And we can think of no better way to start off this thank-a-thon than to send out a big wet kiss to everybody at Clear Channel Entertainment, the most lovable bunch of crazies ever to change the concert biz. Hey, you teddy bears! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! If you weren’t so big we’d give you a group hug. Oh, well. It’s the thought that counts!

Of course, it goes without saying that you can’t buy tickets for The Allman Brothers Band or Tori Amos if there’s no one to sell them to you. Therefore, a big THANK YOU to all the ticket services, those service-charge cowboys riding the free enterprise frontier, a hootin’ and a hollerin’ as they make life easier for all of us. Hey, Ticketmaster! Heads up, Tickets.com! Feel that? That’s our love coming at you, darlings!

But it takes more than tickets and concerts to keep the mighty Pollstar.com machine on track. When it comes to pumping out dates for big festival tours like Vans Warped Tour `05 and Ozzfest 2005 it always helps to win the favor of a few influential concert fans. So we’d like to send out a big round of applause to President Bush, Governor Arnold, Secretary of State Rice, Karl Rove and Bono. We named, and in some cases, renamed our children after you folks! You guys are the tops!

Oh, would you look at the time! We wanted to thank everybody who makes this Web site possible. However, we’re only halfway down the list, and we still have to proof the routings for Mudvayne and Elvis Costello before closing. Looks as if we’re going to have to pick this up tomorrow. But don’t worry. If we didn’t mention your name today, we’ll be sure to tip our hats to you tomorrow. For there’s an old show biz saying, “Be nice to the people you meet on the way up, because you’re bound to meet them on the way down.” That’s why we want to thank ALL the people. The small fry as well as the big fish.

So please join us tomorrow when we thank all the big fish.