NZ live events cancelled due to “biblical weather”
A number of major concerts and festivals in New Zealand have been cancelled due to flash floods and landslides on the north island, with the death toll rising to four.
Elton John’s concert, scheduled for last Friday (27 January) at Mount Smart stadium in Auckland, was cancelled less than half an hour before he was due to take to the stage.
Thousands were already at the venue when organisers decided to cancel the concert, which is part of John’s farewell tour. Around 40,000 fans were expected to attend.
Chugg Entertainment, AEG Presents and Frontier Touring also cancelled John’s Saturday show at the stadium after Auckland declared a state of emergency.
Laneway Festival was due to kick off today (30 January) at Western Springs stadium in Auckland with acts including Haim, Phoebe Bridgers, Fred Again and Joji.
The festival was cancelled on Saturday (28 January) afternoon, with organisers saying that they had worked “around the clock to do everything they can to salvage the site, but the damage and disruption… meant that it is no longer safe to proceed.”
Laneway Festival was due to kick off today with acts including Haim, Phoebe Bridgers, Fred Again and Joji
After an almost three-year hiatus while Covid restrictions were in place, tickets to the upcoming festival sold out in just 90 minutes, for the first time in the event’s decade-long history, triggering a change of venue and an extra release of tickets.
Elsewhere, Fat Boy Slim’s Saturday night concert at Tremain Park in Napier was called off on the morning of by tour organisers Endeavour Live. The DJ played Christchurch the night prior.
Tauranga’s One Love festival was also called off, for the first time in history according to festival organisers.
“From site flooding to high winds to artists being stuck in Auckland, thunderstorms predicted and heavy rain tomorrow as well, we are unable to safely and logistically deliver One Love.”
The reggae festival was due to be held on Saturday and Sunday in the Tauranga Domain, with local and international acts including UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, L.A.B, J Boog, Fiji, Sons of Zion, Kolohe Kai, Rebel Souljahz, Katchafire, and Sean Kingston.
Festival One in Kaipara was also pulled due to weather of “biblical proportions”, according to an announcement on the festival’s Facebook page.
Festival One said that half their ticket holders were already on site and asked them to stand by for more instructions.
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Elton John to play final UK concert at Glastonbury
Sir Elton John has been confirmed as the first headliner of Glastonbury 2023, for what will be the last UK date of his farewell tour.
The legendary musician will top the bill on the Pyramid Stage on Sunday 25 June 2023, it was announced this morning (2 December).
“There is no more fitting way to say goodbye to my British fans,” says John in a statement announcing the show. “I can’t wait to embrace the spirit of the greatest festival in the world. It’s going to be incredibly emotional.”
Festival organiser Emily Eavis comments: “It gives me enormous pleasure to let you know that the one and only Elton John will be making his first-ever Glastonbury appearance, headlining the Pyramid Stage on the Sunday night next year.
“This will be the final UK show of Elton’s last-ever tour, so we will be closing the festival and marking this huge moment in both of our histories with the mother of all send-offs.”
The star teased the announcement yesterday (1 December), posting an Instagram photo captioned: “One final date to announce… the Rocket Man is incoming.”
“I can’t wait to embrace the spirit of the greatest festival in the world. It’s going to be incredibly emotional”
Around the same time, the BBC’s Glastonbury webcam featured an image of a rocket ship in the sky above the Pyramid stage.
Sir Elton’s Glastonbury performance will come at the end of the UK leg of his 350-date Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, which kicks off in Liverpool next March.
After Glastonbury, the 75-year-old only has seven dates left to play in Europe before he retires from touring.
The star recently wrapped up the US leg of the tour with a three-night stand at LA’s Dodger Stadium – where, in 1975, he cemented his icon status with two historic gigs, bedecked in a sequinned Dodgers Baseball uniform. There, he was joined by Brandi Carlile, Kiki Dee and Dua Lipa.
The Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour had been due to run from September 2018 to 2021, encompassing five continents and over 350 dates but it was disrupted by the pandemic and John’s hip problems. The tour already topped Pollstar’s Top 100 Worldwide Tours chart for 2019 by the time the world paused and is poised to again be a contender in 2022.
While box office reports are still coming in, Pollstar reported in late November that more than 3.6 million tickets were sold for 164 of his shows, grossing more than $511 million.
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Roblox enlists Elton John for immersive experience
Elton John has become the latest artist to launch an immersive experience on online gaming platform Roblox.
‘Elton John Presents: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road’ allows users to follow a yellow brick road through an interactive world inspired by the singer-songwriter’s life and legacy.
The experience includes digital fashion designed by 20 Roblox community creators, photographs, interactive challenges set to his greatest hit songs, daily scavenger hunts and trivia quizzes.
In addition, there will be a series of ten-minute virtual performances made up of Elton’s best-loved songs, starting on 17 November, with additional performances re-airing hourly through 20 November.
The special performances will coincide with Elton’s run of Dodger Stadium shows (17–20 November), which will see him make history once again as he returns to the iconic LA venue for the first time since his legendary performance in 1975.
Virtual experience visitors are also able to earn and collect yellow bricks, as they explore interactive challenges, allowing them the chance to gain VIP access to hear a dedicated message from Elton and have their avatar appear on stage with him at his final show at Dodger Stadium on 20 November.
After the Dodger Stadium concerts, ‘Elton John: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road’ will live on – with new experiences, music, fashion and more – as an immersive capsule in the metaverse.
‘Elton John Presents: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road’ was created by Elton John and Rocket Entertainment with Roblox creators, with support from Universal Music Group.
“Beyond the Yellow Brick Road’ is the next step on [my] journey as I prepare to step away from live touring”
“I’m absolutely thrilled to be launching ‘Beyond the Yellow Brick Road’ on Roblox,” says Elton John. “I’ve seen the joy that Roblox has bought to my boys and the possibility it creates by the ability to interact with fans in such an exciting, and forward-looking way has been mind-blowing to me. I’ve always been myself and used my image, eyewear, and music to express myself, and Roblox really encourages that self-expression.
“Now my fans can do the same, and that’s really exciting. At every step of my career, I’ve always wanted to push forward and look to the future, and ‘Beyond the Yellow Brick Road’ is the next step on that journey as I prepare to step away from live touring after 50 years on the road. It’s genuinely thrilling, and I can’t wait to see the response from my fans and the Roblox community.”
David Furnish, CEO of Rocket Entertainment, adds: “Elton is a visionary creative with a life full of major music and fashion moments significant to the culture of then and now and lived his life like an avatar! ‘Beyond the Yellow Brick Road’ is an extraordinary collection of some of these moments that we have had a lot of fun recreating with the Roblox community since Rocket Entertainment began this project. As Elton says farewell to touring at Dodger Stadium, we’re excited for the opportunities that spaces like Roblox offer to ensure Elton’s music and legacy may continue to bring joy to the world.”
Sir Lucian Grainge, chairman & CEO of Universal Music Group, comments: “In the decades we’ve worked together, my commitment to Elton has been to build the largest global audience for his creative genius, spanning his recorded music, songwriting, fashion and performances. As Elton wraps up his monumental final tour, we are extremely excited to help bring ‘Beyond the Yellow Brick Road’ to life so that new generations of fans, now and for years to come, will continue to be entertained and inspired by his songs and music.”
Roblox has previously hosted immersive experiences and/or virtual concerts with the likes of The Chainsmokers, Charli XCX, Lizzo, Gayle, Lil Nas X, Twenty One Pilots, 24kGoldn, Royal Blood, David Guetta and Ava Max.
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Elton tour on target to be biggest Oz/NZ run ever
Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road run is shaping up to become the biggest tour in Australia and New Zealand history after promoters announced a fresh slate of shows.
Staged by Chugg Entertainment, Frontier Touring and AEG Presents, dates have been added at the 30,000-cap McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle (8 January), the 30,000-cap AAMI Park, Melbourne (14 January) and the 45,000-cap Allianz Stadium in Sydney (17 January).
The Australasia leg of the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour was the biggest tour globally in the first half of 2020, according to Pollstar. Sir Elton grossed US$87.1m from 38 shows during the mid-year reporting period, with a total of 664,749 tickets sold, before touring ground to a pandemic-induced halt in March 2020.
The all-time list is currently headed by Ed Sheeran’s 2018 Divide tour, which racked up 950,000 ticket sales, and Dire Straits’ 1986 Brothers In Arms tour, which moved 900,000. However, Farewell Yellow Brick Road will go to the top of the list with 980,500 tickets sold if the remaining concerts sell out.
“If we sell every ticket, we will be just shy of a million”
“If we sell every ticket, we will be just shy of a million over all the Farewell YBR shows,” promoter Michael Chugg tells The Music Network.
Comprising well over 300 shows, the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour kicked off in the US in September 2018 and it currently scheduled to wrap up in Europe in summer 2023.
Prior to the new shows being announced, the overall sales tally for Australia/New Zealand leg was set to settle on 875,000, putting it in third place in the region historically. Tickets for the latest set of dates went on sale on Monday (1 August).
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Chugg: Elton tour set to make Australasian history
Veteran Australian promoter Michael Chugg has revealed that Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Australia and New Zealand tour is on course to enter the history books.
The Australasia leg of the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour was the biggest tour globally in the first half of 2020, according to Pollstar.
Sir Elton grossed US$87.1m from 38 shows during the mid-year reporting period, with a total of 664,749 tickets sold, before touring ground to a pandemic-induced halt that March.
Chugg Entertainment, Frontier Touring and AEG Presents have now announced a fresh run of dates by the star in the region for the beginning of 2023. Elton will play McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle (10 January), AAMI Park Melbourne (13 January), Sydney Football Stadium (18 January) and Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane (21 January) in Australia, in addition to Orangetheory Stadium, Christchurch (24 January) in New Zealand and two rescheduled shows at Auckland’s Mount Smart Stadium (27-28 January).
“People could have got refunds for those two postponed Auckland shows but 35,000 held on to their tickets”
In an interview with The Music Network, Chugg says the new shows will take the overall tally to 875,000 ticket sales, which would put it in third place in the all-time Australia and New Zealand rankings, trailing only Ed Sheeran’s 2018 Divide tour (950,000) and Dire Straits’ 1986 Brothers In Arms tour (900,000) in the all-British Top 3.
“Elton’s a great entertainer, his shows are fantastic. He delivers,” says Chugg. “He has this incredible rapport with the audience where he thrives on them and they thrive on him.
“Once you see Elton, you most likely will go and see him again. People could have got refunds for those two postponed Auckland shows but 35,000 held on to their tickets.
“Weirdly, he’s played a lot of shows in the Hunter Valley but he has never in Newcastle. So we decided on the Newcastle Stadium. It’ll be the first concert there in 32 years since we did the Newcastle earthquake benefit concert.”
Comprising well over 300 shows, the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour kicked off in the US in September 2018 and it currently scheduled to wrap up in Europe in summer 2023.
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All-star billing for Queen’s platinum jubilee concert
Queen, Diana Ross and Elton John are among the artists slated to perform at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee concert.
Duran Duran, Craig David, Eurovision singer Sam Ryder, Ella Eyre, Elbow, Alicia Keys, Hans Zimmer, Mabel, Jax Jones, Celeste, Andrea Bocelli, Sigala and Nile Rodgers will also appear in front of Buckingham Palace in London.
The Platinum Party at the Palace will be watched by 22,000 people live and will be broadcast on BBC One on 4 June.
Queen guitarist Brian May will return, 20 years after he famously performed on the palace roof for the Golden Jubilee.
The legendary pop group and their frontman Lambert will open the concert to mark the monarch’s 70 years on the throne.
Ross said she was “absolutely delighted to receive an invitation to perform on such a momentous and historic occasion”
The show will be closed by veteran soul singer Ross, who said she was “absolutely delighted to receive an invitation to perform on such a momentous and historic occasion”.
Sir Elton John will take part too, although his performance will be pre-recorded because he is currently on a European tour.
The two-and-a-half-hour Platinum concert will feature three stages and 3D projections across the face of the palace.
A ballot for 5,000 tickets opened in March; some tickets will also be handed out to selected charities.
Other events will include a carnival pageant on the streets of London, featuring performances by Ed Sheeran and Sir Cliff Richard.
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Elton John stars at UK’s Artist & Manager Awards
Elton John and David Furnish were honoured at the 2021 Artist & Manager Awards (AMAs), which attracted more than 700 artists, managers and music industry professionals to Bloomsbury Big Top in London.
The duo made a final-hour appearance to collect the Artist & Manager Partnership Award at last night’s ceremony, which was organised by the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) and the Music Managers Forum (MMF).
Rina Sawayama, who was also named 2021’s Breakthrough Artist, presented Elton and David with the accolade at the first in-person AMAs since 2019. Other artists recognised on the night included Little Simz (Artist of the Year), Mogwai (Pioneer) and Bicep, who shared their award for Innovation with their management team at This Is Music.
Coming together again with friends and colleagues feels like such a hugely positive and symbolic step forward
“Coming together again with friends and colleagues feels such a hugely positive and symbolic step forward,” said MMF CEO Annabella Coldrick and Featured Artists Coalition CEO David Martin. “Tonight’s Awards was about celebrating music, talent, innovation and camaraderie across the artist and management community – whether that’s individuals at the start of their careers, survivors and legends, or those still standing after decades.”
September Management’s Amy Morgan was crowned Manager of the Year for her work with Glass Animals and Metallic Inc’s Grace Ladoja MBE received the Entrepreneur Award in recognition of her bridge-building between music scenes in the UK and Nigeria. In addition, Kayleigh Thorpe of Little Runaway Management was revealed as the 2021 Breakthrough Manager for her work with Gerry Cinnamon.
The Black Music Coalition were named Industry Champions, while Karma Artists picked up the award for Writer/Producer Manager, and YMU Music Group were presented with the Team Achievement Award in recognition of their groundbreaking inclusion initiatives, including a Mental Health and Well-Being programme for clients and staff.
Presented by Capital FM’s Roman Kemp, the event featured live performances from Wes Nelson & Hardy Caprio, The Anchoress and Lucy McWilliams.
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Elton John forced to postpone already-rescheduled tour
Elton John has been forced to postpone the 2021 UK and European legs of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour.
The already-postponed farewell shows, scheduled by international agency Marshall Arts, had been set to take place from the end of this month through to December, with UK dates in London, Manchester and Birmingham.
John, 74, has now confirmed yesterday (16 September) that he has been forced to reschedule his remaining 2021 tour dates to start in April 2023, saying that it is a decision he took “with great sadness and a heavy heart”.
The postponements extend a tour that Elton has said is his final ever.
“At the end of my summer break I fell awkwardly on a hard surface and have been in considerable pain and discomfort in my hip ever since,” John explained in his statement.
“Despite intensive physio and specialist treatment, the pain has continued to get worse and is leading to increasing difficulties moving.
“At the end of my summer break I fell awkwardly on a hard surface and have been in considerable pain and discomfort in my hip”
“I have been advised to have an operation as soon as possible to get me back to full fitness and make sure there are no long-term complications. I will be undertaking a program of intensive physiotherapy that will ensure a full recovery and a return to full mobility without pain.”
John says he still intends to play his forthcoming charity gig for the Global Citizen event on 25 September “as I don’t want to let a charity down”.
“Being just five songs it’s a very different physical undertaking to the demands of playing for close to three hours every night on tour and travelling overnight between countries,” he said. “After this I will be having the operation to ensure the tour can get back on the road in January 2022 in New Orleans.
“I know how patient my incredible fans have been since Covid halted touring last year, and it breaks my heart to keep you waiting any longer. I completely feel your frustrations after the year we’ve had.
“I promise you this – the shows will return to the road next year and I will make sure they are more than worth the wait.”
The Australasia leg of the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour was the biggest tour globally in the first half of 2020, according to Pollstar box-office numbers.
John will headline American Express presents BST Hyde Park on Friday 24 June 2022.
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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.
Here they are – my final tour dates ever in North America and Europe! This has been an incredible tour so far and I'll be going out in the biggest possible way. I can't wait to see you all on the road one last time 🚀🚀🚀
🎫 → https://t.co/fEQsOiiRjO#EltonFarewellTour pic.twitter.com/rlXs6cHsA7
— Elton John (@eltonofficial) June 23, 2021
“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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We risk losing a generation of talent to Brexit chaos
Reproduced with permission, below is the full statement that Sir Elton John asked Craig Stanley to read in today’s DCMS Committee session.
Last month Rocket Entertainment CEO David Furnish, Marshall Arts’ Craig Stanley, Lord Strasburger and I met with Lord Frost to spell out the damage the trade agreement he negotiated with Europe is doing to the UK’s music industry and to try to find practical solutions and ways forward.
Put bluntly, we are currently in grave danger of losing a generation of talent due to the gaping holes in the government’s trade deal. New and emerging artists will be unable to tour Europe freely – an essential part of their education and development – due to the prohibitive costs of visas, carnets and permits.
However despite this looming catastrophe, the government seems unable or unwilling to fix this gaping hole in their trade deal and defaults to blaming the EU rather than finding ways out of this mess. The situation is already critical and touring musicians, crews and support staff are already losing their livelihood.
I want to be clear that the issues of visa-free and permit-free touring aren’t about the impact on me and artists who tour arenas and stadiums. We are lucky enough to have the support staff, finance and infrastructure to cut through the red tape that Lord Frost’s no-deal has created. This gravest of situations is about the damage to the next generation of musicians and emerging artists, whose careers will stall before they’ve even started due to this infuriating blame game.
If I had faced the financial and logistical obstacles facing young musicians now when I started out, I doubt I’d be where I am today
If I had faced the financial and logistical obstacles facing young musicians now when I started out, I’d never have had the opportunity to build the foundations of my career, and I very much doubt I’d be where I am today.
During our meeting Lord Frost said trying to solve this issue is a long process. Unfortunately our industry doesn’t have time. It is dying now. The government have broken the promise they outlined in 2020 to protect musicians and other creative industries from the impact of Brexit on tours to Europe. They now need to find solutions in both the short and long term to ensure the UK music industry continues to thrive.
Due to the halt that Covid-19 has imposed on touring, we have a window of opportunity.
I call on the government to sort this mess out, or we risk losing future generations of world-beating talent. This is about whether one of the UK’s most successful industries, worth £111bn a year, is allowed to prosper and contribute hugely to both our cultural and economic wealth – or crash and burn.
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