Elton John to perform at gala honouring Jay Marciano
Elton John is set to headline a fundraising gala in Los Angeles for City of Hope, the largest cancer research and treatment organisation in the US.
The 51st edition of the Spirit of Life gala will take place at the historic Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall, with appearances from magician David Blaine, chef Evan Funke, and comedian Fred Armisen.
Jay Marciano, chairman and CEO of AEG Presents, will be presented with City of Hope’s prestigious Spirit of Life Award for his philanthropic and humanitarian efforts.
Under Marciano’s leadership, AEG Presents produced John’s swansong tour Farewell Yellow Brick Road among others and is currently in the midst of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour.
“I am honoured to be receiving The Spirit of Life Award from City of Hope and to be able to contribute to raising awareness and funds to speed its important work of eradicating cancer and improving lives for so many,” says Marciano.
“I am humbled and grateful that Elton John has agreed to lend his immeasurable talents to this event”
“I am also humbled and grateful that Elton John, a true superstar in every regard, has agreed to lend his immeasurable talents to this event with a performance that’s sure to inspire support for a cause that unfortunately touches so many lives. And if that weren’t enough, having David Blaine, Evan Funke, and Fred Armisen contribute to such an extraordinary evening is beyond my wildest dreams,” Marciano added.
John’s historic, final tour comprised 330 shows worldwide to over 6.25 million fans across the UK, Europe, North America and Australia. The US leg of the tour concluded with three sell-out shows at Dodger Stadium. He later headlined Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage in June 2023, the final UK show before the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour concluded in July 2023, marking the end of more than 50 years on the road.
“Jay is more than a colleague; he is a dear friend,” says John. “It is my pleasure to lend my support to him as he receives the Spirit of Life honour, especially given City of Hope’s dignity-giving supportive care for people who face cancer, along with its unmatched research for other life-threatening illnesses. Their important work has led to advancements in the field that have fortunately enabled so many people to live beautiful, long lives. Everyone should have that opportunity, and I’m honoured to play a part in City of Hope’s work towards that goal.”
The Spirit of Life gala is organised by the City of Hope’s Music, Film and Entertainment Industry Group which has raised over $150 million for its research and care programmes over 50 years.
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Best of 2023: Elton John’s farewell tour
Ahead of the return of our daily IQ Index newsletter on Tuesday 2 January, we are revisiting some of our most popular interviews from the last 12 months. Here, IQ talks to the power players behind Sir Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour…
Having set a new world record for the highest-grossing tour in history, Elton John brought the final curtain down on an extraordinary 50-plus years of touring when he took to the stage at Stockholm’s Tele2 Arena on 8 July. Gordon Masson talks to some of the people who made the extraordinary Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour a reality…
In January 2018, when Elton John announced that Farewell Yellow Brick Road would be his last tour, little did anyone know that his final bow would be more than five years later, after the coronavirus pandemic forcibly delayed his touring retirement.
With the legendary star turning 76 earlier this year, he has spoken about his desire to spend more time with his family – artist manager husband David Furnish and children Zachary (12) and Elijah (10) – and therefore started plotting his final tour when he was on the road with the Wonderful Crazy Night Tour.
“We started having this conversation [about the farewell tour] in 2016/17,” says Rocket Music Entertainment Group’s Keith Bradley, who has been working with Elton John for more than 40 years and is the artist’s de facto agent outside of North America, as well as tour director on Farewell Yellow Brick Road.
Taking up the tale, Furnish, tells IQ, “It’s been well documented – when we looked at our boys’ school schedule, we saw that it was incompatible with the way our life was. So, we needed to get him off the road and do a big farewell tour.”
“I gave them an idea of what we were thinking in terms of the number of shows and the amount of money. And everyone thought I’d lost my mind”
Bradley reveals that Rocket’s management spoke to both Live Nation and AEG Presents about proposals for Elton’s final bow and chose the latter, who he describes as “just brilliant partners”.
“David and I flew to LA to meet with Jay Marciano at AEG, and I gave them an idea of what we were thinking in terms of the number of shows and the amount of money. And everyone thought I’d lost my mind,” Bradley states, noting that his prediction of 300 dates for the tour may have raised an eyebrow or two, but in reality, he expected a great deal more. “In my head, it was going to be closer to 400 shows.”
Heartache All Over The World
Bradley confirms that the original schedule would have seen the Dodger Stadium shows in Los Angeles last November being the final dates of the farewell tour, albeit two years earlier, in 2021. “This year’s European leg should have been in the pandemic time period, as should have been Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. But sadly, that had to be truncated… There’s a lot of stuff that fell off the tour, which was disappointing for sure.”
Furnish agrees, naming Brazil as a huge market for Elton, while “China has opened up more and also Japan.” He observes, “In retrospect, Elton wishes he’d toured Japan more as he didn’t quite put as much of a footprint down there. So, we were excited at the possibility of going back in a big way with [the farewell] tour. But alas, looking at those markets post-lockdown, with inflation, increased fuel costs, air freight, shipping… that, unfortunately, just took them off the table.”
But he notes that the record-breaking Disney livestream of the Dodgers Stadium concert “gave those fans at least an opportunity to see the concert if they couldn’t get there in person”.
“I’m always looking for ways to make Elton discoverable and relevant to a young audience”
As CEO of Rocket Entertainment, Furnish has been managing his husband’s career for the past eight years, during which he masterminded a strategy to expand Elton’s fanbase by exposing him and his music to younger generations – a campaign from which promoters around the world have reaped the rewards.
“The younger demographic stuff was something that I felt passionate about because nobody in our organisation, when I took over, even uttered the word ‘digital,’” reveals Furnish. “So, I spent a lot of time looking at places where young people were discovering music and where I thought Elton could have a really authentic presence.”
For example, a meeting between Furnish and Jimmy Iovine, who at the time was setting up Beats Radio (now Apple Music), provided a perfect platform for music-obsessive Elton to exercise his A&R skills. “It gave Elton a really natural home on a digital music streaming platform,” Furnish notes. “I’m always looking for ways to make Elton discoverable and relevant to a young audience. Most recently, he did the first concert on the Roblox platform at the same time as the Dodger Stadium concerts happened – we put elements of the Roblox show in the stadium show and a cut-down version of the concert on the platform itself.”
The biographical movie, Rocketman, also helped introduce the star and his music to a new audience.
“We worked for a long time to bring out Elton’s story in a way that they would find entertaining rather than just the usual biopic, which is why we did it as a musical fantasy film,” explains Furnish. “I think young people connect with him there because of the story of addiction, loving yourself, rejection and acceptance from family, sexuality – all things that young people talk about and relate to today. Elton has lived that life and continues to do so.”
“When Jay Marciano went to the first meeting to discuss the tour, he led with a strong marketing proposal and a vision to make Farewell Yellow Brick Road the greatest tour of all time”
Rocket’s COO, Luke Lloyd-Davies, says that prior to Furnish taking over management duties, “there were lots of points of entry to Elton in terms of strategic vision. When David came on board, he appointed me as chief operating officer to put in place Elton and David’s vision for the future.”
Noting that Elton has historically played on average around 100 shows a year, Lloyd-Davies believes the skills of tour director Bradley and agent Howard Rose played a significant role in generating interest. “In America, they would operate and navigate in territories outside of the major markets in the build-up to this big farewell tour. So, when we hit the major territories and big cities, demand was through the roof.”
Sartorial Eloquence
Enjoying a successful history with Elton’s live career, AEG Presents tasked Debra Rathwell, executive vice president global touring and talent, with overseeing the epic Farewell Yellow Brick Road project.
“Elton and David knew that they wanted this to be a worldwide tour; they wanted to play to as many of Elton’s fans as possible, and they understood that it would take multiple years to accomplish that goal,” says Rathwell. “When Jay Marciano went to the first meeting to discuss the tour, he led with a strong marketing proposal and a vision to make Farewell Yellow Brick Road the greatest tour of all time, and Elton and David were thinking along the same lines. It’s safe to say that they were pretty much in agreement about the vision for the tour.”
Loyalty played a major role in that vision.
“The right thing to do was to respect the international promoters who had promoted Elton John shows for most of his career”
“Jay agreed with Elton and David that the right thing to do was to respect the international promoters who had promoted Elton John shows for most of his career,” says Rathwell. “It was fortuitous that one of those promoters was our co-promoting partner, Barrie Marshall, who became the promoter of all of the UK shows and the co-promoter of all of the European shows.” In Australia, meanwhile, long-time promoter Michael Chugg took the reins, alongside AEG-affiliated partners Frontier Touring.
For his part, Marshall comments, “It is a source of great pride that Elton has trusted us to present so many shows and we are sincerely grateful for the opportunities. We never forget that he had many other choices of people to work with, so this is extremely special to every- one in the company, and we have tried always to honour his belief in us.”
Rathwell reveals that the first FYBR planning meeting in 2017 involved tour director Bradley; agent Howard Rose; Marciano; Marshall and Doris Dixon from Marshall Arts; and Donna DiBenedetto, VP of touring for AEG Presents. “The first order of business was to make it as manageable as possible, so we divided the entire tour into two: Round One and Round Two.”
Round Two would be a complex affair.
The last date of Round One was at Bankwest Stadium in Paramatta, Sydney on 7 March 2020. Four days later, the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a global pandemic. Elton had completed 179 shows but was only halfway through the tour.
“A lot of the UK shows recently – and the London ones specifically – saw people holding their ticket for something like 1,300 days from the moment they bought it”
After a 22-month hiatus and multiple reschedules, Elton John played his first post-Covid gig at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans on 19 January 2022. “Though we had very stringent protocols in place, Elton John had to announce that he had Covid on 25 January, and two shows in Dallas had to be postponed,” says Rathwell.
But while there have been postponements aplenty, the only shows that had to actually be cancelled due to Covid restrictions were four Canadian arena dates – and that’s because Canadian authorities were only allowing venues to operate at 50% capacity at the time.
The spiralling post-pandemic costs brought obvious dilemmas for a tour whose tickets had gone on sale in early 2018.
“Thankfully, when we released new dates, we saw a huge surge in interest, and that made the economics much better and more manageable,” says operations chief Lloyd-Davies. He adds that the patience of the fans has been unprecedented. “A lot of the UK shows recently – and the London ones specifically – saw people holding their ticket for something like 1,300 days from the moment they bought it back in January 2018.”
Barrie Marshall notes that for re rescheduled European shows, team Elton “[tried] as much as possible to keep the same ‘days of the week’ to make it easier for the public to change their plans. We are all so impressed to see the loyalty of his fans who waited so patiently – but they have all been rewarded with mega shows.”
“The ‘ask’ from Emily Eavis was the most serendipitous timing in the world”
Covid posed other unique issues. Citing the concertina effect on dates, Bradley believes that only Elton John could achieve the run of shows that he did. “In New York, we played eight arena shows in Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Nassau Coliseum in New ark, and then three months later we played two stadium shows at MetLife. The gap between should have been at least a year,” opines Bradley. “I’m incredibly proud that we manoeuvred through everything that was thrown at us.”
Indeed, while the plan to use the Dodger Stadium shows as the final goodbye may have become another pandemic anomaly, the flip side was the prolonged tour schedule opened a door for Elton John to make his Glastonbury Festival debut.
“The ‘ask’ from Emily Eavis was the most serendipitous timing in the world,” says Furnish. “[Glastonbury, on 25 June] wrapped beautifully around the Paris tour dates [on 21, 27, and 28 June]. It would have been physically impossible to drop a massive gig like Glastonbury, with the backup support and crew and everything that we need, if we had been touring in another part of the world. So, I’m convinced this was meant to happen.”
Passengers
With more than 330 shows across North America, Australasia, and Europe, the tour has relied on the local knowledge of dozens of promoters, all of whom have been determined to make the farewell experience as memorable as possible for El- ton and his band, as well as the ticket-buying fans.
“I have known Elton since the early ‘70s, while my touring relationship with him started in the late ‘90s and involves lots of standout moments playing all sorts of places in Australia: Elton has a thirst to play to audiences who may never get the chance otherwise to see him,” says Michael Chugg of Chugg Entertainment.
“The fact that he’s worked with Ed Sheeran and Dua Lipa and those sorts of combinations have added to a younger crowd wanting to see this absolute legend”
Heralding Elton’s ability to shine a spotlight on other artists, Chugg tells IQ, “We played outdoors in Darwin, and I was backstage with him when Gurrumul, the blind, indigenous iconic musician was playing. Elton loved it so much that he asked the manager to drive 60 miles to get him 25 CDs. Two weeks later, all these heavyweight UK industry people started to reach out to Gurrumul. That’s Elton.”
Despite the disappointment in many territories where the farewell tour could not visit, there were beneficiaries as well – Chugg being one of them. “We finished the original 40 down under shows just over a week before the lockdowns, but we lost two shows in Auckland, which Elton promised to make up,” reports Chugg. “In January this year, he brought the whole monster show back, allowing us to programme additional stadium shows in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Christchurch, and Newcastle.”
Kim Bloem, at Mojo Concerts, is another promoter to benefit from the pandemic interruption, as the rescheduled dates allowed her to put an extra stadium date on sale in the Netherlands. Bloem took over Dutch promoting duties for Elton John in 2016, when Mojo founder Leon Ramakers took a step back.
“On this tour, we did two shows in June 2019 at the Ziggo Dome, which were phenomenal. At that time, we did not think he would be coming back. But after Covid, we were able to add a show at GelreDome in Arnhem,” reports Bloem. “His audience just seems to get bigger all the time – there were a lot of kids in the GelreDome. The fact that he’s worked with Ed Sheeran and Dua Lipa and those sorts of combinations have added to a younger crowd wanting to see this absolute legend.
“At the GelreDome, you could sense that he felt it was the last show in front of those Dutch fans as he made such a great connection with the audience. I was a bit sad because I realised that it might be the final time I see Elton perform. His songs resonate with me and my family so much, so it gave me goosebumps and it gave me tears but also laughter. It was a joyous show.”
“The production was very ticket-selling friendly with the aim of giving as many people as possible the chance to see the show”
In Italy, D’Alessandro and Galli have been promoting Elton for 35 years. “There are so many memories, from the arena in Verona to Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples and the unforgettable last show in Milan,” says company co-founder Mimmo D’Alessandro.
“We managed to host the farewell shows in two iconic locations – the city walls in Lucca and San Siro Stadium in Milan, which allowed close to 80,000 people to see Elton live for the last time. We are incredibly proud. These shows will stay forever in the memories of thousands of fans.”
Klaus-Peter Matziol at Peter Rieger Konzertagentur had 20 dates on the tour: seven in 2019, two stadium shows in 2022, and 11 arena performances this year. “Since 1999, we have done over 100 shows with Elton John in Germany, selling over 1m tickets,” he says. “Farewell Yellow Brick Road was the perfect highlight, staging an extraordinary, emotional farewell show.
“The production was very ticket-selling friendly with the aim of giving as many people as possible the chance to see the show. We supported this with last-minute campaigns, social media tour-book reporting from the road, and having a waiting list for tickets.”
Further north, Tor Nielsen at Live Nation Sweden estimates he’s been involved in around a dozen Elton John tours. “We’ve done shows in Lithuania, Russia, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, and tons of shows in Norway. Sometimes we play B markets and sometimes A markets: it’s been a lot of fun.”
“The great thing about this show is there is no such thing as a bad seat: the sightlines are magnificent”
Nielsen, too, tips his hat to Furnish and the Rocket team for their work on expanding the audience demographics. “When we released tickets on the show day in 2022 – sideview seats, for instance – a lot of the people who bought those tickets were under 20 years of age.
The Big Picture
The farewell tour production itself is spectacular, with a sweeping, curved stage that in the arena configuration dips so low that those in the front row almost appear to be on stage themselves.
In terms of the vision for the show, the core team consisted of creative directors Furnish, Tony King and Sam Pattinson, lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe, Ray Winkler from set design experts Stufish, and tour director Bradley.
Noting the unique design of the stage, Bradley says, “Very early on, Tony King, myself, and Ray from Stufish were moving round apples and biscuits on a table, working out where everything was going to go. We presented the concept to Elton and David, where we had the conversation about if it was going to work for everybody in terms of the musicians, the crew who had to put it together and, of course, the audience.
“The great thing about this show is there is no such thing as a bad seat: the sightlines are magnificent. You can be at the side of the stage and there’s no impingement whatsoever. In reality, the side views are some of the best seats in the house.”
“You don’t want to use all your tricks in the first half of the show – there should be something in every song to keep the audience engaged”
Having such a rich and successful tour history, Elton and his Rocket Music Entertainment Group have a trusted pool of contractors and suppliers that they rely upon to realise their live performance vision. In the case of the farewell tour, PRG provided lighting; Clair Global supplied sound equipment; TAIT constructed the stage and proscenium (in collaboration with Stageco for the outdoor shows); Solotech took care of video; trucking services were the realm of Transam; and Phoenix buses carried personnel from city to city while Rock-it Global handled freight.
As one of the core creative minds tasked with developing the production set and aesthetics, lighting designer Woodroffe tells IQ he has been working on Elton John tours since 1994: “This is my 30th year with him,” he says, revealing that the creative team spent an intense three weeks on a sound stage in Lititz, Pennsylvania, honing the production’s content and “figuring out how we could stitch it all together”.
“You don’t want to use all your tricks in the first half of the show – there should be something in every song to keep the audience engaged,” says Woodroffe, citing the content for Have Mercy on the Criminal as just one moment that surprises the audience with something they were not expecting.
“You never want to overpower the raw performance of the artist and musicians with lighting and video,” says Woodroffe. “You can make each song more poignant and touching, or fun, with the way you light it, and that’s ultimately my task.
“Elton is very prescriptive about his setlist – he basically delivered it to us nine months in advance and then let us get on with things without interference: it’s an incredibly generous and trusting thing for an artist to do.”
And highlighting the leadership role of Furnish in steering the creative team, Woodroffe also applauds Sam Pattinson’s role in commissioning various artists to create original video content for each of the songs on the setlist: “The videos just set the production apart,” he states.
“When I first went to concerts, you’d get turfed out if you took a photo or even went in with a camera. Now everybody takes pictures or films the show”
Furnish, who came up with the Farewell Yellow Brick Road concept, generously praises his creative colleagues for the look of the set. “It was really the genius of the team at Stufish and Tony King who came up with the idea of the gold frame [around the stage] being made up of key moments from Elton’s life,” he says.
Explaining the thinking behind the impressive feat of having Elton and his grand piano traverse the stage, Furnish says, “When I first went to concerts, you’d get turfed out if you took a photo or even went in with a camera. Now everybody takes pictures or films the show. With Elton stationary behind the piano on one side of the stage, the travelator gave an opportunity for everybody in the venue to at least feel that he was closer to them at key moments.”
Some of the standout elements of the show are the videos that accompany each song on the setlist. Furnish tells IQ, “We spent a lot of time thinking about what the songs meant to Elton and how, in some instances, they had been represented in the past but how that might not necessarily work today.
“So, there’s a David LaChapelle film for Candle in the Wind where he recreated the last photoshoot of Marilyn Monroe. It’s a masterpiece – a brilliant piece of filmmaking. It touches Elton on a couple of levels. Obviously, the song is about Marilyn Monroe. But it was also Bert Stern’s last photograph session with her, and Elton is a big collector – we own some photographs from that shoot. It’s deeply personal in that regard.”
The Power
It’s not just the promoters who boast long-standing relationships with Sir Elton, as he has also remained steadfastly loyal to suppliers and crew.
“You come away from the shows thinking, ‘Why are they stopping?’ Elton has never been more popular; he’s still at the top of his game!”
That loyalty has been crucial, however, with Bradley noting, “We’ve been on the road for five and a half years, which is longer than the run for most Broadway plays.”
In addition to lighting, PRG supplies the tour’s rigging. “We first became involved in the planning for the tour back in 2017, while the first actual dates were in August 2018 in the United States,” says PRG’s Jon Cadbury, who pays tribute to colleague Curry Grant and his team, who put the first US outing together in 2018 at TAIT’s facility in Lititz, Pennsylvania and have looked after FYBR everywhere outside Europe.
“The show involves very careful prep, and Elton brought a lot of crew from the United States over to Europe with him – in the core crew, there are five regular US guys and three regulars from the UK, all of whom have been with him for
many years. So, although jumping from indoors to outdoors – arenas to stadiums – is a challenge, these things are always surmountable when you have an experienced crew. The great thing about this production is that the core team has been together for a very long time, and it all feels like a big family, so it has been a privilege to spend time with them.”
Cadbury continues, “What comes across strongly is that Elton loves performing and enjoys being on stage with his band. And that feeling continues backstage – it’s just a very well managed and well put together production. In fact, you come away from the shows thinking, ‘Why are they stopping?’ Elton has never been more popular; he’s still at the top of his game!”
The stunning set, featuring that downstage piano platform that traverses and pirouettes across the stage, was constructed by TAIT. The complex production houses two video screens – a main backdrop and a video ramp – as well as a platform for the band. The stage itself sweeps low in a curve so that fans feel like they are with- in touching distance of the star. The design’s golden proscenium surrounds the massive video wall, bedecked with iconic imagery from Elton’s colourful career.
TAIT’s Shannon Nickerson has been working on the farewell tour project since early 2017.
“For the rotating piano, we worked with the different radiuses to make sure the piano could fit in both corners”
“I know at that point Rocket and Stufish had already been working on it for about a year, so when they came to us, they had a concept, and then we jumped in from that point,” she says.
“For the rotating piano, we worked with the different radiuses to make sure the piano could fit in both corners. The stage holds an arc that they had set for sightlines, but we also removed a large section so that they could fill as many seats as possible.”
That eye-catching design has also been seen by millions of fans at the outdoor shows, thanks to a clever collaboration with Stageco. “The stadium show had huge tusks built by Stageco. But they constructed a sub deck, allowing the arena set to be also used in the stadiums,” says Nickerson.
Another feature of the set is the artwork around the arch. “It’s one of my favourite things about the production,” states Nickerson. “We worked with Jacqui Pyle who built maquettes that were a 6-to-1 scale. And then we took those, scanned them, and moved them up to the full- scale needed before sculpting and painting them.”
Keeping the surprises rolling until the very end, the stage is also fitted with a platform that allows the artist to make a slow ascent toward the video screen as he bids farewell to the fans before exiting through a portal in the video wall.
“Elton has a global appeal like no one else, and to be able to sell out arenas and stadiums on your farewell tour is very special”
Nickerson tells IQ, “It’s a complicated setup, as we had to figure in the pitch of the LED and the video wall and make sure it all works seamlessly. But you don’t know that there’s a door there for the whole show, and then suddenly it appears for his exit before the video wall closes behind him.”
Bradley acknowledges that in addition to all the gimmicks, bells and whistles, the audio itself is world-class. “We’re a very sound-oriented organisation and always have been,” he notes. “It’s always been about playing live and trying to create the best you can for the guy in the audience. We’ve been very fortunate over the decades, and the guy we’ve got right now, Matt Herr from Clair Global, is super. Same with our monitor guy, Alan Richardson, who goes back to Frank Sinatra. We’ve got very good people.”
Clair Global’s general manager Scott Appleton says, “Elton has a global appeal like no one else, and to be able to sell out arenas and stadiums on your farewell tour is very special. But he’s been to places nobody else would go to over the decades – he’s played Anchorage Alaska; he played the university in Newark, Delaware one time – and that’s amassed a huge audience for him.”
Appleton says Clair owes Elton John a world of gratitude. “The company was started by Roy and Gene Clair in 1966, and the relationship with Elton began in 1971. Roy said Elton was pivotal in handing them a successful business. The Elton John name to the company and Clair family is just massive, and we cannot thank the man enough for what he’s done for this company.”
Can I Put You On
Farewell Yellow Brick Road has now sold more than 6 million tickets, delighting the promoters who have also been afforded the chance to say goodbye to Sir Elton John.
“The fact that it had to be re-scheduled more than once seemed somehow to give it even more momentum”
“Elton’s shows have always been superb, but this production has enhanced and surpassed everything that has gone before,” says Marshall at Marshall Arts, who has been working with Elton for 27 years. “The content in some of the videos show a lot of history – reminding people of special moments. His musicians are amazing and the telepathy between Elton and the band is a joy to watch.”
“The fact that it had to be re-scheduled more than once seemed somehow to give it even more momentum. Elton and David were kind enough to invite the crew and touring party to their home as a final get together, and Jay Marciano announced so many records that had been broken – it was quite a staggering list. Jay has really been the driving force for this tour – he’s a remarkable man with remarkable talent and his care for Elton, David and everyone involved has been wonderful to see,” adds Marshall.
“It’s a great honour to be part of Elton John’s very successful farewell tour,” says Stefan Wyss at Gadget abc Entertainment in Switzerland, which promoted a stadium show last year in Berne, as well as two sold-out arena shows in early July in Zürich’s Hallenstadion.
“The arena shows were originally announced for 2020 and had to be postponed several times due to Covid,” continues Wyss. “Those shows were sold out long before the stadium show was announced, but we had to postpone them until a year after the stadium. Luckily, there were almost no refunds – no one wants to miss this show.”
The tour is a personal highlight for Ben Martin at Marshall Arts, which in addition to being the promoter in Elton’s native UK, has coordinated all the European dates. “In terms of duration and number of cities, I’ve never worked on anything bigger,” he says. “We’ve had three tour legs through Europe, but there have been very few repeats – we only tended to go to market in each city once, so we never overplayed things, while we were able to pick off all the key cities.
“Elton has always had a multigenerational audience, but the work done by David Furnish and Rachael Paley to broaden that fanbase worked perfectly”
“There was such a demand everywhere, so that even when we had to reschedule shows because of Elton’s hip operation, people still did not ask for refunds – it really was the golden ticket they wanted to hang on to.”
Martin discloses that Marshall Arts were also unexpected beneficiaries of extra shows. “The ten shows at The O2 were a result of the rescheduling and re-routing, and because we’ve been promoting Elton since 1997, from a marketing perspective, I knew exactly which channels to run to reach his fans.”
He adds, “Elton has always had a multigenerational audience, but the work done by David Furnish and Rachael Paley to broaden that fanbase worked perfectly, from his Snickers advert, John Lewis advert, tie-ups with Britney Spears and Dua Lipa, to the book and the film – it’s been brilliantly executed.”
Just Like Belgium
Not all of the tour’s promoters were veterans of Elton John’s touring past. First-timer Pascal Van De Velde at Greenhouse Talent in Ghent was determined to be involved in the historic farewell outing. “Elton’s music is bigger than life, and when I saw that there was a book coming out and the movie of his life, I totally believed the tour would be special – and Barrie and Doris at Marshall Arts were gracious enough to allow me to promote the Belgian shows,” he says.
“Elton John has reinvented himself many times during his career, and his appeal just spans the generations. There were 16-year-old girls crying with emotion at the end of the shows – it was a beautiful mix of audience, aged eight to 88.”
“It has been a long, exciting road, and it was very hard to say farewell”
Van De Velde also flags the loyalty of the fans. “Tickets were sold in the fall of 2019, but 95% of the fans held onto them until the concerts. And on the show days, the no-shows were just 1%, which is less than for a normal show, and way, way better than the 25% no-shows we saw for a lot of the Covid-postponed gigs.
“I have to applaud everyone involved: Jay Marciano’s team at AEG were super, while Ben Martin and all at Marshall Arts are a pleasure to work with. For such a big production, it’s like clockwork, and if one small cog isn’t working, it
can all fall apart. But Farewell Yellow Brick Road was flawless, and I can understand why it has set new records.”
Matziol at Peter Rieger Konzertagentur says, “It was – and always has been – a huge honour to be the touring partner for an exceptional artist like Elton John. We would like to take the opportunity to thank Keith Bradley, [TM] DC Parmet, Barrie Marshall, Doris Dixon, and many, many others for this outstanding relationship. It has been a long, exciting road, and it was very hard to say farewell.”
In Australia, Chugg says being involved in the farewell tour is a highlight of his 60-year career, and he has booked tickets to fly to Sweden for the charismatic star’s final show. “We played 50 shows to 1m people in Australia and New Zealand. I will always be grateful to AEG, Elton, and his team for allowing me to be part of it,” says Chugg.
That concert in Stockholm on 8 July was the 331st gig on the tour. Despite being in charge of the superstar’s final tour date, Live Nation’s Tor Nielsen was not feeling under pressure. “All the shows are farewell shows – it’s farewell Bergen, farewell Gothenburg, farewell Stockholm…” he says.
“Having the opportunity to be a part of the Elton John Farewell Yellow Brick Tour has been the honour of a lifetime”
“The production, the band, and Elton himself are incredible, and I’m not surprised that Farewell Yellow Brick Road has broken records everywhere… Artists like Elton John are not made any more. He is one of a kind.”
“Having the opportunity to be a part of the Elton John Farewell Yellow Brick Tour has been the honour of a lifetime,” says AEG’s Rathwell. “I cannot imagine the last six years of my life without Elton John and all of the members of our close-knit team. Jay Marciano and I often chat about what an extraordinary experience it has been to be involved with Elton John, his team, and this tour. We have never worked with such a strong team of professionals who work co- operatively and collaboratively.”
Barrie Marshall states, “Nobody who has seen this show across the world will ever forget it – truly a memory for all time… One thing is for sure, his creative genius and dedication to all music, is never going to go away – and we can all be very thankful for that.”
The Last Song
Nobody is more thrilled than Furnish. “The tour has outperformed all of our expectations. We knew we would do well, but we didn’t set out to be the highest-grossing tour in history,” he says.
“It’s just been a total team effort. Everybody rose to the occasion because I think they felt that they were part of something very special. Elton sets a very high bar; he goes on stage and thinks every show has to be as good as or better than the last one. He’s really focused and dedicated, and I think everybody feels inspired by that.”
“I don’t think Elton’s ever going to stop performing – it would be telling an artist never to paint again”
COO Lloyd-Davies observes. “I don’t think Elton’s ever going to stop performing – it would be telling an artist never to paint again. But his days of touring are definitely over – he would personally find it quite disingenuous if he went back out on the road.”
But with rumours of Broadway and West End projects and a touring exhibition circulating, Lloyd-Davies discloses, “We’re not putting on our slippers and watching boxsets. I can’t ever imagine Elton being that guy. He wants to write more. He wants to record more, collaborate more. There’s been talk about an Elton John musical at some point. The whole immersive space is fascinating to us, but we don’t want to rush into that.”
Furnish confirms new projects are definitely in the mix. “I’ve been with Elton for 30 years, and he’s been on the road for 28 of them. Performing live is such a vital part of who he is, so I hope we can find a non-travelling, limited-run way for him to keep his fingers nimble and his voice flexed and continue to do what he does. It’s part of what keeps him alive, and he has a way of bringing people together that in a divided world is increasingly hard to find.
He concludes, “Elton is like a shark: he has to keep moving forward to stay alive. He has the most extraordinary drive. Believe me, it’s not like you’re never going to see or hear from him again.”
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Taylor Swift, Beyoncé lead highest-grossing tours of 2023
The highest-grossing tours of 2023 have been revealed, with Taylor Swift and Beyoncé in the first and second spots.
Swift this year performed 66 shows in the US, Mexico and South America on The Eras Tour, generating more than US$900 million in ticket sales, according to estimates from Billboard.
While no official numbers have been reported yet, Swift’s tour should pass Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour ($939.1m) as the highest-grossing concert tour of all time.
Moreover, this year’s gross for The Eras Tour is expected to nearly double in 2024, becoming the first concert tour in history to gross more than US$1 billion.
Beyoncé meanwhile grossed $579.8m and sold 2.8 million tickets on her Rennaisance World Tour between 10 May and 1 October, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore.
Beyoncé and Swift are the only two women and only American solo artists in the top 10 tours in Boxscore history
During Billboard‘s tracking period of 1 November 2022 and 30 September 2023, the Renaissance World Tour earned $570.5m and sold 2.7 million tickets, plus another $9.3m and 53,200 tickets in Kansas City on 1 October.
That makes it the biggest one-year sum for an artist in Boxscore history, dating back to the mid-1980s. Both Bad Bunny and Ed Sheeran grossed more than $434m in 2022 and 2018, respectively.
The Renaissance World Tour is the seventh highest-grossing tour in the Boxscore archives. Swift joins her as the only two women and only American solo artists in the top 10. Beyoncé is also the only Black artist on the all-time ranking.
Beyoncé and Swift lead a touring boom in 2023, with more tours than ever grossing above $300m (three), $200m (seven) or $100m (17).
Also in the top 10 highest-grossing tours for 2023 is Coldplay ($342.5m for 55 shows), Harry Styles ($338.2m for 69) and Morgan Wallen ($260.4m for 44).
In the bottom half of the top 10 is Ed Sheeran ($256.9M for 46), P!nk ($226.6m for 37 shows), Elton John ($210m for 65), The Weeknd ($192.5m for 35) and Depeche Mode ($175.2m for 47).
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Elton John invests in music tech company Audoo
Elton John and his manager David Furnish have invested in a music technology company that is bidding to “revolutionise” public performance royalties.
The duo have joined the likes of ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus, MPL Ventures, Tileyard and Edinv in backing London-based Adoo, which has secured $5 million (€4.76m) in its latest funding round, taking its total raised to $22m.
The investment round follows key hires at Audoo, including music publishing veteran Nigel Elderton as chair and Melanie Johnson as chief commercial officer.
“Working as a musician can be seen as all glitz and glamour but for the vast majority of artists, especially new and emerging acts, this isn’t the case,” says Elton. “It’s often brutally unfair and this sadly extends into being paid correctly. Right now, artists are not being paid accurately for their plays because the data simply doesn’t exist.
“People have given up on their dreams and we’ve lost talent and future stars because of this disparity. That’s why we’ve invested in Audoo and their world-class technology and data, to help create a more transparent system for everyone, and ultimately to keep the music alive.”
“Being able to draw on the support of artists in our mission to revolutionise the royalty space has been key to Audoo’s success”
Formed in 2018, Audoo’s board includes experts from APRA AMCOS, BMG, Bowers and Wilkins, PRS for Music and Sony Music Publishing. According to the firm, its technology “powers the commitment to improving accuracy, transparency and reporting in quasi-real-time without burden for licensees, PROs and CMOs”.
“Being able to draw on the support of artists in our mission to revolutionise the royalty space has been key to Audoo’s success,” says Audoo founder and CEO Ryan Edwards. “We are proud to welcome more icons to aid the next stage of our journey.
“With Elton and David’s strategic investment, we continue to champion and deliver a fairer and more transparent music industry for creatives to benefit for generations to come. We look forward to welcoming more international partners, licensees and creators to join us on this industry-changing journey.”
Audoo works to provide solutions to the challenges faced in public performance royalty data collection and payment distribution with its Audoo Audio Meter and insights platform that is rolling out across the UK, Europe, Australasia and Africa through industry-first partnerships.
The company says the installation of Audio Meters in businesses worldwide – including cafés, bars, hair salons, restaurants, gyms and retail locations – “sees its small, discreet plug-in solution cut through foreground noise, identify the music, match the song data, and report this usage back to PRO and CMO partners – ultimately improving fair and accurate payments to rights holders with a greater level of accuracy”.
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BBC reveals record Glastonbury viewing figures
The BBC has revealed its TV coverage of this year’s Glastonbury festival reached a record-breaking 23.1 million people.
The figures, which include the 30-day catch up period, were up 8% on 2022’s figure of 21.4m, with 8.6m people tuning in to Elton John’s Sunday night headline performance on BBC One over the same period.
Other high-performing sets at the 21-25 June event included Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses and Yusuf/Cat Stevens, as well as Blondie, Rick Astley, Fred Again.., Foo Fighters, Becky Hill and Lewis Capaldi. Glastonbury 2023 content on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds has also now been streamed 65 million times, up 54% on last year’s figure.
“This was an incredible year at Worthy Farm and I’m proud that we successfully matched the ambition and spirit of this iconic festival with our extensive coverage of it,” says BBC director of music Lorna Clarke.
The BBC, which recently inked a multi-year extension to continue to as Glastonbury’s exclusive multimedia broadcast partner, delivered over 40 hours of coverage across its TV channels in 2023, as well as 85 hours of live radio broadcasts, content on BBC Sounds, and an increase in scale and accessibility on BBC iPlayer.
“It’s wonderful that record audiences discovered and enjoyed our Glastonbury output on TV, radio and online”
For the first time, the corporation also streamed Pyramid Stage performances live in British Sign Language.
“It’s wonderful that record audiences discovered and enjoyed our Glastonbury output on TV, radio and online, as I know the teams across the BBC and BBC Studios worked around the clock to bring more performances and content than ever before to people at home,” adds Clarke. “A special thanks to Emily and Michael Eavis for allowing us to share the joy of Glastonbury with so many people across the UK.”
Glastonbury’s long-term future at Worthy Farm was secured earlier this year after it was granted permanent planning permission by the local council.
The festival will return to Worthy Farm, Somerset, from 26-30 June 2024.
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Total gross revealed for Elton John farewell tour
Elton John’s record-shattering Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour ended with a total gross of US$939.1 million (€837m), according to Billboard Boxscore.
Six million people attended the epic 330-show run, which began at the PPL Center in Allentown Pennsylvania way back in September 2018 and took in five continents before wrapping up in Stockholm with the second of two nights at Tele2 Arena on 8 July this year.
While the trek stopped short of becoming the first $1 billion tour, it comfortably surpassed Ed Sheeran’s 2017-19 ÷ (Divide) Tour – which grossed $776.2m from 255 dates – to be crowned as the highest-grossing concert tour ever.
“To every person who has worked on this tour and my extraordinary crew, the backbone of every show, I cannot begin to express my thanks,” writes Elton on Instagram. “From the lighting wizards to the talented sound and design engineers and costume magicians, tireless drivers and incredible caterers, talented photographer, our brilliant partners at AEG, Marshall Arts and Chugg Entertainment and of course my first-class band, each one of you brings this show to life.
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for making every performance an unforgettable experience and filling the last five years of the farewell tour with memories I will never forget.”
A special report on the tour appears in the current issue of IQ Magazine, which can be read by subscribers here.
“We knew we would do well, but we didn’t set out to be the highest-grossing tour in history”
“We started having this conversation [about the farewell tour] in 2016/17,” says Rocket Music Entertainment Group’s Keith Bradley, who has been working with Elton for more than 40 years and is the artist’s de facto agent outside of North America, as well as tour director on Farewell Yellow Brick Road.
“David [Furnish, Elton’s manager husband] and I flew to LA to meet with Jay Marciano at AEG, and I gave them an idea of what we were thinking in terms of the number of shows and the amount of money,” adds Bradley. “And everyone thought I’d lost my mind. In my head, it was going to be closer to 400 shows.”
Bradley confirms that, pre-pandemic, the tour was originally set to conclude two years earlier, in 2021, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, US.
“The tour has outperformed all of our expectations,” adds Rocket Entertainment Group CEO Furnish, speaking to IQ. “We knew we would do well, but we didn’t set out to be the highest-grossing tour in history.
“It’s just been a total team effort. Everybody rose to the occasion because I think they felt that they were part of something very special. Elton sets a very high bar; he goes on stage and thinks every show has to be as good as or better than the last one. He’s really focused and dedicated, and I think everybody feels inspired by that.”
Other new entries in Billboard‘s all-time top 10 are Harry Styles’ ongoing Love on Tour, which checks in at No.4 with $590.3m from 4.7 million ticket sales, while Coldplay’s current Music of the Spheres Tour is at No.6, having grossed $561.2m from 5.8m attendees.
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IQ 120: The Pride takeover edition has arrived
IQ 120 – the latest issue of the international live music industry’s favourite magazine – is available to read online now.
The July 2023 issue heralds the return of IQ Magazine’s annual Pride takeover edition, made possible thanks to support from Ticketmaster.
Once again, the Pride issue’s marquee feature is the LGBTIQ+ List which profiles 20 queer professionals making an impact in the international live music business and beyond. This year’s top 20, which were announced today, share their challenges, triumphs, advice and email addresses with us in the bumper feature.
Issue 120 also sees the return of the Loud & Proud playlist and feature, in which our agency partners spotlight fast-emerging and noteworthy acts to play close attention to. Contributing agencies include ATC Live, CAA, ITB, One Fiinix Live, Playbook Artists, Primary Talent, Solo and UTA.
Elsewhere, Pride editor Lisa Henderson speaks to the pioneers behind Werq the World, the official RuPaul’s Drag Race tour, as well as some of the other promoters working with touring drag acts. Continuing the RuPaul theme, Your Shout asks previous LGBTIQ+ List finalists what their lip-sync-for-your-life song is.
Following the closure of Elton John’s final tour, IQ Magazine’s Gordon Masson talks to the power players who helped make it a record-breaking smash.
For this edition’s columns and comments, Saskhia Menendez (Keychange, The F-List for Music, LIVE) outlines the need for a trans and non-binary charter and Jess Kinn (One Fiinix Live) details some of the foundations that she and others are laying to help queer acts and their fans to thrive.
Beyond the Pride-specific content, DJ Mag editor Carl Loben healthchecks the electronic music biz and Lars Brandle delivers market reports for Australia and New Zealand.
As always, the majority of the magazine’s content will appear online in some form in the next four weeks.
However, if you can’t wait for your fix of essential live music industry features, opinion and analysis, click here to subscribe to IQ from just £8 a month – or check out what you’re missing out on with the limited preview below:
Elton John’s historic Glasto set smashes records
Elton John looks to have smashed attendance and viewership records for the last UK show of his farewell tour at Glastonbury.
The 76-year-old legend delivered a two-hour set packed with hits from across his five-decades-long career, including ‘Pinball Wizard’ which he hadn’t performed in over a decade.
Early estimates had the Sunday night performance as one of the most-attended of all time – possibly eclipsing Dolly Parton in 2014 – with at least 120,000 in the audience.
Meanwhile, 7.6 million tuned in to watch live on BBC One – the biggest-ever overnight audience for a Glastonbury set.
In comparison, in 2022 Diana Ross was the most-watched star with 3.1m and Paul McCartney’s headline set was seen by 2.7m.
“I never thought I’d play Glastonbury – and here I am,” he said. “I’m so happy to be here. I won’t ever forget this. It’s a very special and emotional night for me as it may be my last show in England, in Great Britain. I’d better play well and I’d better entertain you because you’ve been standing there so long.”
7.6 million tuned in to watch live on BBC One – the biggest-ever overnight audience for a Glastonbury set
The 21-song set included hits such as ‘The Bitch Is Back’, ‘Bennie and the Jet’ and ‘I’m Still Standing,’ as well as a number of guest appearances.
Jacob Lusk of US soul group Gabriels accompanied John on ‘Are You Ready For Love’, Rina Sawayama took Kiki Dee’s place on ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ and The Killers’ Brandon Flowers appeared for ‘Tiny Dancer’. Nashville’s Stephen Sanchez even got to sing a song of his own, ‘Until I Found You’.
John drew the curtain on his UK touring career with an extended version of ‘Rocket Man’. “It’s been an incredible journey and I’ve had the best, best time,” said the star, with a lump in his throat.
The show came toward the end of Elton’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour – now officially the highest-grossing tour of all time, with box office receipts of $887m (£697m).
After Glastonbury, there are just seven dates left, with the final show in Stockholm on 8 July.
John’s performance drew the 2023 Glastonbury festival to a close, after high-profile sets from Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses, Lana Del Rey, WizKid, Lizzo, Blondie and Cat Stevens.
Friday’s headliner Arctic Monkeys saw a record performance for a Friday night headline set with a peak audience of 2.6m, while audiences for Saturday’s headliner Guns N’ Roses on BBC Two peaked at 2.1m.
Lewis Capaldi’s and Lizzo’s Pyramid Stage performances on Saturday had a BBC One audience peak 2.4m.
Organiser Emily Eavis has confirmed the event will return next year, with two female headliners already booked.
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Elton John farewell tour gross nears $900m
Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour is already the highest-grossing concert tour of all time according to Billboard, and is now approaching another milestone total.
Billboard Boxscore shows the tour has grossed US$887 million (€818m) from 5.7 million ticket sales across 309 shows up to 30 May 2023. The figures include earnings from nine of the 76-year-old’s recent 10 dates at The O2 in London, which generated $25.3m from 148,000 tickets.
With a string of European dates still to come, the tour will have comfortably exceeded $900m in earnings upon its scheduled conclusion at Stockholm’s Tele2 Arena on 8 July. The legendary musician will play the last UK tour date when he tops the bill on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage on Sunday 25 June.
Kicking off in Allentown Pennsylvania in September 2018, Farewell Yellow Brick Road was originally due to wrap up in 2021, encompassing five continents, but was disrupted by the pandemic. Garnering $138.2m in 2023 so far, it sits in second place in Billboard‘s mid-year charts behind Harry Styles’ Love On Tour ($138.6m), trailed by Coldplay ($95.3m), Ed Sheeran ($93.9m) and Daddy Yankee ($72.5m).
Elton’s farewell tour has long since surpassed the previous record holder, Sheeran’s 2017-19 ÷ (Divide) Tour – which grossed $776.2m from 255 concerts – in the revenue stakes and is expected to finish up around $925m. However, the Rocket Man’s stay at the summit could prove short-lived, with Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour tipped to ultimately set a new bar.
“Being able to celebrate a true music legend in a special way was hugely important for all of us at The O2”
The O2 recently presented Elton with a special award to mark his final show of the run at the venue on 30 May, and his last ever tour show in London. Awards were also presented to his touring team, including representatives from Rocket Entertainment, Marshall Arts and AEG Presents.
Across the 10 shows, The O2 was transformed in tribute, with a yellow brick road taking fans from North Greenwich station to The O2‘s main entrance. Inside the venue, a 5m wide pair of Elton’s sunglasses hung from the roof to delight fans on arrival, sustainable paper cups featuring tour artwork were available on the arena concourses, and an additional merchandise store was opened.
“Being able to celebrate a true music legend in a special way was hugely important for all of us at The O2,” says Christian D’Acuña, senior programming director at The O2. “Elton John’s final tour is certainly one for the history books, and we’re truly honoured to have hosted 10 nights of the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour.
“Being able to transform the venue into a massive tribute to Elton for his show dates, with our very own yellow brick road, created some truly special moments for fans and staff at the venue. A huge thank you to the teams at Rocket Entertainment, Marshall Arts and AEG Presents, and of course to the legend himself, Elton.”
A special report on the record-breaking Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour will be published in the July edition of IQ Magazine.
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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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