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The Eagles confirm Sphere residency

The Eagles have confirmed their long-rumoured residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

The American band will play eight shows over four weekends this autumn, offering fans “the ultimate connection to the band’s legendary catalogue in an immersive experience that only Sphere can provide”.

The shows will take place on 20-21 & 27-28 September and 11-12 & 18-19 October.

Tickets start at $175 and will reflect all-in pricing, while Vibee packages include a two-night stay at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas with guests receiving priority entry to Sphere, commemorative keepsakes, and access to a fan experience.  Limited VIP Ticket Packages will also be available.

“We will never have an act play the Sphere that doesn’t have something compelling up on the screen”

The next-generation $2.3 billion Sphere launched in September 2023 with the 40-night U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere residency, followed by a four-show stint by Phish last month. Dead & Company recently added six shows to their Dead Forever – Live at Sphere run at the 20,000-cap venue due to “increased demand” to take their total number of dates to 30.

“Every time an act books the Sphere, they have to create content around it,” said Sphere Entertainment boss Jim Dolan during the company’s most recent earnings call. “We will never have an act play the Sphere that doesn’t have something compelling up on the screen. It takes a while to do that, so we’re being too judicious about it. But the more an act plays the Sphere, like U2, the more they can monetise the content across multiple shows and therefore invest more on the content and create an even better show.”

The Eagles recently wrapped up a five-night UK stint at Manchester’s new Co-op Live as part of their Long Goodbye farewell tour and will perform a European stadium date with their first of two dates at Arnhem’s GelreDome in the Netherlands tonight (13 June).

The group, who are represented by manager Irving Azoff, revealed their plans to bring the curtain down on their 52-year career with one final tour last summer, beginning last September at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The tour is expected to continue into 2025, as “the band will perform as many shows in each market as their audience demands”.

 

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The Eagles announce European farewell shows

The Eagles have announced a UK stint at Manchester’s new Co-op Live along with a stadium date in the Netherlands as part of their Long Goodbye farewell tour.

The American group – Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit, with Vince Gill and Deacon Frey – will perform three nights at the 23,500-cap Co-op Live – on 31 May and 1 & 4 June.

Their European swansong will then extend to Arnhem’s 41,000-cap GelreDome in the Netherlands on 13 June, with the band joined on all dates by special guests Steely Dan. Co-op Live, which will become the UK’s largest indoor arena when it opens in April, will be the only UK stop on the tour.

“We’ve always said that our mission is to bring the world’s biggest artists to Manchester, and we’re delighted Co-op Live is hosting the only UK shows of Eagles’ farewell tour,” says Co-op Live executive director and GM, Gary Roden. “Hosting these shows epitomises the ambition that the arena is built on, and we can’t wait to be part of plenty more historic events like this one.”

The group, who are represented by manager Irving Azoff, revealed their plans to bring the curtain down on their 52-year career with one final tour last summer, beginning last September at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The tour is expected to continue into 2025, as “the band will perform as many shows in each market as their audience demands”.

“The difficulties of booking venues for multiple nights may require us to return to certain cities, depending on demand”

“The Eagles have had a miraculous 52-year odyssey, performing for people all over the globe; keeping the music alive in the face of tragic losses, upheavals and setbacks of many kinds,” read a statement from the band. “Credit and thanks go to our longtime management team, our dedicated road crew, and our exceptional backup musicians for providing skilled and steadfast support, throughout these many years. We know how fortunate we are, and we are truly grateful.

“Our long run has lasted far longer than any of us ever dreamed. But, everything has its time, and the time has come for us to close the circle. We want to give all our fans a chance to see us on this final round. So, scheduling information will be released as dates are set.”

The Long Goodbye Tour resumes with the first of two nights at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas on 2 February.

“The difficulties of booking venues for multiple nights may require us to return to certain cities, depending on demand. But, we hope to see as many of you as we can, before we finish up,” added the group. “Most importantly, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for embracing this band and its music. At the end of the day, you are the reason we have been able to carry on for over five decades. This is our swansong, but the music goes on and on.”

Over the band’s more than 50 years of touring, the Eagles have performed more than 1,000 concerts around the world, accounting for more than 15 million tickets.

 

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$1bn artists line up global tours as confidence builds

Some of the world’s biggest artists, collectively worth more than US$1 billion in ticket revenue between 2018 and 2020, will hit the road again in 2021 and ’22, as confidence builds for a return to international touring over the next 12 months.

Sir Elton John, Celine Dion, Metallica, Michael Bublé, Guns N’ Roses, Bruce Springsteen and Eagles – all of whom ranked among the highest-grossing tours of 2018, 2019 and 2020, grossing more than $1bn between them – have in recent weeks revealed plans for new or rescheduled global tours, many of them starting as soon as this summer.

Sir Elton has extended his disrupted final tour, Farewell Yellow Brick Road, with a bumper 30-date, six-month stadium run across across mainland Europe, the UK and the United States.

“Hello, all you wonderful fans out there. I’m coming to you today with an announcement I’ve been working towards for, well, all my life: the shows that I announce today will be my final tour dates ever in North America and Europe,” he says in a statement.

“I’m going to go out in the biggest possible way, performing at my very best, with the most spectacular production I’ve ever had, playing in places that have meant so much to me throughout my career.

“Whether it’s next summer in Frankfurt or at the legendary Dodger Stadium for the grand finale in the United States, I can’t wait to see you all on the road one last time. This has been an incredible tour so far, full of the most amazing highs, and I look forward to making more wonderful memories with you at these final shows.”

The Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, Sir Elton’s farewell tour, was brought to a halt by the coronavirus pandemic last March, with the last show on 7 March 2020 at Bankwest Stadium in Parramatta, Australia. The tour resumes on 1 September at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin and will conclude in Australasia in 2023.

The tour, produced and promoted by AEG Presents, grossed $212 million in 2019 and $71.2m in 2020.

“I’m going to go out in the biggest possible way, performing at my very best”

Springsteen, who grossed an incredible $88.3m from his Springsteen on Broadway shows, which had an average ticket price of $509, in 2018, also has live plans for 2022.

As well as reviving Springsteen on Broadway, Springsteen confirmed to E Street Radio on SiriusXM he is planning a full tour with his E Street Band in 2022. “I knew we were going to tour with the band next year,” he said, “[but] I had a friend who got so enthusiastic about it [Springsteen on Broadway] that he talked me into it sitting on my couch one night. The next day I said, ‘OK, we’ll do some shows.’ It really came around kind of casually.”

Eagles, meanwhile recently added another six dates to their long-delayed Hotel California tour, which kicks off at Madison Square Garden in New York in August.

While the band has only announced the rescheduled US dates so far (the first leg ends at Chase Center in San Francisco on 23 October 2021), pre-pandemic the Live Nation-promoted tour included included dates in London (Wembley Stadium) and Los Cabos, Mexico (Cabo en Vivo), so it is expected that additional European and Latin American shows are still to be announced.

Eagles grossed $166m from their 2018 North American tour.

Metal titans Metallica earlier this month announced six European festival shows for 2022, adding to the open-air shows pencilled in for the US in September, October and November 2021.

“We have waited far too long to say these words: we’re getting back out there”

Under the banner The Return of the European Summer Vacation, the band will play headline shows at Denmark’s Copenhell, the Netherlands’ Pinkpop, Italy’s Firenze Rocks, the Czech Republic’s Prague Rocks, Belgium’s Rock Werchter, Spain’s Mad Cool and Portugal’s NOS Alive. .

“We have waited far too long to say these words: we’re getting back out there and are finally announcing our return to Europe in 2022,” say Metallica in a statement. “Needless to say, we cannot wait to see all of you once again as our European ’tallica Family will finally have a chance to reunite in June and July of next year.”

The festivals next year will be Metallica’s first European shows since their Worldwired global tour, which grossed a total of $179m in 2019.

Elsewhere, Bublé (who grossed $115.8m in 2019 and $24.8m in 2020) is resuming his An Evening With Michael Bublé tour in North America in August, while Dion’s (2020 gross: $71.2m) postponed Courage world tour will finally kick off the same month in Winnipeg.

Also resuming a postponed tour this summer are Guns’ N Roses, whose world stadium tour – newly rechristened We’re F’n’ Back! – will begin at Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on 31 July 2021. The tour will include Australasian dates later this year and a string of European stadium shows next summer.

Opening the tour will be the late Eddie Van Halen’s bassist, son Wolfgang, with his band Mammoth WVH.

 

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Eagles to play Wembley Stadium in Europe exclusive

US rock band Eagles are bringing their Hotel California tour to London’s 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium on 29 and 30 August 2020, the group’s only European dates of the year.

Eagles, consisting of Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B Schmit, along with Deacon Frey and Vince Gill, will perform the Hotel California album in full at the Wembley concerts, followed by an additional set of the band’s greatest hits.

The group recently performed three sold-out performances of the album – the third best-selling US album in history – in Las Vegas. The concerts marked the first time Eagles had performed Hotel California in its entirety and featured 77 musicians on stage, including a 46-piece orchestra and 22-voice choir.

As the best-selling US band of the 1970s, Eagles have won six Grammy Awards, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and received the Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime contribution to US culture in 2016.

“We are delighted to welcome back The Eagles who played a huge part in this year’s success story”

The Live Nation-promoted shows see Eagles return to the stadium for the second time in as many years, following a sell-out show in June. The band contributed to a record-breaking summer for Wembley in 2019, with over 900,000 fans watching acts including the Who, Fleetwood Mac, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel and Pink.

“We are delighted to welcome back The Eagles who played a huge part in this year’s success story,” comments James Taylor, senior commercial manager for Wembley Stadium.

“Wembley is an iconic venue that attracts the biggest and best acts and we are thrilled this legendary band has once again chosen our world-class stadium for what will be their only performances in Europe in 2020.”

Tickets for Eagles 2020 Wembley Stadium shows go on sale on Saturday 14 December at 9 a.m. (GMT), available here.

 

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Live Nation, others planning own Desert Trip

Proving once and for all that imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery, a coalition of non-AEG promoters are reportedly planning their own answer to AEG Live’s US$150 million-grossing Desert Trip festival.

Billboard reports the bi-coastal festival – comprising Classic East at Citi Field (41,922-cap.) in New York and Classic West at Dodger Stadium (56,000-cap.) in Los Angeles – will headlined by Eagles and Fleetwood Mac and organised by Live Nation, Irving Azoff’s companies Oak View Group and Azoff MSG Entertainment and Creative Artists Agency (CAA).

It will the first show by Eagles since the death of founder member Glenn Frey in January 2016. Both Eagles and Fleetwood Mac are represented by CAA Music.

The four companies hope to develop an annual festival franchise around Classics East and West

According to Billboard, the four companies hope to develop an annual festival franchise around Classics East and West.

The inaugural Desert Trip, held on the Coachella site in Indio, California, was a huge success for AEG’s Goldenvoice, with its line-up featuring a sextet of boomer greats – The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters and The Who – delivering record-breaking revenue for the promoter and contributing to an estimated $250m economic impact on the surrounding area.

Goldenvoice has yet to confirm whether Desert Trip will return in 2017, although Rolling Stone speculates Bruce Springsteen, The Police, U2, The Kinks, Elton John and Led Zeppelin could be in the running to perform if it does. (Take those predictions with a healthy spoonful of salt, though: Fleetwood Mac are also on the magazine’s list.)

 

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