Billboard held their 8th annual Touring Awards ceremony on Thursday night to recognize excellence in everything tours, marketing and managing.
Among the top honorees were U2, Kenny Chesney and Jason Aldean. U2 took home gold for Top Tour and Top Draw.
Chesney’s massive “Goin’ Costal” tour earned them Top Package. The combined efforts of himself, Zac Brown Band, Uncle Cracker and Billy Currington made one heck of a successful summer tour. Aldean took home the award for Top Breakthrough performer.
British boys Take That earned Top Boxscore for their performance at the Wembley Stadium. And while we’re talked about the good ‘ol English, might as well mention that the coveted O2 Arena earned the Top Arena honor. It’s every musician’s dream to hit that arena at least once in their lifetime.
And of course I’m going to plug another 80s favorite here. Journey was award the Legends of Live award for their tour after the release of “Eclipse” in May. Their past August visit to Burgettstown had those who still Faithfully follow good music receiving them with Open Arms. That was cheesy; you can laugh.
Although my Jersey boys Bon Jovi didn’t take home gold aside from Eventful’s Choice Award, U2’s double victory was certainly well deserved.
The U2 “360” tour turned out to be their biggest success to date. Let me rephrase that—this band from the 80s had their most successful tour, in the history of ever, in a decade dominated by shallow pop.
The tour ran from June 2009 through July 2011. Selling roughly 7.1 million tickets for 100 concerts brought them incredible revenue. Their $736 million profit earned them the honor of being the highest-grossing tour in history.
Here’s a band that’s been around since ‘76. It’s a group of high school friends who have grown from garage band material to being one of the most influential bands in history.
They conquered the 80s with “The Joshua Tree,” explored the 90s with “Achtung Baby” and couldn’t be stopped in the 2000s with “Vertigo,” humanitarianism and now “360.” It’s incredible.
And just think—Bono is only 51. Wait until he’s up there with Jagger and they’re still around. Seriously, what’s going to stop them?
The future of U2 seems a bit foggy at the moment. This tour has certainly tested the bands endurance and strength. “It’s quite likely you might hear from us, but it’s equally possible that you won’t,” said the Edge.
“I just want to take my boys and my wife and just disappear with my iPod Nano and some books and an acoustic guitar,” tells Bono to Rolling Stone Magazine. Now isn’t that a musician’s dream?
It’s like Jon Bon said live in ‘96: “We had to run away from something we loved to see if we even liked it anymore. We had to go home and see what those four letters even meant. All the money in the world don’t mean nothing, all the success in the world means even less.”
So they take a break for a bit, continue writing, recuperate and then take us by storm again. Sounds like a plan to me.