The Ultimate Live Experience was a European concert tour by Prince that was mostly in the United Kingdom that was through the month of March 1995. This tour was to promote the soon-to-be The Gold Experience that was released in September later that year. Much of the setlist was from Gold Experience and there was also Come and Exodus material. However, he did say that he wouldn't not perform his Prince stuff from 1978 to early 1993. However, he did perform "I Love U in Me" and "7" with some covers.
An extension of the tour known as the Gold Tour was launched in 1996. The concerts featured mainly songs from the album, but also started adding prior Prince fan favorites.
History The Ultimate Live Experience was performed during a chaotic period in Prince's life and career. He had much new music written but then record company Warner Brothers refused to release it at the speed that Prince wished, leading to public feuding. Meanwhile, Prince had already released the album Come with no promotion and was trying to get The Gold Experience released as well. During this time, he made many configurations of the album and this tour presents songs that he likely planned for the album (though not all would make the cut), as well as very rarely played cuts from the Prince period, with the exception of "7".
While the previous year's Ultimate Live Experience tour presented Gold Experience prior to its release, the long overdue album had finally hit shelves in late 1995 and this tour was now a "proper" promotion. However, by this time, Prince had been playing some of the material for nearly two years and many of the songs were shortened to brief medleys. Conversely, Prince had formerly said he would not play "Prince" material anymore, but that idea was apparently tossed to the wind with this tour due to contractual agreements made in Japan forcing him to include his older material to the setlist. Several fan-favorites such as "The Cross", "Do Me, Baby", and "Sexy MF" were regulars, along with the Gold material. Also, Prince started performing a cover of Joan Osborne's "One of Us", which he would include on his next album, Emancipation.
Set lists
March 1995 "Endorphinmachine" "The Jam" (Includes "The Exodus Has Begun" lyric interpolation) "Shhh" "Days of Wild" (Includes snippets of "Hair") "Now" (Includes snippets of "Babies Makin' Babies") "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" "Johnny" "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" "P. Control" "Letitgo" "Pink Cashmere" "(Lemme See Your Body) Get Loose!" (Unreleased remix of "Loose!") "I Love U in Me" "Proud Mary" (Includes "I Can't Turn You Loose" interpolation) Oriental prelude "7" "Dolphin"
Encore
"Get Wild" "Race" "Super Hero" Medley "Billy Jack Bitch" "Eye Hate U" "319" "Gold"
January to February 1996
"Endorphinmachine" (includes "1999" intro) "Shhh" "Days of Wild" (includes snippets of “Hair”) "Now" (includes snippets of “Babies Makin’ Babies) "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" "P. Control" (House Mix) "Letitgo" "Starfish and Coffee" "The Cross" "The Jam" "One of Us" "Do Me, Baby" "Sexy M.F." "If I Was Your Girlfriend" "Vicki Waiting" "Purple Medley" "7" Encore
Medley "Billy Jack Bitch" "Eye Hate U" "319" "Gold"
Tour dates + List of 1995 concerts Date City Country VenueMarch 3, 1995 London England Wembley ArenaMarch 4, 1995March 5, 1995March 7, 1995March 8, 1995March 10, 1995 Manchester G-Mex CentreMarch 11, 1995March 13, 1995 Glasgow Scotland SECCMarch 14, 1995March 16, 1995 Sheffield England Sheffield ArenaMarch 17, 1995March 18, 1995 Birmingham National Exhibition CentreMarch 19, 1995March 21, 1995 London Wembley ArenaMarch 22, 1995March 24, 1995 Den Bosch Netherlands BrabanthallenMarch 25, 1995March 27, 1995 Ghent Belgium Flanders ExpoMarch 29, 1995 Dublin Ireland Point DepotMarch 30, 1995
+ List of 1996 concerts Date City Country VenueJanuary 8, 1996 Tokyo Japan Nippon BudokanJanuary 9, 1996January 11, 1996 Osaka Osaka-jō HallJanuary 13, 1996 Fukuoka Fukuoka Kokusai CenterJanuary 16, 1996 Tokyo Nippon BudokanJanuary 17, 1996January 20, 1996 Yokohama Yokohama ArenaFebruary 17, 1996 Honolulu United States Blaisdell ArenaFebruary 18, 1996 February 19, 1996
References