Reg Strikes Back Tour


Elton John started the Reg Strikes Back tour in promotion of the album with the same name. It was his self-proclaimed comeback album, and his way of fighting back against bad press. It started on 9 September 1988 and ended on 10 June 1989.

Tour

After taking over a year off, John returned to the stage with a new rhythm section. He wanted more of an R&B sound to his material, so drummer Jonathan Moffett and bassist Romeo Williams, along with backing singers Marlena Jeter, Natalie Jackson and Alex Brown, were added to the band. Guitarist Davey Johnstone, now also in the role of music director, had assembled the new band, a task that he continues to do.
The band’s first show was at an AIDS benefit at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, where they played a 14-song set that featured the never-released John/Taupin composition, Love Is Worth Waiting For. The US tour then began on 9 September at the Miami Arena in Miami, Florida and concluded on 22 October at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
After recording the Sleeping With The Past album in Denmark, the band resumed their tour on 20 March 1989 at La Halle Tony Garnier in Lyon, France and played across Eastern Europe and the UK, concluding on 10 June 1989 at the RDS Arena in Dublin.

Instrumentation

John did not play a grand piano on this tour, replacing it with a Roland RD-1000 digital piano, a mainstay of the Elton John sound. Where John uses a Yamaha DCFIIISPRO concert grand piano with MIDI output on stage and has done since his switch to Yamaha pianos in 1993, the rack form of the RD-1000, the MKS20, has been in his rack ever since.

Tour dates

Setlist

  1. Sixty Years On
  2. I Need You to Turn To
  3. The King Must Die
  4. Burn Down the Mission
  5. Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word
  6. Have Mercy on the Criminal
  7. Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
  8. Tiny Dancer
  9. The Ballad of Danny Bailey
  10. I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues
  11. Philadelphia Freedom
  12. The Bitch Is Back
  13. Sad Songs
  14. Goodbye Marlon Brando
  15. A Word in Spanish
  16. Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
  17. Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
  18. Nikita
  19. Daniel
  20. Rocket Man
  21. I Don't Wanna Go on with You Like That
  22. Candle in the Wind
  23. Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting
  24. Your Song
  25. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
  26. I'm Still Standing
  27. Song for Guy

    Tour band