Rock band U2 are the highest earning band in the UK and Ireland so far this year.
Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr have banked over £100m from 23 shows in Las Vegas, playing to 382,000 fans. They are almost £30million ahead of nearest rivals Coldplay in the live performance revenues. Chris Martin and the band took in nearly £80m - not including last weekend's headlining set at Glastonbury.
That sum was earned from selling around 730,000 seats. After that, UK acts are a long way off the top two’s earnings. Electric pop stars Depeche Mode made £40m, while former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, 82, picked up £35m for a run of nine shows. Ed Sheeran, who has the third highest grossing tour of all time, was the first to come in as an under 40-year-old, making £12m from his six shows.
The figures, produced by Pollstar, then noted that Peter Kay proved that comedians can compete with rock and roll. The Bolton funnyman was laughing all the way to the bank with his 14 stand up comeback shows, earning over £10m. Ex One Direction star Niall Horan had a great start to the year with his solo tour earning around £10m followed up by The 1975, Take That and James Blunt in the top 12.
Music analytics firm Pollstar delivered the breakdown on the global box-office results from the first two quarters of 2024. While stars like Taylor Swift, Madonna and Bad Bunny were the biggest earners, the chart showed British Isles artists were going strong. Pollstar could not include figures from Adele’s Las Vegas shows as the star doesn’t report her takings. However her earnings would likely not touch the sums taken in by the top two acts. Taylor Swift doesn't release her figures either.
- U2 £106,189,956.56
- Coldplay £79,180,949.24
- Depeche Mode £39,609.45
- Paul Mc Cartney £35,183,417.40
- Sting with Billy Joel £18,727,562.50
- Roger Waters £12,246,310.94
- Ed Sheeran £12,043,597.64
- Peter Kay £10,765,584.04
- Niall Horan £10,638,356.79
- The 1975 £10,290,741.98
- Take That £7,681,238.00
- James Blunt £7,525,104.86
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