The Ice on Fire Tour was a worldwide

concert tour A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific to ...

held by

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

, in support of his 19th studio album ''

Ice on Fire ''Ice on Fire'' is the nineteenth studio album by English musician Elton John. Recorded at Sol Studios and released in November 1985, it was his first album since ''Blue Moves'' produced by his original long-time producer, Gus Dudgeon. David ...

''. The tour included three legs (in the UK, Europe and North America) and a total of 122 shows.

Background

John had decided he wanted to hit the road with his new band, made up of some of the musicians who had worked with him on the ''

'' album in January, as well as a new set of backing singers: Alan Carvell,

Helena Springs Helena Lisandrello, known professionally as Helena Springs (born 1961), is an American singer. The singer was first a backup vocalist for Bob Dylan, starting in 1978 aged 17, and co-wrote 19 songs with him, more than any of his other collabor ...

and Shirley Lewis – making it the largest band John had ever taken on tour. On 14 November 1985, the tour began in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

and continued across the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

, including nine nights in a row at

Wembley Arena Wembley Arena (originally the Empire Pool, now known as OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, London, England, used for music, comedy, family entertainment and sport. The 12,500-sea ...

, before concluding on 11 January 1986, in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. As usual, John would select a handful of songs from his most recent album for inclusion in the set; in this instance, "Shoot Down the Moon", "This Town" and the singles "Nikita" and "Wrap Her Up" — all from ''Ice on Fire''. The tour would continue in three months' time, but with a different percussionist. Percussionist

Jody Linscott Jody Linscott is an American session musician and percussionist who resides in England and maintains an extended discography. She has two daughters Kachina Dechert and Coco Linscott and has written two children's books which were published by D ...

replaced

Ray Cooper Raymond Cooper (born 19 September 1947) is an English musician who has worked as a session and road-tour percussionist. During his career, Cooper has worked and toured with numerous musically diverse bands and artists including Elton John (as ...

on this second leg of the 1985–1986 World Tour, which began at the

Palacio de Deportes de la Comunidad de Madrid Palacio de Deportes de la Comunidad de Madrid (English: ''Sports Palace of the Regional Community of Madrid''), officially WiZink Center since November 2016 for sponsorship reasons, is an indoor sporting arena located in Madrid, Spain. The forme ...

on 1 March and continued through

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

before concluding on 26 April at the Vorst Nationaal in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. After a four-month a break, during which John and the band recorded the ''

Leather Jackets A leather jacket is a jacket-length coat that is usually worn on top of other apparel or item of clothing, and made from the tanned hide of various animals. The leather material is typically dyed black, or various shades of brown, but a wide ...

'' album, the North American leg of the world tour began at the

Pine Knob Music Theatre Pine Knob Music Theatre (formerly DTE Energy Music Theatre) is an outdoor amphitheater located in Independence Township, Michigan, approximately northwest of Detroit (it has a Clarkston, Michigan mailing address). Built by the Nederlander Orga ...

Clarkston, Michigan Clarkston is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, United States. A northern suburb of Detroit, located about northwest of downtown Detroit, Clarkston is surrounded by Independence Township, but administered independently since its incorporation ...

on 17 August and ended on 15 October with eight nights at Los Angeles'

Universal Amphitheatre Universal Amphitheatre (later known as Gibson Amphitheatre) was an indoor amphitheatre located in Los Angeles, California within Universal City, California, Universal City. It was built as an outdoor venue, opening in the summer of 1972 with a p ...

. One unique aspect to this tour was that John played acoustic guitar on stage (on

Lesley Duncan Lesley Cox (née Duncan; 12 August 1943 – 12 March 2010) was an English singer-songwriter, best known for her work during the 1970s. She received much airplay on British radio stations such as BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2, but never achieved ...

's "Love Song"), something he had not done since 1976. This part of the tour proved especially difficult for John, who unknowingly had developed potentially cancerous nodules on his

vocal cords In humans, vocal cords, also known as vocal folds or voice reeds, are folds of throat tissues that are key in creating sounds through vocalization. The size of vocal cords affects the pitch of voice. Open when breathing and vibrating for speech ...

, and by the time he played his four-night run in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in mid-September, he was having a great deal of difficulty singing. John was ordered by his doctor not to speak while off-stage, and there was serious doubt as to whether or not he could finish this segment of the tour, let alone pull off the upcoming

symphonic A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...

tour of Australia.

Setlists

1985

1986

Tour dates

Box office score data

Tour band

– lead vocals, piano, acoustic guitar on "Love Song" *

Davey Johnstone David William Logan Johnstone (born 6 May 1951) is a British rock guitarist and vocalist, best known for his long-time collaboration with Elton John as a member of the Elton John Band. Career Johnstone's first work was with Noel Murphy in 1 ...

– lead guitar, backing vocals *

David Paton David Paton (; born 29 October 1949) is a Scottish bassist, guitarist and singer. He first achieved success in the mid-1970s as lead vocalist and bassist of Pilot, who scored hits with "Magic", "January", "Just a Smile" and "Call Me Round" bef ...

– bass guitar *

Fred Mandel Frederick Lawrence Mandel (born 1953) is a Canadian session musician, keyboard player and guitarist. Career Born in Estevan, Saskatchewan, Mandel became involved in music from an early age. He started playing the piano at four and picked up t ...

– keyboards, rhythm guitar * Charlie Morgan – drums *

– percussion (UK leg) *

– percussion (Europe and North American legs) *Alan Carvell – backing vocals *Helena Springs – backing vocals *Shirley Lewis – backing vocals *Onward International Horn Section

References

External links

Information Site with Tour Dates
{{Elton John Elton John concert tours 1985 concert tours 1986 concert tours