The Ultimate Live Experience - Prince 1995

1995

Concert tour

Don’t come to these shows expecting old Prince material because I don’t do any.

This was the first tour, possibly in history, to promote an unreleased album: the twice delayed and with the ever looming prospect of never being released The Gold Experience. The shows were thusly named The Ultimate Live Experience since it was only possible for fans to experience than purchase Prince’s latest music. It was a particularity bitter pill for Prince to swallow, as he felt the album was his best in recent years and Warner’s withholding of it added fuel to the already fractious relationship between Prince and the record label.

The tour was essentially an evolution of three arena tours. Starting in the US as an unstructured series of concerts under the moniker Interactive Tour, a full-scale tour evolved when headed to Europe in March 1995, billed The Ultimate Live Experience. Being Prince’s first proper tour as Prince Love Symbol and refusing to play any of his hits not all its 24 dates sold out. Prince performed the shows with ‘SLAVE’ scrawled on his face cheek to highlight his protest against Warner Bros Records for withholding the album the tour was booked to promote and that he felt enslaved to the label due to their control of his music – the catalyst which brought about his name change to Prince Love Symbol on 7 June 1993. Promotion of The Ultimate Live Experience was aided with two appearances on British TV – occasioning Prince’s first performance on Top Of The Pops (aired on 15 March 1995), and, during an off day on tour his first television interview in ten years, done for BBC2’s The Sunday Show on 12 March, during which he aired frustration at Warner, albeit masked and answering his questions through Mayte.

The Ultimate Live Experience was so named to leverage Prince’s live act legacy as the ultimate performer. For this reason, the shows proved a tonic to his core fan base who craved the new music and his live performances. The format also saw him play his iconic One Eye bass guitar to the delight of fans. The 120-minute spectacle featured flying devils and a hoisted bed. When waiting for the show to start, a screen suspended from the central roof of the auditorium played Mayte’s promo video If Eye Love U 2nite, in rotation with the cover of The Gold Experience and ‘Release date… NEVER’ overlaying it. The shows opened with a specially produced Purple Medley of Prince’s hits played over the PA, which Warner released at the beginning of the run as a tour ‘souvenir’ single. The concert itself launched with the curtain crashing to the floor and whisked away as the band started playing, and Prince rolling into stage centre on a travelator and perform Endorphinmachine.

Named the Endorphin Machine the set was designed to resemble a female’s reproduction organs, it is pictured behind the clear CD tray of The Gold Experience when the album was eventually released that September. This gold set featured an upper catwalk, accessed by stairs stage left and right, and on the floor stood two columns of gold speakers. In the centre of the ‘womb’ was a red curtained pod, through which Prince arrived on a travelator extending from the central pod to his microphone stand stage front. Inside the central pod was a console allowing Prince to mix the sound levels directly from the stage.

The stage floor was gloss black, with two raised side platforms reaching into the wings. Dynamic lighting rigged stage rear, top and at the sides bathed the stage in white and gold light. Michael Bland’s black Yamaha drumkit with gold Prince Love Symbol symbol printed on the bass drum was placed stage left, behind Morris Hayes keyboards – one fronted in white fur, the other a Hammond B3 Organ housed in clear plexiglass casing. Tommy Barbarella’s keyboards was stage right and fronted in the US stars and stripes. Occupying a plush seat on the catwalk was Sonny T on bass.

Not wishing to promote his Warner Brothers catalogue, set lists featured only a few songs from his Warner era – even then performing rarities due to his on-going feud with the label. The setlist was fierce and full of urgency, heightened by the brevity of the tour. All this gave reason for fans to fondly remember the concerts. The Japan leg of the tour was scheduled to begin on 28 June 1995 and continue to 10 July but was postponed to January 1996. By the autumn of 1995 the much postponed album the tour was due to promote had finally been released. The Japanese promoter was nervousness the non-Warner set list would impact ticket sales, and so what became named the Japan ’96 leg played a wider selection of songs from Prince’s Warner catalogue.

Following the tour and on his return to the US, Prince married Mayte on Valentine’s Day 1996. Then just three days later on the 17th he played three consecutive nights at Hawaii’s Blaisdell arena (to the surprise of Mayte who was not informed it was a working honeymoon beforehand). These would become Prince’s final shows with Mayte, as on 1 April he put out an announcement confirming Mayte was pregnant with their child and shortly afterwards she quit dancing. The honeymoon shows were also Prince’s last appearances with the remaining members of NPG‘s original lineup, which were all let go on 8 March. Auditioning their replacements began that June. Prince and his new band returned to the Blaisdell Center on 16 February 1997 to perform a concert to celebrate his first wedding anniversary.

Prince | Ultimate Live Experience 1995 — Photography by Ilpo Musto

Performers

Vocals/Guitar: Prince Love Symbol
Drums: Michael Bland
Keyboards: Morris Hayes; Tommy Barbarella
Bass Guitar: Sonny Thompson
Dance: Mayte Garcia

Total performances

The Ultimate Live Experience (UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland)
24 shows from 3 to 30 March 1995
Japan ’96 (Japan)
7 shows from 8 to 20 January 1996