wherever he was on stage. The stage floor itself was decorated with letters of the alphabet and road markings.

The props included a 3/4 scale white Ford Thunderbird Landau sporting powered windows and working headlights – replicating the very 1969 model owned by Prince’s father. There was also a basketball hoop, brass=framed bed, playground swing, and a heart-shaped hydraulic platform inset into the central riser. Lovesexy Tour was Prince’s first touring show to take advantage of remote controlled DMX directional lighting and head mics. This made the show very dynamic and the round setting required no less than 32 lighting spots, each queued and choreographed to the concert’s quick paced performance. This meant only limited variation could be made to the setlist.

The advantage of a circular stage put in the round added the equivalent to three front rows of premium seating in the arena. Transporting Prince to and from the stage was the car, rigged to a turntable on rails. Lovesexy Tour produced Prince’s most extravagant and technically complex stage show of his career, and is the masterpiece of his long-time production designer LeRoy Bennett.

Lovesexy Tour launched on 8 July 1988 with four nights in Paris, two months after the release of the Lovesexy LP. Dancers Wally Safford and Greg Brooks had quit Prince’s band that February, leaving Catherine “Cat” Glover as Prince’s sole dancer on the forthcoming tour. She played a prominent role putting together the show. The rest of Prince’s touring lineup continued unaltered as for his previous Sign O’ The Times Tour. Lovesexy Tour was also significantly Prince’s first touring show to undergo its rehearsals at his newly operational complex Paisley Park Studios. Held throughout May and June 1988, Paisley’s soundstage was Prince’s first facility large enough to accommodate an entire and fully rigged stage. At this point the show’s intermission was also recorded.

Lovesexy Tour opened in Europe where sales of the album where strongest – topping the charts in four European countries. The Europe leg was scheduled ahead of the US run to await for sales to improve (the album would peak at 11 on Billboard). The switch led to many venues needing to be rebooked at late notice. Because of this, some European dates had to be rescheduled to stadiums despite Prince’s reluctance to stage outdoor shows since his previous tour was curtailed by unseasonable weather but such was the demand for tickets the tour urgently necessitated larger venues. The outdoor dates of Lovesexy Tour were staged theatre style instead of in the round and required additional elements of the set created for these events.

The show itself was arranged into two thematic distinct segments. The first act comprised the raunchier songs and ran to approx 50 mins duration. Following a brief intermission the second act averaged one hour in length and opened with Eye No. This part of the show was formed of songs more spiritual and positive and were played to their full length. Act one culminated with Prince shot in Bob George, and he then rises on the hydraulic heart-shaped platform performing Anna Stesia solo on a Roland D-50 keyboard. Swathed in dry ice as if he is atoned and cleansed, before slowly lowered to the stage floor to close out act one using the Model C, it produced the concert’s standout moment.

Combined the two acts depicted the journey of reaching heaven through hell – the triumph of light over dark. It offered an ingenious configuration of the setlist, designed to please both hardcore and new fans alike, being distinctly divided into two parts it produced one cohesive show. The first act featured Prince’s funkier material, pooled from Dirty Mind and the then unreleased Black Album and Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic, this section of the show was delivered fast paced and energetically. To bridge from acts one to two, an intermission played over the PA, comprised a recorded spoken poem by Ingrid Chavez titled Cross The Line.

The second act concentrated on the Lovesexy LP and closing with Prince’s hits before the show’s grand finale. This part of the show featured Sheila E’s drum solo inaugurated on Sign O’ The Times Tour, allowing for Prince’s blue grand piano to be put centre stage. His piano solo set was actually performed using a Yamaha KX88 keyboard housed in an empty grand piano shell, sporting a reinforced lid to allow Prince to dance atop. Critics hailed this part of the show ‘Liberace on acid’. Spectacular was the show’s aim and in Lovesexy Tour Prince, bedecked in polka-dot costumes emblazoned with his name, showcased his signature guitars – the blue Cloud guitar christened The Blue Angel, and the striking white Model C. The first encore was dedicated to his major hits and the second encore closed out the show with a rousing rendition of Alphabet St. and Prince and Cat’s stage exit atop the hood of the T-Bird car.

Lovesexy Tour was a truly spectacular affair, no support act was required. As the European tour approached its final dates, Prince called to have the show filmed for posterity. A local film crew hastily summoned and the 9 September 1988 concert at Dortmund, Germany, final date of the European leg was duly recorded. This footage was televised and later commercially available on home video as Lovesexy Live (volumes 1 and 2) – separately available to mirror the two act format of the concert.

Prince’s first full-scale tour of the US since Purple Rain Tour, uptake there was slower for Lovesexy Tour, which lost money on this leg but finally turned a profit with the closing Japan run in 1989. This experience rattled Prince’s confidence to tour the US again, indeed he did not undertake another tour there until 1993. Anecdotally, 1988 was also the year of Michael Jackson’s Bad World Tour, the only tour he would stage in the US as a solo artist.

On the road with Lovesexy Tour exerted a toll on Prince and Sheila’s relationship. Sheila E quit the band after the Japan leg. Boyer followed Sheila and departed also, as did Cat who headed to London to pursue a solo career. Cat would put out an EP in 1989 titled Catwoman to coincide with Prince’s Batman soundtrack however her debut album I Am Energy was cancelled by the label and brought her short-lived pop career to an abrupt end. She remained in London for a period. Tragically in September 2024, Cat was found dead at her home aged 62. Boyer died on 4 December 1996 from a brain aneurysm, she was aged just 38.

Lovesexy Tour is widely considered Prince’s benchmark tour and enthralled all who saw it and to this day is regarded as one of the greatest in the round productions ever staged.

Performers

Vocals/Guitar

Prince

Drums

Shelia E.

Guitar

Miko Weaver

Bass Guitar

Levi Seacer Jr.

Keyboards

Matt Fink

Boni Boyer

Saxophone

Eric Leeds

Trumpet

Matthew Blistan ("Atlanta Bliss")

Dance/Vox

Cat Glover

Sample setlist

Act I

1. Escape / Erotic City
2. Housequake
3. Slow Love
4. Adore
5. Delirious
6. Jack U Off
7. Sister
8. U Got The Look
9. I Wanna Be Your Lover
10. Head
11. A Love Bizzare
12. Blues In C (If I Had A Harem)
13. When You Were Mine
14. Little Red Corvette
15. Pop Life
16. Controversy
17. Dirty Mind
18. Superfunkycalifragisexy
19. Bob George
20. Anna Stesia

Act II

1. ‘Cross The Line’ poem spoken by Ingrid Chavez
2. Eye No
3. Lovesexy
4. Glam Slam
5. The Cross
6. I Wish U Heaven
7. Kiss
8. Dance On
9. Sheila E drum solo interlude
10. When 2 R In Love
11. Venus De Milo
12. Starfish And Coffee
13. Raspberry Beret
14. Condition Of The Heart
15. Strange Relationship
16. When 2 R In Love [reprise]
17. Let’s Go Crazy
18. When Doves Cry
19. Purple Rain
20. 1999
21. Alphabet St.

Piano set

Supporting album

Lovesexy

Warner Bros. Records

Released

10 May 1988

US Chart Peak

11

UK Chart Peak

1