"Largest Audience for a rock tour"

[bathiu]

NEW @U2 U2 BACK IN THE RECORD BOOKS
July 20, 2005
posted by: m2

U2 is back in the Guinness Book of World Records, thanks to the Live 8 performance of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with Paul McCartney. The song will be listed for being the "quickest single put on sale" -- it was available on iTunes and other digital stores within 45 minutes after the performance.

U2 has been in the Guinness Book twice before -- for "Largest Audience for a rock tour" (playing to over 2.9 million people in 93 shows on the PopMart tour) and "Largest Video Screen" (the screen on the PopMart tour).
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Very good for a tour with "attendance problems", eh?

...and the final numbers were 95 shows - 3.9mln people... I guess the above was just "enough to break a record"...

 

[biff]

So they had 2.9 million people after 93 shows, and 3.9 million people after 95 shows. Those last two shows must have been humdingers!

 

[bathiu]

So they had 2.9 million people after 93 shows, and 3.9 million people after 95 shows. Those last two shows must have been humdingers!

I'm sure there's a hidden point in your post, but I don't have the time to find it...
3.9mln from 95 shows are the official final numbers for PopMart... what was written for the record - I don't know - It could be just a gues of someone from @U2 writing that story...

 

[Cassis]

1 million in 2 shows

 

[bathiu]

...oh come on... the x.9mln is the same... it's probably only a mistake made by @U2... "2" is not far from "3" on the keyboard you know...

 

[Cassis]

so?

 

[starvinmarvin]

...oh come on... the x.9mln is the same... it's probably only a mistake made by @U2... "2" is not far from "3" on the keyboard you know...

I had something smart to say, but then I remembered that I don't care....

don't be delusional, the Pop tour was a disaster that U2 will never again repaet if they can help it.

 

[Axver]

Popmart Reggio Emilia happens to hold the record for the largest paying crowd to see a band without support, at over 150,000.

 

[bono_gal]

wow!


Attendance problems?

Whoever said that got put in their place eh?

 

[starvinmarvin]

wow!


Attendance problems?

Whoever said that got put in their place eh?

LOL...the huge crowds in Latin America were more than offset by the expense of bringing the show there. I guess the band had to give themselves an ego boost, knowing that they would certainly draw huge crowds if they went to parts of the world that had never seen the band before.

And there WERE a lot of empty seats on the North American legs of the tour. That is well documented.

 

[bono_gal]

Ah well. the empty seats didnt know what they were missing!

 

[starvinmarvin]

true

 

[Enkryption]

About the empty seats, I think everyone forgets it was an all stadium tour and if you expect a sell out/full house every show you are delusional.

 

[starvinmarvin]

About the empty seats, I think everyone forgets it was an all stadium tour and if you expect a sell out/full house every show you are delusional.

The Stones did it in 1997/98.

 

[Enkryption]

Check your figures they did not sell out/ have a full house every night. i.e. France:Marseilles 40,000 out of the 60,000 tickets.

 

[starvinmarvin]

The point is that the Stones had a more succesul tour.

 

[STING2]

I had something smart to say, but then I remembered that I don't care....

don't be delusional, the Pop tour was a disaster that U2 will never again repaet if they can help it.

Well, the band GROSSED 171 million dollars on the tour which at that time made it the 2nd highest GROSSING tour in history. In addition, 3.9 milion people saw the band at 93 shows. Globally, the average attendance per show was over 42,000. The only other active artist on the planet able to produce such numbers is the Rolling Stones.

 

[STING2]

LOL...the huge crowds in Latin America were more than offset by the expense of bringing the show there. I guess the band had to give themselves an ego boost, knowing that they would certainly draw huge crowds if they went to parts of the world that had never seen the band before.

And there WERE a lot of empty seats on the North American legs of the tour. That is well documented.

Just thought I'd let you know that Popmart Reggio Emilia was in Italy, NOT Latin America! It was a soldout show to 150,000 Italians, the most people ever to attend a single paying show by one artist in the history of the planet. It was also at the time, the highest GROSS ever achieved for a single show at just over 5 million dollars.

There were a lot of soldout shows on the North American Legs of the tour as well. Every show in Canada soldout with the exception of Vancouver. New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Miami, Los Angeles, all had big numbers in attendance and GROSS. U2 broke the GROSS and ATTENDANCE records on the POPMART tour for their 3 shows at Soldier Field in Chicago!

While some shows in the South East had low attendance for a stadium show, how many artist do you know could pull in more people in those cities at the ticket prices that U2 were charging back in 1997?

 

[starvinmarvin]

Well, the band GROSSED 171 million dollars on the tour which at that time made it the 2nd highest GROSSING tour in history. In addition, 3.9 milion people saw the band at 93 shows. Globally, the average attendance per show was over 42,000. The only other active artist on the planet able to produce such numbers is the Rolling Stones.

You're missing the point, which is that not enough people saw Popmart for the band to break even. The band was obviously banking on the notion that they would sell out every stadium. Even if they had sold as many tickets as the Stones, they would have had the most succesful tour ever, but they didn't.

 

[STING2]

The point is that the Stones had a more succesul tour.

The Stones overall had a more successful tour, but there were many countries where U2 had better attendance than the Stones, plus the POP album sold nearly twice as many copies as Bridges To Babylon did worldwide.

 

[LyricalDrug]

About the empty seats, I think everyone forgets it was an all stadium tour and if you expect a sell out/full house every show you are delusional.

Ever heard of the Zoo TV tour?

 

[starvinmarvin]

The Stones overall had a more successful tour, but there were many countries where U2 had better attendance than the Stones, plus the POP album sold nearly twice as many copies as Bridges To Babylon did worldwide.

Bridges to Babylon was released in the the Stone's 35th year, while Pop was U2's 17th year. If U2 can sell as many copies in 2015 as the Stones did in 1997, I'll say it's a fair comparison, but for now, it ain't.

 

[STING2]

You're missing the point, which is that not enough people saw Popmart for the band to break even. The band was obviously banking on the notion that they would sell out every stadium. Even if they had sold as many tickets as the Stones, they would have had the most succesful tour ever, but they didn't.

Well this is not the case. The Band were guaranteed up front by tour promoter Michael Cohl 100 million dollars. That is why the band went with Cohl, also the promoter of Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones, because he was willing to assume all the risk if the tour was a bust and it lost money.

The facts are that the tour cost 214,000 dollars a day. The total cost of the tour was around 70 million dollars. The Band GROSSED 171 million. It works out that even Promoter Michael Cohl made some money on the POPMART tour, although obviously he stood to make a lot more if attendance had been stronger in some markets. The tour payed for its cost and yielded U2 the profit they wanted, without Michael Cohl having to reach into his back pocket to pay them.

 

[STING2]

Bridges to Babylon was released in the the Stone's 35th year, while Pop was U2's 17th year. If U2 can sell as many copies in 2015 as the Stones did in 1997, I'll say it's a fair comparison, but for now, it ain't.

Well, in 2005, U2 has been able to sell more albums than at almost any time in the Rolling Stones history with "Atomic Bomb".

You have to go back to 1978 to find a Stones album that sold more than 10 million copies worldwide in its initial year of release.

 

[Enkryption]

Ever heard of the Zoo TV tour?

The ZOO TV tour (The greatest tour in History) was not an all Stadium tour.

 

[starvinmarvin]

Again, you are comparing apples to oranges. Stones albums sold less in the 60's and 70's because there were fewer people buying albums. Duh, Sting.

 

[starvinmarvin]

Sting, excuse me for a moment while I do some google searches for statistics on album sales in order to dazzle everyone with my knowledge.

 

[STING2]

Again, you are comparing apples to oranges. Stones albums sold less in the 60's and 70's because there were fewer people buying albums. Duh, Sting.

In the United States, U2 fans come from generation X which is a smaller generation than the Babyboom generation that did much of the buying of albums in the 60s and 70s.

In any event, Stones albums have been available for sell longer than U2 albums have on average, yet U2 has more albums in the USA that have reached the triple platinum level or higher.


"Duh, Sting"

Is a comment like that necessary?

 

[starvinmarvin]

"Duh, Sting"

Is a comment like that necessary?

Yes, it is. I'm sorry if I offended you, Sting.

 

[STING2]

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