Sleeping with the Past Tour

The Sleeping with the Past Tour was a worldwide concert tour by English musician and composer Elton John, in support of his 22nd studio album, Sleeping with the Past. The tour included a total of three legs (in North America and Oceania) and a total of 74 shows.

Sleeping with the Past Tour
Tour by Elton John
LocationNorth America • Oceania
Associated albumSleeping with the Past
Start date28 July 1989
End date20 May 1990
Legs3
No. of shows74 in total
Elton John concert chronology

Background

edit

Elton John's album, Sleeping with the Past, received lukewarm reviews when the album was released in 1989.

Despite the critical judgment of the album, it became his highest-selling studio album in the United Kingdom, being certified 3× Platinum and spawned his first solo number-one hit in his home country.

During many of these shows, John performed three or four songs from Sleeping with the Past — an unusual move since the new album would not be released until August, and thus audiences were hearing this material for the first time. Also new to the production was a two-minute show intro, conceived and recorded by Davey Johnstone and Guy Babylon, which played as the band walked out on to the stage, using an alternate arrangement of "Bennie and the Jets" to introduce the show's first song. This technique would be used on several subsequent tours and change depending on what song was chosen as the set opener.

On 18 October 1989 in New Haven, Connecticut, he rushed through his performance rarely talking to the audience. Midway through his concert, he announced he would not perform material from the new album because MCA was not promoting it.[1]

By the time this final leg of the tour would end, John and his band, now with Charlie Morgan on drums, had been on the road almost constantly for two full years. John played 20 dates in six cities in Australia, beginning at the Entertainment Centre in Perth on 27 January 1990, and concluding three weeks later with seven nights at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

Next came shows in New Zealand on 28 February and 3 March before the tour moved on to America, where he did three shows at the Mark G. Etess Arena in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on 18–20 May. The set list at these US shows featured the premiere of "Made for Me", one of four new songs he had recorded for his then-upcoming box set, To Be Continued...

Two months later, John checked himself in to a Chicago-area hospital for addiction treatment and would not tour again for two years.

Tour dates

edit
Date City Country Venue Tickets sold / available Revenue
North America, Leg 1
28 July 1989 Hartford United States Hartford Civic Center 15,799 / 15,799 $355,478
29 July 1989 Providence Providence Civic Center 14,241 / 14,241 $320,423
30 July 1989 Saratoga Springs Saratoga Performing Arts Center
1 August 1989 Mansfield Woods Performing Arts Center
2 August 1989
4 August 1989 East Rutherford Brendan Byrne Arena 59,992 / 59,992 $1,491,547
6 August 1989
7 August 1989
9 August 1989 New Orleans Lakefront Arena 9,866 / 9,866 $230,550
10 August 1989 Houston The Summit 14,463 / 14,463 $338,224
11 August 1989 Dallas Coca-Cola Starplex 20,053 / 20,053 $395,755
12 August 1989 Bonner Springs Sandstone Amphitheater 13,488 / 15,000 $315,792
15 August 1989 Inglewood Great Western Forum 42,000 / 42,000 $945,000
17 August 1989
18 August 1989
19 August 1989 Costa Mesa Pacific Amphitheatre
20 August 1989 Mountain View Shoreline Amphitheatre
22 August 1989 Greenwood Village Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre
26 August 1989 Hoffman Estates Poplar Creek Music Theater
27 August 1989
29 August 1989 Cuyahoga Falls Blossom Music Center
30 August 1989 Noblesville Deer Creek Music Center 18,000 / 18,000
1 September 1989 Clarkston Pine Knob Music Theatre
2 September 1989
3 September 1989
12 September 1989 Cincinnati Riverbend Music Center 16,518 / 16,518
13 September 1989 16,985 / 16,985
15 September 1989 Nashville Starwood Amphitheater 17,137 / 17,137
16 September 1989 Atlanta Lakewood Amphitheater
17 September 1989
19 September 1989 Pittsburgh Civic Arena
23 September 1989 Chapel Hill Dean Smith Center
25 September 1989 Montreal Canada Montreal Forum
26 September 1989
27 September 1989 Toronto SkyDome 35,084 / 35,084 $839,274
30 September 1989 Philadelphia United States The Spectrum 31,624 / 31,624 $748,904
1 October 1989
3 October 1989 New York City Madison Square Garden[2] 65,345 / 65,345 $1,613,975
4 October 1989
5 October 1989
6 October 1989
7 October 1989
13 October 1989 Miami Miami Arena 13,276 / 13,276 $315,305
15 October 1989[3] Orlando Orlando Arena 14,762 / 14,762 $332,167
16 October 1989 Charlotte Charlotte Coliseum 22,679 / 22,679 $353,700
17 October 1989 Landover Capital Centre 16,292 / 16,292 $407,300
18 October 1989[4] New Haven New Haven Coliseum 10,505 / 10,505 $259,650
Oceania[5][6]
27 January 1990 Perth Australia Perth Entertainment Centre
28 January 1990
29 January 1990
1 February 1990 Melbourne National Tennis Centre
2 February 1990
3 February 1990
5 February 1990 Hobart Derwent Entertainment Centre
6 February 1990
7 February 1990
10 February 1990 Adelaide Memorial Drive Park
11 February 1990
14 February 1990 Brisbane Brisbane Entertainment Centre
15 February 1990
17 February 1990 Sydney Sydney Entertainment Centre
18 February 1990
20 February 1990
21 February 1990
23 February 1990
24 February 1990
25 February 1990
28 February 1990 Christchurch New Zealand Addington Showgrounds
1 March 1990 Auckland Mount Smart Stadium
3 March 1990
North America, Leg 2
18 May 1990 Atlantic City United States Etess Arena[7][8]
19 May 1990
20 May 1990

1989 setlists

edit
Providence Civic Center, Providence RI 7/29/1989
  1. Bennie and the Jets
  2. Island Girl
  3. Harmony
  4. Tiny Dancer
  5. Sleeping with the Past
  6. The Bitch Is Back/Brown Sugar
  7. I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues
  8. Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters Parts 1 & 2
  9. Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
  10. Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word
  11. Daniel
  12. Candle in the Wind
  13. Sacrifice
  14. Blue Eyes
  15. Philadelphia Freedom
  16. Burn Down the Mission
  17. Come Down in Time
  18. Healing Hands
  19. Levon
  20. Stones Throw From Hurtin'
  21. Kiss The Bride
  22. Sad Songs (Say So Much)
  23. Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
  24. I Don't Wanna Go on with You Like That
  25. Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting
  26. I'm Still Standing
  27. Rocket Man

1990 setlists

edit
Standard setlist
  1. Bennie and the Jets
  2. Tiny Dancer
  3. The Bitch Is Back
  4. Brown Sugar
  5. I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues
  6. Made for Me
  7. Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters Parts 1 & 2
  8. Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
  9. Your Song
  10. Daniel
  11. Sacrifice
  12. Candle in the Wind
  13. Philadelphia Freedom
  14. Healing Hands
  15. Sad Songs (Say So Much)
  16. Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
  17. I Don't Wanna Go on with You Like That
  18. I’m Still Standing

Personnel

edit
  • Elton John – Roland RD-1000 digital piano and lead vocals
  • Davey Johnstone – guitars
  • Romeo Williams – bass
  • Fred Mandel – keyboards/guitar
  • Guy Babylon – keyboards
  • Jonathan Moffett – drums (North American leg)
  • Charlie Morgan – drums (Oceania and second North American leg)
  • Mortonette Jenkins – backing vocals
  • Marlena Jeter – backing vocals
  • Natalie Jackson – backing vocals

References

edit
  1. ^ Bernardin, Claude; Stanton, Tom (1996). Rocket man: Elton John from A-Z. Praeger. p. 142.
  2. ^ [1] sixty.eltonfan.net, Retrieved 29 August 2011
  3. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 3 October 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) orlandovenues.net, Retrieved 29 August 2011
  4. ^ [2] rockindvd.com, Retrieved 29 August 2011
  5. ^ "Elton John World Tour Timeline 1990's". Archived from the original on 31 March 2012. Retrieved 29 August 2011. webrabbit.netfirms.com, Retrieved 29 August 2011
  6. ^ [3] en.allexperts.com, Retrieved 29 August 2011
  7. ^ [4] enotes.com, Retrieved 29 August 2011
  8. ^ [5] articles.philly.com, Retrieved 29 August 2011
edit

  Quotations related to Sleeping with the Past Tour at Wikiquote