It has been a decade since the world lost Prince on April 21, 2016. The anniversary is a time for fans to listen to the music of the late, enigmatic legend and pay tribute by sharing their fondest memories of attending Prince concerts throughout his decades-spanning career—including several highlights that took place in Houston.
Of course, the man behind Purple Rain had multiple memorable stops in Houston, but none more iconic than his 1982 “1999” tour and his 1985 “Purple Rain” tour, both put on at the Summit arena (now home to Lakewood Church). The shows are a time capsule of Prince as he ascended into true superstardom and then into otherworldly fame in the 1980s. Luckily, the Houston stops are preserved for fans to relive those special nights and for new fans to see the see and hear the incredible shows for the first time.
Prince’s 1982 Houston show was captured on video and released on DVD as part of the deluxe edition box set of 1999, which is why it’s available on YouTube with some clever tricks to avoid copyright strikes. Before Prince took the stage, Vanity 6 and The Time got the crowd ready.
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The set list didn’t include arguably Prince’s best song, “Little Red Corvette,” which is weird, but fans were given their fill of the man from the land of many lakes. There is a great performance of “How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore” with Prince on the piano, which, even through the graininess of the YouTube rip, still hits.
Prince performs Jan. 10, 1985, in the first of six concert appearances at the Summit.
Steve Campbell, HC staff / © Houston Chronicle
Prince performs Jan. 10, 1985, in the first of six concert appearances at the Summit. The Houston performances are part of the Purple Rain Tour and has sold-out the Summit for a record four nights.
Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspap/Houston Chronicle via Getty Imag
Prince performs Jan. 10, 1985, in the first of six concert appearances at the Summit. The Houston performances are part of the Purple Rain Tour and has sold-out the Summit for a record four nights.
Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspap/Houston Chronicle via Getty Imag
It has been a decade since the world lost Prince on April 21, 2016.
Michael Ochs Archives
Of course, it isn’t a Prince concert unless things get extremely freaky. Prince stripped out of his purple trenchcoat toward the end of the show, doing a burlesque-like routine during “International Lover” into a capping and fitting performance of “Head” to end the show.
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The comments of folks claiming to have been in attendance, recounting their experiences, are staggering. Individuals describing where they were sitting and near misses of catching clothes from Prince himself, even someone claiming their mother was at the Summit pregnant with them, so technically they were at the concert. The fact that tickets were apparently sub-$20 is, by itself, ridiculous to contemplate when looking at how expensive shows are now.
While the 1982 Houston show was incredible, he wasn’t at the peak of his powers just yet. Luckily, Prince would touch down in Houston in 1985 for six nights during his Purple Rain tour in 1985.
Prince’s Purple Rain era was his commercial and critical apex. The album sold more than 8 million copies after its release in 1984, and was so big and made so much money that Warner Bros. Records said, “Hey, let’s make a movie.”
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The Purple Rain tour played 98 shows from November 1984 to April 7, 1985, selling more than 17 million tickets. The six Houston shows featured all the classics from Purple Rain and his massive hits from 1999, clocking in at over 1 hour and 40 minutes. The tour itself produced one of the best live albums ever, Prince and The Revolution: Live At Syracuse, and the Houston show followed the Syracuse performance almost to a T.
The album itself features Prince showing out on guitar in a way he hadn’t made the primary focus of his music before. Pretty much every song has a guitar solo, with “When Doves Cry” having one of the best ever performed. At the live show, the solos, intros, and interludes are even more indulgent and raw, and the Houston show was no exception.
Even through the rough audio, hearing the crowd pop and excitement is really something. The show ends with an almost 25-minute performance of “Purple Rain” with the crowd hanging on every note.
While there’s no video, only an audio recording, Prince’s performance of “Take Me With You” is recorded and used as the official concert video on the Prince YouTube channel and captures the late icon strutting the stage at the Summit during one of his 1985 Houston shows.
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Even more iconic than his six-night residency at the Summit was the special concert he had for more than 2,000 underprivileged and sick children in Houston. Prince’s team contacted Summit staff about hosting a special concert during that visit. Sydney Greenblatt, who ran the Summit for 20 years, set up a concert in collaboration with Texas Southern University, which agreed to host Prince and the children.
“The lights went down, and the fog on the stage started,” Greenblatt said in 2016. “And there was a purple background and he walked out and the kids just went wild. They immediately knew who it was when the music started.”
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Prince had several more concerts in Houston, each holding a special place for those who were lucky enough to attend. The fact that people were actually able to experience these one-of-a-kind shows is incredible, whether you lived it or are living vicariously through them. It’s been 10 years, but we’re lucky to have the performances preserved to always come back to.