The "PRINCE: Piano & A Microphone" Tour 2016
This special episode of “The.. Music Through the Years” series is in honor of Prince’s 63rd birthday, June 7, 2021, and we look at Prince's last tour, the "Piano & A Microphone" Tour.
This year, I shared a 2-part post for viewers as a result of a poll of viewers of “Which Prince tour would you like featured for Prince’s 63rd Birthday?” Viewers could choose from 10 different Prince tours through the years:
1) "Parade" Tour, Prince & The Revolution, 1986
2) "Lovesexy" Tour, Prince, 1988
3) "Nude" Tour, Prince & The New Power Generation, 1990
4) "Diamonds and Pearls" Tour, Prince & The New Power Generation, 1992
5) "Jam of the Year" Tour, Prince, 1997-1998
6) "One Night Alone" Tour, Prince & The New Power Generation, 2002
7) "Musicology" Tour, Prince & The New Power Generation, 2004
8) "Earth" Tour/"21 Nights in London", Prince & The New Power Generation, 2007
9) "20Ten" Tour/"Welcome 2 America" Tour/"21 Nite Stand" Los Angeles, Prince & The New Power Generation, 2011-2012
10) "Piano & A Microphone" Tour, Prince, 2016
Prince’s last tour, the “Piano & a Microphone” Tour got the most votes in the viewer poll, so on June 7, 2021 Prince’s birthday, I posted the first part of the “2-Part” birthday post for viewers.
Background on Prince's 2016 "Piano & A Microphone" Tour
Prince initially planned a “solo” tour, Prince performing solo with simply a piano; for December of 2015. The setlists would include music “culled from Prince’s 39 album catalog, and would feature some of his best known hits, “B-Sides”, and some unreleased material”. Prince planned to hit 16 cities in 11 countries in less than a month. Days after announcing the tour in early November of 2015, the November 13, 2015 “Paris Terrorist Attacks” occurred. In response, Prince postponed the tour, but later cancelled it altogether. Prince also stated that another reason for cancelling the European leg of the tour was the actions of ticket vendors, who jacked up ticket prices, even before announcement of the official “on sale” dates. The cancellation was Prince’s stance against “ticket-touts”.
Prince then set about organizing and promoting the Oceana, and North American leg of the tour. This leg of the tour hit Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the USA.
Stops on the "Piano & A Microphone" Tour of 2016
January 21, 2016 (2),
Paisley Park Chanhassen, MN
February 16, 2016 (2),
Melbourne, Australia
February 17, 2016 (2),
Melbourne, Australia
February 20, 2016 (2),
Sydney, Australia
February 21, 2016 (2),
Sydney, Australia
February 24, 2016 (2),
Auckland, New Zealand
February 25, 2016
Perth, Australia
February 28, 2016 (2),
Oakland, CA Paramount Theatre
March 4, 2016,
Oakland, CA Oracle Arena
March 21, 2016 (2),
Montreal, QC
March 25, 2016 (2),
Toronto, ON
*April 14, 2016 (2),
Atlanta, GA
* The Atlanta shows were originally scheduled for April 7, 2016, but due to “illness”, Prince postponed to April 14, 2016, and this would be Prince’s last show before his death one week later April 21, 2016.
Prince had other USA dates tentatively planned on the tour for St. Louis, MO and Baltimore, MD, however he was “taken away” from us before he could complete the energetic work of the “Piano & A Microphone” Tour
PT. 1 of Prince's 63rd Birthday Post
The first part of the birthday Post was an MP3 audio recording of The kick-off to the “Piano & Microphone” Tour, a “Gala Event” that took place on January 21, 2016 at Paisley Park. This exclusive 2-show Prince performance event (8pm and 11pm) was attended by over 1,000 fans and was highly reviewed in the music press. This is a remarkably clear recording of that 2nd 11pm show.
Here’s the setlist from that show:
January 21, 2016 "Piano & A Microphone" Gala Event, Paisley Park (Show 2)
Run Time: 1 HR 16 Min
1) "Wow"
2) "The Love We Make"
3) "Look at Me Look at U"
4) "The Question of U"
5) "1000 Xs and Os"
6) "Ur Gonna C Me"
7) "Call My Name"
8) "Purple Rain"
9) "The Dance"
10) "Te Amo Corazon"
11) "A Million Days"
12) "Nothing Compares 2 U"
13) "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore"
14) "The Ladder"
15) "I Wanna Be Your Lover"
16) "Raspberry Beret"
17) "Starfish and Coffee"
18) "Venus De Milo"
19) "Sometimes it Snows in April"
20) "Dear Mr. Man"
21) "A Case of U"
22) "Black Sweat"
23) "Free UrSelf"
PT. 2 of Prince's 63rd Birthday Post
The "PRINCE: Piano & A Microphone" Tour 2016
Released on Patreon 6/10/2021
Run Time: 2 HRS 5 MIN
Part 2 of these special Prince’s 63rd Birthday posts is a special episode of “The …” Music Through the Years” series entitled, “Prince: The Piano & A Microphone Tour 2016”
I realized as I was editing this special “Music Through the Years” episode, that this episode was actually created back in the summer of 2016 in the months following Prince's death, and I guess Prince feels it’s time to be seen...well, partially.
Viewers may remember from the Pt. 6 of "Prince's Spiritual Life and Journey" series, how I explained that in the Summer of 2016, a few months after Prince's death, he started showing up in the dream space or the "no-time" to me, and talking to me about Gematria, and encouraging me to learn it. I was a different person then, and a grieving Prince “Fam” like many of you. But, I took his advice and found some interesting codes and patterns...thus the "Ritualistic Life and Murder of Prince" series was born.
The first episode I ever researched, decoded, and wrote was an episode called, "The Last Tour" on the "Piano & A Microphone" Tour. It was Summer 2016, and after I started studying and working with Gematria, Prince showed up and asked me to look at that tour and note what I discovered. Well, I found A LOT. After I decoded and wrote the episode, Prince then said, "Put that aside for now. I want you to focus on something else, " Then the first episode of the series became "Warner Brothers Pictures, The Warners, and Prince", and there was purpose in that, that I understood later.
For nearly 5 years, I have been sitting on that episode, and of course at that time, I downloaded 1000s of video clips and images that were out there in the public domain in the months following Prince's death. I was asked to do this because, soon the internet would be scrubbed and Prince's "Estate" and WB Records would clamp down on all this video and information that was out there. This is why I always have some very rare clips for the series episodes, OUTTAKE, and Music XTRA content; because I was asked to “get it before it was gone”.
So, some of the footage and clips we will see in this episode, you may not have seen before or perhaps some has made their way back into the "public domain" now that "Those who wish to hold us back" have lost a lot of their control on us on this dimension and others.
"The... Music Through the Years" series is a LIVE MUSIC series, where some clips were filmed by venue staff, some were professionally filmed by Prince, others were professionally filmed and produced for commercial purposes.
The "Piano & A Microphone" Tour was unique, in that ALL the footage out there was filmed by "The Fam" on their camera phones or whatever devices they used to capture the show. These recordings are of remarkable quality, considering the circumstances.
In this time since I first wrote that episode "The Last Tour", I have seen and been taught so much about Prince's life and journey here, that when editing this episode, and looking at the footage now, I understand more about what Prince was doing on that tour, and why it was his last. My eyes and ears are different now, and there is much more to see and understand NOW than I could appreciate 5 years ago when this all started.
In this episode, we will see clips from shows in Melbourne, Australia, Oakland, CA (Paramount Theatre), Oakland, CA (Oracle Arena), Montreal, QC, Toronto, Ontario Canada, and the last show, Atlanta's Fox Theater.
Much of the reason why I posted the audio MP3 recording of the “Gala Event” show at Paisley Park on January 21, 2016 ahead of the episode is because unlike many of the clips from the tour we will see in the episode, Prince’s estate chooses to reserve the Prince recorded video of those first Paisley Park shows, for private viewing events and parties at Paisley Park and not commercially release them. However, I did include in this episode a clip of visitors to Paisley Park at one such 2020 viewing party.
A Few Things to "Note" As You Watch Prince's "Piano & A Microphone" Tour Performances
The "kaleidoscope" backdrop of the tour, is actually sacred geometry formations. We discussed sacred geometry (remember, Gematria is a form of sacred geometry) and the energetic science behind it and its original purpose in various episodes of the "Prince's Spiritual Life and Journey" series. Prince is putting out energetic "activations" to the audience to activate “The Fam”.
I alluded to Prince's outfit on the tour, "The Moon phase" tunic, in "Prince’s Spiritual Life and Journey" Pt. 5 "Prince's Ascension" and commented that now I understand why Prince wore that outfit on every show of the tour. It has to do with Prince working with the Universal energies that I discussed in the YouTube mini posts "The Purple Ascension" in 2019 and 2020. In 2018 through to 2019, Prince taught me a lot or as he says "helped me remember" how to manifest, and transmute energies using these universal galactic energies, like the moon (and other planets and asteroids) and its phases and astrological energy. So, considering what Prince was up against at that time, and what he was actually trying to manifest for himself and “The Fam” on that tour, it’s no wonder he is wearing that design against a sacred geometry form backdrop.
We discussed in the "The Ritualistic Life and Murder of Prince" series, in episodes and OUTTAKES from 2017 or so, how Prince shared with me at that time that Oakland, CA, The Bay area is a portal area. So note what Prince says to the audiences in Oakland, CA and the songs that he plays.
Note how Prince's demeanor and energy changes as the tour progresses and he visits different cities, performing in front of very different and diverse audiences in Australia, Canada, and the USA. I noticed this most dramatically in Oakland. And when I researched the original episode in 2016, I recognized that there were reasons why Prince visited the cities he visited at this time, and avoided others. Prince also planned to visit other cities on the tour, that were of energetic importance in “The Work”, but he was taken away from this plane before he could get there.
I am sometimes pleasantly surprised when making an episode, how the "Prince numbers" and coding appears out of nowhere. During the Toronto show, at the 1 HR 44 Min mark (=144 a common Prince number), Prince sings an interesting verse during his rendition of Bill Withers' "Use Me". Note his words.
Lastly, I do share a bit of surprising info that I found in 2016 in the original episode, “The Last Tour”, concerning the postponement of the 4/7/2016 date in Atlanta, and in addition to the "illness" causing the postponement. I present another reason for the postponement that I will discuss fully, when I am asked to post that episode to the Patreon channel.
I was able to use a lot of the researched info and images from that first "The Last Tour" episode written in 2016 in this episode, and I mention a few things I discovered in that original 2016 about this tour in this episode.
We are very pleased with how the episode turned out and I think it is turning out to be one of the favorite "Music Through the Years" episodes of the series.
-Episodes of "The..." Music Through the Years is available to view ONLY on The SPOOKY ELECTRIC XPOSED Patreon channel, for patrons of the "Lovesexy" Tier and higher.
