popmart

[00Kevin]

Despite what my avatar may suggest, I was not old enough to remember u2 in 1997, which means i don't have an understanding of what the popmart tour was like. I know today u2 sells out everyshow no matter where they go, but pop was kind of out there, and i was curious to know how successful the tour was in terms of selling out and total revenue.

 

[ramblin rose]

In terms of successful I can't comment. In terms of a great tour, a lot would have to happen for me to have another tour like Popmart.

It will always rank as # 1 in my book.

 

[hcbiggs2002]

Here in Finland it sold it sold out (i.e. 50,000 tickets) within half and hour! And the concert itself was fantastic. And from what I've heard it was pretty much the same story of the rest of the European venues. I also went to the Dublin Popmart gig at Lansdown. But unfortunately it was bit of a come down after Helsinki!

 

[Muad'zin]

I think U2 did quit well financially. From what I hear they did what governments did in antiquity. The likes of ticketmaster gave them a very large fixed lump sum for the tour and in turn they would exploit ticketsales and keep the ticketsales revenues. So despite having some stadiums only half full (there is a picture in Pim de la Parra's book taken from the stage where you can see the stands in the back completely empty) they still made a profit. It helped that Europe mostly sold out, although the German shows did suffer from large underattendence. What did hurt the band was their 1998 rest of the world tour leg. Large distances to cross with only few shows to make up for it meant they lost more then they earned.

Which is why McGuiness and a former big shot accountant made sure Elevation would only go to profitable locations. So no Eastern Europe, South America, Australasia, only Western Europe and an absurd amount of American shows.