With the fire hose of anticipated concert tour action for 2020 reduced to a trickle of live events staged after the Covid-19 shutdowns started hitting the U.S. in March, PLSN and FRONT of HOUSE won’t be presenting our annual Showtime feature reviewing the biggest tours of the previous year in this year’s January issues. Instead, as with this issue’s retrospective of what would have been the 20th annual Parnelli Awards (now postponed to Jan. 2022), we present the top tours of the new millennium.
While number-crunchers could argue that tours like U2’s 2009-2011 360° Tour raked in a bigger sum in inflation-adjusted dollars than Ed Sheeran’s Divide tour, and should therefore take the top slot, the list here is presented simply on the actual dollar gross garnered from total ticket sales in the years when the shows took place. (For a deeper dive into inflation-adjusted revenues, total number of attendees, total number of shows, dollars per show, top tours by decade, etc., go to www.plsn.me/TourStats).
1 Ed Sheeran
Sound Co: Major Tom Audio
Sound Team: Chris Marsh, FOH/MON Engineer; Charlie Albin, System Engineer
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-ES1 and www.plsn.me/TT-ES2
2: U2
Sound Co: Clair
Sound Team: Joe O’Herlihy, FOH Engineer; Dave Skaff, Niall Slevin, Alistair McMillan, Monitor Mixers; Jo Ravitch, David Coyle, System Engineers
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-FOH-U2
3: Guns N’ Roses
Sound Co: Clair Global
Sound Team: Caram Costanzo, FOH Engineer; Jeremy Bolton (Axl), Steve Carter (band), Monitor Engineers; Simon Bauer, System Engineer
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-FOH-GNR
4: The Rolling Stones
Sound Co: Clair Bros.
Sound Team: Dave Natale, FOH Engineer; Mike Adams and J. Summers, Monitors Engineers
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-FOH-RS
5: Coldplay
Sound Cos: Wigwam Acoustics/Firehouse Productions
Sound Team: Dan Green, FOH Engineer; Chris Wood, Monitor Engineer; Tony Smith, System Designer
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-FOH-CP
6: Roger Waters
Sound Co: Clair
Sound Team: Trip Khalaf, FOH Engineer; Ian Newton, Monitor Engineer; Bob Weibel, System Engineer
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-FOH-RW
7: AC/DC
Sound Co: Clair
Sound Team: Paul “Pab” Boothroyd, FOH Engineer; Jon Lewis, Monitor Engineer; Christopher Nichols and Richard Thompson, System Engineers; Kenneth Check and Paul Swan, Monitor System Engineers
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-FOH-ACDC
8: Metallica
Sound Cos: Ultrasound, Victory Event Stage & Tour, VER
Sound Team: “Big Mick” Hughes, FOH Engineer; Bob Cowan, Adam Correia, Monitor Engineers; Chris Hall, Jay Day, Chris Nichols, System Engineers
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-FOH-M
9: The Rolling Stones
Sound Co: Clair Global
Sound Team: Dave Natale, FOH Mixer; Jo Ravitch, Jim Ragus, System Engineers; Steve Carter, Monitor Mixer; Taylor Holden, Monitor Systems Tech
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-FOH-RS2
10: Madonna
Sound Co: Eighth Day Sound
Sound Team: Tim Colvard, FOH Engineer; Matt Napier, Sean Spuehler, Monitor Engineers; Mark Brnich, System Engineer; Demetrius Moore, Monitor Tech
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-FOH-MSS
11: P!NK
Sound Co: Britannia Row
Sound Team: Dave Bracey (FOH Engineer), Jon Lewis/Pink and Horst Hartmann/Band (Monitor Engineers), Johnny Keirle (System Engineer)
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-FOH-BT
12: U2
Sound Co: Clair Global
Sound Team: Joe O’Herlihy, FOH Engineer; Alistair McMillan, Richard Rainey, CJ Eiriksson, Monitor Mixers; Jo Ravitch, Joel Merrill, Tim Peeling, System Engineers
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-FOH-U2-2
