‘A Lot Of People Went Home Very Happy’: Brad Paisley Wraps Euro Run

Brad Paisley just wrapped a 13,815 miles, 32 Eurotunnel miles, 107 ferry miles, eight country tour of Europe: Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, England, Ireland and Switzerland.

According to box office reports submitted to Pollstar, every show sold out. 

Chris Lane joined Paisley as special guest on all dates. Keith Urban was a surprise guest in London, where he and Paisley treated the crowd to a guitar heavy rendition of “Workin’ Man Blues.” British country duo Ward Thomas performed “Whiskey Lullaby” with Paisley in London and also was special guest in Basel.

London’s O2 Arena was also where Paisley sold most tickets. The arena’s capacity on Oct. 12, when Paisley visited the English capital, was 11,046. All seats sold, generating a gross of $662,173. AEG Presents promoted the show.

It wasn’t the highest grossing concert on Paisley’s Euro run, however. Thee FKP Scorpio promoted show at The 9,182-capacity Spektrum in Oslo, Oct. 4, grossed $733,426.

In Germany, Paisley performed at Berlin’s 2,543-capacity Tempodrom, grossing  $170,773.68. 

“A lot of people went home very happy that night,” Hoppe said, adding that fans seemed to have loved the huge concert production, which consisted of a LED back wall and two side screens that appeared bombastic in the relatively small Tempodrom.

“His entire crew is totally professional and very nice, and I hope we’ll be working together again on dates next summer,” said Hoppe.

It chimes with what Bertus de Blaauw, senior promoter and head of the booking department at Mojo Concerts, Live Nation’s Dutch operation, told Pollstar: “Working with the band and crew was a pleasure.”  De Blaauw promoted Paisley’s concert at the 013 Poppodium in Tilburg, where he sold 3,000 tickets, grossing $190,000. De Blaauw was “very happy” with the sold out show: “The performance was amazing. The audience was singing along and loved it. Brad did a great job connecting with the Dutch fans. After the show people left with a smile on their face,” he said.

What more could you ask for as a promoter of country shows in mainland Europe? More radio support for the genre, perhaps. De Blaauw said the popularity of country music was growing, albeit very slowly, as it lacked support from the Dutch mainstream media.

Wizard Promotions was the first promoter in Germany to focus on U.S. country artists, convincing them that a worldwide career included touring Europe. According to Hoppe, most artists understood that now. “The number of country tours in Germany has gone up significantly over these past years,” he said, “what is more, Semmel Concerts launched the German edition of C2C last year [in cooperation with AEG], FKP Scorpio premieres the Seaside Country Festival at Weissenhäuser Strand in Germany in May 2020. 

“It’s great, but the country market in Germany hasn’t grown as quickly as the number of events suggests. You see a number of shows where a smaller capacity would have been the better choice. The demand for country music is there, for sure, our numbers are growing constantly, but, currently, the market is saturated. Superstars like Brad Paisley will always work, but the country fans only has so much money to spend to club shows,” Hoppe explained.