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Paul McCartney Tops Pollstar’s LIVE75, Bad Suns Named Chart’s Noise Maker
Scott Legato / Getty Images – Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney acknowledges the fans during the first of two shows at the new Little Caesars Arena in Detroit Oct. 1.
Paul McCartney earns this week’s HOT SHOT designation as the highest-charting active touring artist entering the LIVE75 chart ranking for the first time. His auspicious start at No. 1 comes as his Freshen Up tour has completed its brief jaunt through South America and will be on hiatus until the tour’s homestretch kicks off in late May. Since launching in September, the tour has grossed $45.4 million from 16 performances at venues on an opening run through North America last fall, a third-quarter trek through Europe and the recent Latin stretch in March. Overall attendance for the ongoing tour currently sits at 378,780. (Note: Boxoffice data from a fall run in Japan has not yet been reported.)
The Arctic Monkeys rank second based on a sold ticket average of 26,053 from four shows on the band’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino tour. Two of the shows were arena dates that occurred during the final days of the tour’s Oceania leg, and the other two concerts were the first headlining dates on the tour’s only trek through Latin America. The group earns its ranking largely due to a massive stadium event at Foro Sol in Mexico City with a sold ticket count of 64,467 on March 24. The sold-out event set a new record at the venue for the largest number of tickets sold by a solo headliner at a one-show engagement, according to Pollstar’s boxoffice archives. The show smashed the previous record set by The Killers of 64,094 tickets sold for an event on April 5, 2018.
Following the Mexico City performance, the band played another outdoor show at the Jockey Club in Lima, Peru with 20,729 fans in attendance on March 26. The two Oceania dates counted in this week’s tally occurred early in the month. The first was a sellout at the Brisbane (Australia) Entertainment Centre on March 3 and Auckland, New Zealand’s Spark Arena concert came three days later.
Fleetwood Mac enters the fray at No. 6 with a ticket average of 14,182 from three sold-out dates in New York state. The band played shows at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan on March 11 and 18 and performed upstate at Albany’s Times Union Center on March 20, grossing an average of $2.1 million per show. The rock veterans are set to wrap the North American leg of their current world tour on April 15 before jaunts in Europe and Oceania finish the run later this year.
Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images – Christo Bowman of Bad Suns
performs in support of the band
Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images – Christo Bowman of Bad Suns
performs in support of the band
The NOISE MAKER is Los Angeles-based rock band Bad Suns, currently on the road playing theaters and clubs in North American cities through mid-May. The group jumped nine positions this week, landing at No. 57 with a ticket average of 744 based on March shows at Top Hat Lounge in Missoula, Mont., the Boulder (Colo.) Theater and Tucson’s Rialto Theatre with L.A.’s Vista Kicks along as opening act.
Meanwhile, comedian John Crist repeats for a second week as LIVE75’s BREAK THROUGH act, ranked No. 28 with a slate of 12 shows reported during the March 3-April 1 eligibility time period. All 12 of his performances were sellouts, producing a sold ticket average of 2,180.
French DJ & house music producer Tchami scores a slot on the chart at No. 70, averaging 531 tickets based on sales from six sold-out performances in North American clubs during his Ghosts: Back To The Origins tour. Appearing in major markets during March, the artist played Toronto’s CODA, TV Lounge in Detroit and Chicago’s Spybar during the third weekend of the month, followed by Soundcheck in Washington, D.C., Analog BKNY in Brooklyn and Philly’s Warehouse On Watts the next week.
Pollstar‘s LIVE75 chart ranks the average tickets sold by Active Tours for reported shows taken place over the last 30 days. Active Tours with at least 3 reported shows are eligible to chart. An Active Tour is one where there are upcoming shows in the next 30 days in Pollstar‘s Route Book database. Average Capacity Sold is based on sellable capacity (venue manifest minus complimentary and production kills) as reported to Pollstar.