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
Location	North America • Oceania
Associated album	Sleeping with the Past
Start date	28 July 1989
End date	20 May 1990
Legs	3
No. of shows	74 in total
Elton John concert chronology

Background

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

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

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

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

• 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