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
Lighting Cos: LCR/SES
Video Co: Colonel Tom Touring
Visual Design: Mark Cunniffe, Show/Lighting Designer; Matt Jones, Lighting Director; Phil Mead, Video Director
More details: www.plsn.me/TT-ES
2 U2
Lighting Co: PRG
Video Co: XL Video
Visual Design: Willie Williams, Show Designer/Director; Ethan Weber, Lighting Director; Stefaan “Smasher” Desmedt, Tom Krueger, Video Directors; Mark Fisher/Stufish, Production Architect
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-U2
3 Guns N’ Roses
Lighting Co: Upstaging
Video Co: Screenworks
Visual Design: Phil Ealy, Production Designer; Ron Schilling, Lighting Director; Steve Fatone, Video Director
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-GNR
4 The Rolling Stones
Lighting Co: PRG
Video Co: Screenworks NEP
Visual Design: Patrick Woodroffe, Lighting Designer; Ethan Weber, Lighting Director; Dave Hill and Adam Bassett, Associate LD’s; Sam Pattinson and Christine Strand, Video Directors; Mark Fisher, Set Designer
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-RS
5 Coldplay
Lighting Cos: Upstaging, Lite Alternative
Video Co: VER
Visual Design: Phil Harvey, Creative Director; Paul Normandale, Lighting Designer; Graham Feast, Lighting Director; Ben Miles, Video Director; Misty Buckley, Set Designer
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-CP
6 Roger Waters
Lighting Co: PRG
Video Co: XL Video
Visual Design: Roger Waters, Mark Fisher, Production Designer; Marc Brickman, LD; Mark Risk, Lighting Director/Programmer; Sean Evans, Video Designer; Richard Turner, Video Technical Director
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-RW
7 AC/DC
Lighting Co: Upstaging
Video Co: Screenworks
Visual Design: Patrick Woodroffe, Creative Director; Dave Hill, Co-Lighting Designer; Charlie “Cosmo” Wilson, Lighting Director
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-ACDC
8 Metallica
Lighting Co: Premier Global Production
Video Co: PRG
Visual Design: Dan Braun, Production Designer; Rob Koenig, LD/Lighting Director; Troy Eckerman and Joe Cabrera, Programmers; Dave Neugebauer and Eugene MacAuliffe, Video Directors
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-M
9 The Rolling Stones
Lighting Cos: Upstaging, Neg Earth
Video Co: Solotech
Visual Design: Patrick Woodroffe/WBD, Show Design & Creative Direction; Terry Cook, Associate LD; Ethan Weber, Lighting Director/Programmer; Ray Winkler/Stufish, Stage Architect; Roland Greil, Video Designer
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-RS2
10 Madonna
Lighting Co: PRG
Video Co: Nocturne
Visual Design: Jamie King, Show Director; LeRoy Bennett, Production & Lighting Design; Mac Mosier, Lighting Director; Troy Eckerman and Cory FitzGerald, Lighting Programmers; Christian Lamb, Video Director
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-MSS
11 P!NK
Lighting Co: Solotech
Video Co: Solotech
Visual Team: Baz Halpin, Production/Lighting Designer; Eric Marchwinski, Associate LD/Programmer; Steve “Six” Schwind, Lighting Director; Larn Poland, Video Director
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-BT
12 U2
Lighting Co: PRG
Video Co: PRG
Visual Team: Willie Williams, Creative Director/LD; Mark “Sparky” Risk, Alex Murphy, Allen Branton (Consultant), Lighting Directors; Stefaan “Smasher” Desmedt, Video Director; Ric Lipson/Stufish, Es Devlin (Consultant), Set Designers
More details at www.plsn.me/TT-U2-2
