Veteran acts on top of 1997 touring scene.

Amusement Business

December 22, 1997

The 1997 touring scene was dominated by veteran acts,but unlike last year stadium dates greatly boosted overall numbers. The average gross per show for the top 10 was $ 857,581, nearly double last year's average.

Three stadium tours topped the list of touring acts -- U2, Michael Jackson and The Rolling Stones -- finishing first through third in gross dollars,respectively Toronto-based The Next Attraction worldwide promoter for both U2's PopMart Tour, which runs until next April, and The Rolling Stones' Bridges To Babylon, which continues until October 1998.

THE KING OF EUROPE

Michael Jackson, amid some negative publicity in the U.S., quietly conquered Europe in 1997, grossing $ 83.5 million from just 40 shows, an average take of more than $ 2 million a night. "It was a fabulous tour," said Paul Gongaware, tour executive for Michael Jackson's HIStory World Tour.

The tour was originally routed last winter by Marcel Avram's Mama Concerts & Rau. Following Avram's subsequent legal travails, Quinta Communications took over and completed routing, coordinating the tour throughout Europe and into South America.

HIStory was out in the last four months of 1996, but Gongaware said a production overhaul helped make 1997 much more profitable. "We had to revamp production to get the costs in line -- on the previous leg they were way out of line," he said. "Michael Jackson hired Tarak Ben Amman as tour manager and he got heavy into cost-cutting so we could afford to do it. We ended up with a show that was technically comparable -- some say even better -- but a lot more efficient cost wise. We took 50% off the production costs. I attribute a lot of that success to people like[production manager] Chris Lamb, who did an outstanding job." Gongaware found that in Europe Jackson's fans were hot to get the reserved seats. "That wasn't the same as the previous tour, when the pitch sold first," he said. "This time the reserved sold first and we left the pitch GA."

One of the major highlights of History was a three-night stand (July 12, 15, 17) at London's Wembley Stadium, which grossed $ 9,236,683 (5,594,599 pounds) to rank as the top BOXSCORE reported to AB this year. The concert was promoted by Barry Clayman Concerts.

Garth Brooks again finished among the top 10 of all touring acts; his $ 24 million from 98 shows was impressive, but his 1.3 million in attendance was even more so. The only artists that out-drew Brooks were U2 and Michael Jackson, who were in the stadiums. Brooks' current tour has sold 3.5 million tickets so far (not counting the hundreds of thousands who caught his free show in New York's Central Park), and he will continue touring for most of next year.

The fact that not one of the top 10 touring acts broke in the past 15 years should be of a concern to promoters. "The live music industry has to start focusing on how we can be proactive in artist development in the absence of traditional partners like radio and MTV," said John Scher, president of Metropolitan Entertainment in New York.

None of the multitude of touring festivals made the top 10 tours this year,but they weren't there for different reasons. Lilith Fair, OzzFest and Vans Warped did well but had somewhat limited runs. Most of the others weren't considered successes. Some of the festival tours and their average grosses reported to AB include Lilith ($ 452,867), OzzFest ($ 599,173),Lollapalooza ($ 308,705), Furthur ($ 224,091), and H.O.R.D.E. ($ 237,891).