Tour grosses over $703 million

The Edge / Adam / Bono / U2 360 Tour Denver 2011NEW FIGURES show that U2’s 360° Tour has grossed more than $703 million (€534 million) after seven million rock fans paid to see the band over the past three years.

According to figures published by music industry journal Pollstar, the tour grossed $231.9 million last year after 2.38 million music fans paid to see the band at 34 gigs across 26 cities.

The US-based publisher shows that the tour grossed the highest amount of any rock band last year and on average grossed $8.9 million per gig with an average attendance of 91,828.

The figures show that U2’s three-gig stint at the Morumbi Stadium in São Paolo, Brazil, alone earned $32 million.

The $703 million is a gross figure and does not take into account the significant costs of staging the tour, which involved 110 gigs in 79 cities around the world over three years.

Hundreds of people were employed in transporting and constructing the 360° “Claw” stage, while the concerts provided a major economic boost in the cities where they took place.

The profits from the tour are shared between the four members of the band – Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton – their manager Paul McGuinness, their promoter Live Nation, and the local venue operator.

The 360° production increased the capacity of venues by up to 25%, resulting in record attendances.

The Pollstar figures show that one of the top-earning stints over the three years was the band’s sold-out three-night run at Dublin’s Croke Park, where the tour grossed $28.5 million.

A breakdown of the annual figures shows that the tour grossed $231.9 million in 2011; $160.9 million in 2010; and $311 million in 2009, when three million people paid on average $101 to see the band play.

The year 2009 was the largest grossing year of the tour, when the average gross per concert was $10 million.

The drop-off in revenue in 2010 came as a result of the band postponing a North American leg of the tour after Bono sustained a back injury in Munich.

The latest figures for U2’s main Irish company, U2 Ltd, for the 12 months to the end of 2010 show that its cash pile increased almost fivefold to €4 million.

The principal activity of the company is the creation, protection and licensing of intellectual property.

Thanks Bono

Thanks to Bono and Jolie, Pitt knew how to respond when Hurricane Katrina ran its way through New Orleans in 2005. “There was a responsibility to make it right, which was not being answered wholly, so I decided to make that a focal point and help families return home, and in the process we started discovering the inadequacies of low-income housing,” he said.

Turning to Bono, he asked for some humanitarian advice. “I sat down with him a few times and got involved in some of the stuff he was doing,” Pitt said.

Paul McGuinness lashes out at Google

Paul Paul slammed Google calling them a “monopoly” and is speaking out against the way it displays illegal download sites in search results.

Why has Paul been so vocal? Google may have poked a nerve with its campaign against proposed legislation aimed to stop this type of online piracy.

Paul said: “Never underestimate the ability of a monopoly to defend itself.” While speaking at MIDEM, in Cannes.

“It amazes me that Google has not done the right thing.

The experience of people when they go on Google and look for U2 music, or PJ Harvey music, is a shopping list of illegal opportunities to get their music. They have done nothing meaningful to discourage it,” said Paul.

What he wants is easy to do. Block all Internet sites that offer illegal downloads of anything that has a copyright. Music, Books and Films should all be considered protected.

He said that companies such as Google were “incredibly clever people with enormous resources”.

“Why are they not trying to solve the future in a more generous way? Ultimately it is in their interest that the flow of content will continue, and that won’t happen unless it’s paid for.”

SpotifyThe U2 manager said he would be more likely to give previews of U2’s next album to traditional radio than an online service like Spotify.

“At the moment I’m inclined to treat it (Spotify) as a promotional medium. If we have to choose where to put records on their debut we’re unlikely to give it to Spotify.

“We have arrangements like that around the world with people we’ve worked with over the years.

Spotify has yet to become popular with artists because artists don’t see the financial benefit of working with Spotify.”

Bono in Timbukto

U2 front man, Bono, takes to the stage in Timbuktu as Mali raises security for it’s desert music festival.

Many reports are comiong that Bono appeared in the music festival.The festival used to be a major world music event but al Qaeda threats have kept crowds away.

Roughly 300 paying tourists attended, about half the number in 2011 and well down on the thousand-plus of past years. Around three thousand non-paying Malians also turned up for the three-day event, including nomadic Tuaregs.

Bono, put in an appearance on the opening night on Thursday in what organisers said was a show of support for the event.

Mali and the nieghbbouring Niger have ended years of uprising which began in 2009. The area faced a new security threat bandits teamed up with al Qada’s Saharan wing. ( who knew that even was a real group)to suppply a lucrative trade in ransoms of Western hostages.

Aside from the impact on tourism, the kidnappings have made it harder for international aid workers to operate in the semi-arid Sahel region which faces regular food crises and has some of the worst health statistics in the world.

Tebow, Bono and Faith

 ‘It’s not just something that happens when you’re at church’ – Tim Tebow 

Tim Tebow and Bono have faith in common, faith in a higher power (God). Both men use their platforms to express their views of faith in that higher power. U2 songs have expressed faith, religion, love, sex, lost and hop for many years. Bono has taken the hit many times about whether the band is a Christian band and if they are pretending to be faithful. This makes them veterans in the category of bring religion to work.  How many times have you seen Bono take a knee for the big man up stairs? Bono and Tebow share passion that which drives results. Tim has had this passion for sometime which has extended beyond football. As a Florida Gator he made the promise.

“I promise you one thing. A lot of good will come out of this. You will never see any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the season. You will never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of the season. You will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season.” Tim Tebow 

Tim has leadership qualities and because of his faith, he is able to understand how to motivate his team. Bono in the same token has leadership qualities to use his passion to make a difference in the world. 

The passion is the attraction to the Denver team today. U2 fans have passion for Bono, Larry, Adam and The Edge.  Why do we mock those with passion; it’s fear, fear that you could be doing better than me, fear that if I drive my passion that I will be held accountable for doing something with that passion.  Lets turn 2012 into passion believing in something greater than yourself is not a bad idea, heck if you had all the answers you would still need passion to share your vision.   Cheer on Tim Tebow’s passion for life and lets wish him a “Beautiful Day” next Saturday night.