well good thing Prince toured last year

Tours de force
By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY
The race has yet to begin, and we already have a winner.

Hot ticket: Bono and U2 are on pace to make more this year than the combined receipts of last year’s top three acts.
By Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY

U2 will be this year's highest-grossing concert draw, with global revenues expected to top $300 million when the band, finishing up the sold-out first leg of U.S. dates next week, wraps up a second run in December.

The Rolling Stones, late out of the starting gate with a trek launching Aug. 21 in Boston, will be in hot pursuit but won't catch up with the Irish colossus until 2006. Paul McCartney should complete the year-end trifecta with his fast-selling US Tour starting Sept. 16 in Miami, and Neil Diamond may create a little drama in the stretch.

"U2 is as big as it gets in this business," says Ray Waddell, Billboard's senior editor for touring. The band stands to rake in more than the combined box office of 2004's top three touring acts: Madonna ($125 million), Prince ($90.2 million) and Shania Twain ($62.5 million). A far bigger take was possible had U2 agreed to a longer run.

"The demand has been overwhelming and far exceeded supply," says Arthur Fogel, president of The Next Adventure, the tour's promoters. "We tried to hit as many regions as possible, but there's no question we underplayed a good many markets. The speed of the sales has been awesome. We have sold every ticket to all 110 shows (32 in stadiums), a phenomenal achievement."

The intense clamor for U2 tickets has brokers charging upward of $4,000 per seat. Scalpers are reaping stratospheric profits, to the band's dismay.

"We put in place all the safeguards we can, but it's a continual chess game," Fogel says. "On a certain level, the Internet has made everyone a potential scalper. You can put down all the conditions and barriers possible, but ultimately anybody is able to buy tickets and resell them through any number of distribution points. It's frustrating."

Fogel credits the excellence and savvy launch of U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb for igniting interest in the tour.

"Everything lined up to create incredible anticipation for the tour on a worldwide basis," he says. "They made a great record and did their usual great job of prepping the release. The success of the Elevation Tour, and the goodwill from that, also carried through."

Nostalgia oversaturation

The summer's real neck-and-neck competition takes place in the backfield's crowd of rising acts and baby-boomer perennials, all jostling for what's left of the consumer's budget.

"The docket's certainly oversaturated, and that's been the trend for the past decade," Waddell says. "Without breaking my brain, I was able to come up with 100 tours, not counting the club level. And some tours, like Warped and Ozzfest, have dozens of bands. So you have a whole lot of acts on the road from April to September. It's a seasonal business."

The jammed circuit could lead to a repeat of last year's summer meltdown, when artists facing half-empty venues were forced to cancel dates and lower ticket prices. The chief culprit? Overpriced ducats. The industry took note but didn't reduce admission costs across the board.

"We haven't seen wholesale decreases," Waddell says. "Instead, promoters are trying to put together value-oriented packages — double bills like John Fogerty and John Mellencamp, Don Henley and Stevie Nicks. Or cool reunion stuff that hasn't been in the marketplace for a while, like Loggins & Messina."

Outdoor venues in particular are striving to upgrade the concert experience for the picnic types.

"Amphitheaters took a real beating last year," Waddell says. "Now those promoters realize the lawn real estate is not worth the same as a reserved seat. It's not superstar-driven. It's more about going out for a nice summer evening. It's hard to charge $50 for a lawn seat unless you enhance the experience."

While tickets haven't fallen to bargain-basement levels, they aren't shooting through the roof this year, a sign that the industry may be correcting itself.

"People are cautiously optimistic," he says. "Whereas at this time last year they were starting to panic, now they're pricing things right going in rather than having to slash and burn later."

As usual, the season is front-loaded with oldies acts from Santana to Styx to Smokey Robinson and light on latter-day pop and rock, save for the brisk-selling tours by Hilary Duff and Green Day. Excitement is building around Coldplay, whose tour starts two months after the June 7 arrival of X&Y.

"The industry needs new headliners, and Coldplay looks like it has a future as a core act," Waddell says. "The business needs to rebuild itself. There are acts from the '60s and '70s and a few from the '80s with legs, but then you get to the '90s, a decade of barren development."

A successful smorgasbord

Waddell predicts high attendance for jam bands, hard rock, Ozzfest, Warped and perennial favorites James Taylor, Jimmy Buffett and the Dave Matthews Band.

"They're bankable year in and year out, because they don't screw around with the formula," he says. "People know what to expect."

Hip-hop, typically a faint trail on the road map, is represented this year by the Anger Management Tour with 50 Cent and Eminem.

"If that doesn't do superstar-level business, I don't know what would," Waddell says.

He also sees a solid summer for country acts, particularly Toby Keith and Kenny Chesney.

"Country is a huge bargain," he says. "It doesn't play second fiddle to a rock show in terms of production, and the tickets are relatively affordable. It's a consistent genre. Chesney drew more than 1 million people last year, and Keith wasn't far behind."

If summer's bottom line bottoms out under the weight of too many acts demanding too much money, the industry might take a cue from Motley Crue. By staging a comeback tour in the off-season, the glam-metal band lured rock fans in the throes of cabin fever.

"The tickets went on sale in January and February, and the band sold out arenas," Waddell says. "That came out of nowhere, and that should be a lesson to everyone. The going is a lot less treacherous if you get out there early."
[Edited 5/20/05 11:40am]

Impressive. Although Prince can't be too worried since he didn't have to split his take up four ways.

EVEN SHANIA?!

They have 110 shows...

Madonna had like 56 shows on her tour.....
That's an unfair comparison

andykeen said:

exactly!

These comparisions are silly.

well, looks like it's back to kraft mac & cheese and cool ranch doritos for prince.

Anxiety said:

Hey, those are expensive! He'll be buying Cost Cutter.

GangstaFam said:

i got president's choice brand shells and cheese at the jewel/osco this week for just a dollar fifty. and that's the fancy kind with the squeezy cheese in a foil pack!

Anxiety said:

$1.50/box? That's still a fortune!

GangstaFam said:

yeah, but their cheese sauce is a toad binding party, so if you eat it for breakfast and have some cigarettes to get ya through, you don't have to eat anything else all day, see.

Anxiety said:

Ah, I do see. So not only does budget Mariah Carey & Cheese save you dough, but it also works as an appetite suppressant?

That sounds like a damn near miracle diet!

GangstaFam said:

it's like eating a big bowl of rubber cement, really. (of course, rubber cement works too - just add some mrs. dash for a bit of flavor.)

Anxiety said:

How bout couch? Does that work too? Or is it more like roughage/fiber?

GangstaFam said:

couch is good if you want some fiber.

Anxiety said:

Good to know.

GangstaFam said:

the shows i've been to so far were great! i've still got two more coming up and i can't wait! the band is at a peak right now; that they love performing is more clear than ever.

as for the "unfair comparisons"..i agree. its unfair to compare a 300 dollar ticket price to that of a 50 dollar ticket price, lol! the best seats in the house on madge's tour were over 300 bucks a piece whereas u2 has kept the best seats down to 50 bucks. u2 also maxes out at 165 as opposed to madonna's 300. the majority of u2 tickets were 90 bucks but the majority of madonna's tickets were somewhere around 150. i think when you see that u2 is charging half of what madonna charged it becomes "fair" to compare grosses since madonna played half the amount of shows.
[Edited 5/20/05 20:06pm]

SassyBritches said:

Any surprises in the setlist? What were the highlights?

GangstaFam said:

no real surprises. the setlist for the 4th show was phenomenal, though. my brother and i went and we had a list of "must hear" songs: yahweh, gloria, bad, and 40. we kind of gave up on bad since they were already up to yahweh (usually the penultimate track before "40"). then we heard those keys and it was like the heavens opened up! so great! the setlists for the two shows are below...

10 May (bono's b-day):

City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
Cry/ Electric Co.
An Cat Dubh / Into the Heart
Beautiful Day
New Years Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can¹t Make it On Your Own
Love and Peace
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running to Standstill
Pride in the Name of love
Where the Streets have No Name
One

Zoo Station
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Party Girl


All Because of You
Original of the Species
Vertigo

12 May (not bono's b-day, lol):

Vertigo
All Because of You
Elevation
Gloria
The Ocean
Beautiful Day
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can¹t Make It On Your Own
Love and Peace
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running to Standstill
City of Blinding Lights
Pride in the name of love
Where the Streets Have No Name
One

Until the End of the World
The Fly
Mysterious Ways

With or Without You
Yahweh
Bad/sexual healing/"40"/bad

SassyBritches said:

It'd be great to see those. I love how they're pulling out all those Boy songs.

Anxiety said:

and what do the 2 of you know about cooch?
























oh, wait....

GrayKing said:

More than you.

Considering their shows sell out in minutes & good seats cost damn near $200 who is this supposed to be surprising to?

HobbesLeCute said:

jayaredee said:

Exactly.Madonna's tour was brief.If she had stayed on the road for a few more months,and played more dates in Europe,she could have easily grossed over $200 million.

but I think it's a great thing that the older acts (U2,Madonna,Prince,The Rolling Stones,etc) are doing better business on the road than the newer acts.Sure,Usher and Beyonce are "hot" right now,but their tours last year didn't make nearly as much money as the Madonna and Prince tours.The newer acts need to sit down and take notes.

DavidEye said:

The main thing isn't that U2 are making more money, it is that, after 25 or so years, they still cut the live mustard - concert goers leave a U2 show with a sense of elation and satisfaction that the newer bands just cannot hope for.

Slash said: