World Tour 2003

2003

It was Prince they were all waiting for

A misleadingly named, albeit very brief, World Tour was performed in the winter of 2003 which largely served as the warm-up for the full-scale US Musicology Tour that began the following March. Prior to the launching his World Tour in October 2003, Prince had played just one show that year, an hour long performance on 18 August launching the DVD release of the footage capturing the final show staged for the One Nite Alone Tour of 2002. Prince spent much of 2003 in Toronto, where he was living with his second Wife Manuella Testolini and recording his 28th studio album Musicology in a local studio. The Prince World Tour 2003 was essentially a greatest hits show and not in promotion of any album.

The tour began in Hong Kong with Prince headlining the opening night of Harbour Fest on 17 October 2003 to launch thirteen days of events financed by the Chinese regional government to help kickstart the economy in the aftermath of the affects wrought by the SARS pandemic. The event was organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in a drive to boost tourism to Hong Kong and its HK$100m expense to host these concerts became the subject of controversy, as was staged at a specially built temporary stadium in the harbour area at Tamar. Harbour Fest ran until 19 November, with Rolling Stones performing its closing shows. The support act for Prince on the opening night was Karen Mok, one of the biggest names in Asian music at that time.

Following his appearance at Harbour Fest, Prince’s 2003 World Tour played several shows in Australia from the 21st, as well as frequent aftershows. This and the subsequent Hawaii leg continued the NPG Music Club soundcheck which proved popular during the previous One Nite Alone… Tour, granting club members early access to the concerts to watch Prince soundcheck with the band. The shows lasted an average of 150-minutes.

Following Australia, it was intended for World Tour 2003 to play Hawaii’s MMCC Castle Theater on 1 November. Although this show was cancelled because Prince had fallen ill, the Hawaii leg was postponed to December and its venues upscaled. To document this occasion, Afshin Shahidi photographed the shows and published these in an accompanying book Prince In Hawaii: An Intimate Portrait of an Artist which also featured a companion CD containing a song captured on the Hawaii leg. The book and CD were released on 29 March 2004.

NPG’s keyboard line-up for World Tour 2003 was augmented with two new arrivals to accompany Renato Neto: The Time’s touring keyboardist Stanley “Chance” Howard and Rose Ann Dimalanta (stage named “rad.”) was Neto’s former bandmate from Sheila E‘s E-Train band. Following the tour’s completion rad. left the band to spend more time with her young daughter.

Performers

Vocals/Guitar

Prince

Drums

John Blackwell

Keyboards

Renato Neto

Chance Howard

Rose Ann Dimalanta "rad."

Bass Guitar

Rhonda Smith

Trombone

Greg Boyer

Alto Sax

Maceo Parker

Saxophone

Candy Dulfer

Sample setlist

1. [Keyboard intro, rad.]
2. Let’s Go Crazy
3. I Would Die 4 U
4. When Doves Cry
5. Baby I’m A Star
6. Shhh
7. D.M.S.R
8. A Love Bizarre / The Glamorous Life
9. I Feel For You
10. Controversy
11. The Beautiful Ones
12. Nothing Compares 2 U
13. Insatiable
14. Sign O’ The Times
15. The Question Of U
16. The One
17. Let’s Work
18. U Got The Look
19. Life ‘O’ The Party
20. Soul Man [Sam & Dave]
21. Kiss
22. Take Me With U
23. The Everlasting Now
24. Adore
25. On The Couch
26. Forever In My Life
27. One Kiss At A Time
28. All The Critics Love U In New York
29. Alphabet St.
30. Johnny / Atomic Dog [George Clinton]
31. Days Of Wild
32. Purple Rain

Piano set

Prince Tour Trivia

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