Parade Tour (Prince) - History

History

The American leg of the tour is sometimes unofficially called the Hit N Run Tour. The Under the Cherry Moon Tour marked the first, and ironically last, tour of the expanded Revolution as most of the members of the defunct The Family band were absorbed into Prince's band, dubbed by Eric Leeds as "The Counter-Revolution". The band's expansion became a source of tension, as some of the original members were unhappy with the new additions, especially of the non-instrument playing dancers, Wally Safford and Greg Brooks, with Brown Mark remarking "I was behind the piano, next to Bobby Z behind three guys that used to be bodyguards. I started feeling a little underappreciated." Wendy was even bothered that her twin sister Susannah, was now in the band, saying "I shared a womb with this person, do I have to share a stage?" Furthermore Brown Mark, Wendy and Lisa felt that Prince was turning the band into more of an R&B/funk band, moving away from the pop/rock music that Prince had moved toward with his last three albums.

Right before the tour was scheduled to start overseas, Brown Mark, Wendy and Lisa threatened to quit, in fact Bobby Z. literally caught Wendy and Lisa at the airport and begged them to stay for the tour. Eventually all three were convinced to ride it out. But as the tour ended it became clear that this would be the end of the group and these were their final performances together. On the final night in Yokohama, Japan, Prince uncharacteristically smashed up all of his guitars after a final encore of "Purple Rain".

Shortly after the Under the Cherry Moon Tour in October 1986, The Revolution was disbanded, with Prince firing Wendy and Lisa, replacing Bobby Z. with Sheila E., and Brown Mark quitting.