Wembley Stadium hails “another incredible summer”
Saturday 6 July saw the Who bring the curtain down on the biggest-ever summer of concerts at Wembley Stadium in London.
Over the space of five weeks the 90,000-capacity stadium hosted 14 concerts, with 38 acts playing to some 900,000 fans. That’s down slightly on the more than one million predicted by stadium bosses before the summer, but still a new record.
K-pop sensations BTS kicked things off with two sold-out shows on 1 and 2 June as part of their Love Yourself world tour, with 140,000 fans also streaming the show live globally. Capital’s Summertime Ball festival took place the weekend after, followed by the much-hyped Spice Girls reunion shows, which saw 240,000 fans attend over three nights.
“We look forward to another exciting summer of music next year”
Other headline shows included the newly Lindsey Buckingham-less Fleetwood Mac, who played two nights, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel and Eagles, who played one night each from 21 to 23 June, Pink, who played two nights, and the Who, who rounded off the summer season with support from Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder.
James Taylor, Wembley’s senior commercial manager for concerts, comments: “It’s been another incredible summer of music at Wembley Stadium. We are privileged to have hosted such a diverse set of artists and to have welcome thousands of fans into the national stadium.
“We must also thank the stadium team who have worked tirelessly to adapt the venue to suit varying needs. We look forward to another exciting summer of music next year.”
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Record-breaking summer for music at Wembley Stadium
London’s Wembley Stadium connected by EE is getting ready for a record-breaking summer of live music, with a line-up of 14 concerts expected to attract over a million music fans to the stadium.
The 90,000-capacity stadium, owned by the Football Association (FA), will host five weeks’ worth of concerts from 1 June. Nine headliners will play a total of fourteen shows, in the most music-focused schedule ever for the stadium.
The line-up includes shows from K-pop stars BTS, Bon Jovi, the Who and the Spice Girls, in their first set of shows since the 2012 London Olympics closing ceremony. Pink will also perform at the stadium as part of her mega Beautiful Trauma world tour, which has sold three million tickets just over a month in.
The number of concerts surpasses the stadium’s previous record of 13, set in 1992, before the stadium was demolished and rebuilt. The best year for music since the 2007 reopening of the stadium came in 2016, when six headliners played across ten shows.
“We are delighted to host what will be a record-breaking year for music at Wembley Stadium,” says Wembley’s senior commercial manager, James Taylor.
“Holding music events and attracting more people to our venue are an essential part of our business and we are looking forward to hosting some of the world’s biggest artists this summer”
“Holding music events and attracting more people to our venue are an essential part of our business and we are looking forward to hosting some of the world’s biggest artists this summer. We are setting the bar high in 2019 and long may this continue.”
The stadium will also host performances from Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel and Eagles, as well as the Capital Summertime Ball, featuring Mark Ronson, Ellie Goulding, Jonas Brothers, Maroon 5 and Jess Glynne.
In 2016, Wembley Stadium achieved it best-ever turnover of £370m, driven in part by a busier live events calendar, with dates by Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay, Rihanna and Ed Sheeran.
However, last year the stadium recorded a pre-tax deficit of £9 million, compared with a £5.5m profit the year before, and a drop in sales by 13%. This slump in profit follows a scaling back of the music calendar in 2017 and a renewed focus on football.
More information and tickets for the shows can be found here.
A full list of concerts and dates are below:
Saturday 1 June: BTS
Sunday 2 June: BTS
Saturday 8 June: Capital Summertime Ball
Thursday 13 June: Spice Girls
Friday 14 June: Spice Girls
Saturday 15 June: Spice Girls
Sunday 16 June: Fleetwood Mac
Tuesday 18 June: Fleetwood Mac
Friday 21 June: Bon Jovi
Saturday 22 June: Billy Joel
Sunday 23 June: Eagles
Saturday 29 June: Pink
Sunday 30 June: Pink
Saturday 6 July: The Who and Eddie Vedder
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BTS win Ticketmaster’s ticket of the year 2018
World-conquering Korean boy band BTS has been crowned ticket of the year 2018 by Ticketmaster, which polled fans globally from its database of 200m people to discover the most popular live events of 2018.
The K-pop phenomenon recently became the first Korean act to surpass a billion streams on Apple Music, while their Burn the Stage movie sold more than 1.4m tickets, toppling a record previously held by One Direction.
Ed Sheeran’s mammoth ÷ tour was second, with long-running Dutch festival Pinkpop taking third.
In the UK, Scottish comedian Kevin Bridges becomes the first comedian to take ticket of the year, for last month’s shows at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, with Pink’s Beautiful Trauma and the Spice Girls’ Spice World named the most anticipated UK tours of 2019.
Hamilton, meanwhile, is Britain’s favourite theatre show.
“It’s been a while since the result of a vote has made me happy”
Bridges comments: “Thank you to everybody who came out to see me live this year, and a very special thank you to those who went as far as voting for me as their favourite show of the year.
“It’s been a while since the result of a vote has made me happy. You have restored my faith in democracy. Thank you all and see you another time.”
“What an honour from my beautiful UK fans,” says Pink. “A huge thank you to everyone that voted for the Beautiful Trauma tour as the Ticketmaster most anticipated event 2019. It’s been nearly five years since I’ve toured the UK – I can’t wait to get back and party with all of you.”
The winners in full are:
UK ticket of the year 2018
1. Kevin Bridges – The SSE Hydro
2. Hamilton – Victoria Palace Theatre
3. Ed Sheeran – Wembley Stadium
4. Taylor Swift – Wembley Stadium
5. Ed Sheeran – Hampden Park National Stadium
UK most anticipated events 2019
1. Pink
2. Spice Girls
3. Muse
4. Fleetwood Mac
5. Take That
Global ticket of the year 2018
1. BTS
2. Ed Sheeran
3. Pinkpop
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Spice Girls add five extra dates after “off-the-chart” demand
Saturday’s Spice Girls stadium tour onsale was a record-breaker for Ticketmaster UK, with enough fans trying to get tickets that the band “could have played nearly every night for a year”, according to MD Andrew Parsons.
The Spice World 2019 UK tour, promoted by SJM Concerts, Live Nation and Solo, will see the ’90s icons play stadia across Britain next summer. Five extra dates were added to the initial six due to incredible demand for tickets, which went on sale on Saturday morning (10 November).
“Demand for Spice Girls was off the chart,” comments Parsons. “They have smashed through Ticketmaster UK’s records, becoming the busiest-ever sale. There were millions of people on our site searching for tickets, with a queue at one point of well over 700,000. Hundreds of thousands of tickets were sold to happy fans across the country within minutes.
“Congratulations to the girls. From what we saw, they could have played nearly every night for a year.”
In addition to the extra shows, the band has announced a new line of branded T-shirts to raise funds for Comic Relief’s Power Up campaign, which supports charities that promote equality for women and girls.
“They could have played nearly every night for a year”
The T-shirts, emblazoned with the slogan ‘#IWannabeASpiceGirl’, are available to purchase until 1 December from Represent.com.
Liz Warner, chief executive of Comic Relief, says: “Girl Power is a shared passion. Right now, this movement for equality is uniting the world in the most spectacular way, and this very generous gift is going to help us support even more organisations fighting for the rights of women and girls here in the UK.
“We are proud to be the ones to take this forward with the Spice Girls and look forward to seeing the difference we can make together.”
Full tour dates, with the new shows highlighted in bold, are below:
Wednesday 29th May – Manchester – Etihad Stadium
Friday 31st May – Manchester – Etihad Stadium
Saturday 1st June – Manchester – Etihad Stadium
Monday 3rd June – Coventry – Ricoh Arena
Tuesday 4th June – Coventry – Ricoh Arena
Thursday 6th June – Sunderland – Stadium Of Light
Saturday 8th June – Edinburgh – BT Murrayfield Stadium
Monday 10th June – Bristol – Ashton Gate Stadium
Thursday 13th June – London – Wembley Stadium
Friday 14th June – London – Wembley Stadium
Saturday 15th June – London – Wembley Stadium
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Spice Girls confirm Spice World UK stadium tour
Seven years after the Spice Girls’ last live show, and 11 years after their 2007–2008 reunion tour, the world’s most successful girl group are hitting the road once again, today announcing six UK stadium shows in 2019.
Promoted by SJM Concerts, Live Nation and Solo, the Spice World UK tour will initially visit Etihad Stadium in Manchester (1 June 2019), Ricoh Arena in Coventry (3 June), Stadium of Light in Sunderland (6 June), BT Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh (8 June), Ashton Gate Stadium in Bristol (10 June) and Wembley Stadium in London (15 June).
Owing to Victoria Beckham/Posh Spice’s “business commitments”, the band – managed by Modest! Management and XIX Entertainment – will tour as a four-piece comprising Melanie Brown (‘Scary Spice’), Melanie Chisholm (‘Sporty Spice’), Emma Bunton (‘Baby Spice’) and Geri Horner (née Halliwell, ‘Ginger Spice’). Support will come courtesy of Jess Glynne.
“We are beyond excited to be reuniting next year for a stadium tour,” say the four in a joint statement. “Bringing girl power and our message of friendship and love back to the stage feels more relevant than ever. We hope everyone can join us for one big Spice Girls party.”
“Bringing girl power and our message of friendship and love back to the stage feels more relevant than ever”
“Being in the Spice Girls was a hugely important part of my life, and I wish my girls so much love and fun as they go back on tour,” adds Beckham. “I know they will put on an amazing show, and the fantastic fans past and present are going to have a wonderful time.”
Formed in 1994 by Heart Management’s Bob and Chris Herbert, and signed to Simon Fuller’s 19 Entertainment, the Spice Girls’ breakthrough came with 1996 debut single, ‘Wannabe’, which topped the charts in 37 countries. Their first album, Spice, sold more than 31 million copies worldwide, and the band went on to become the biggest British pop success since the Beatles, selling more than 85m records globally.
They last toured in 2007 and 2008, with the Return of the Spice Girls tour grossing US$107.2m from ticket sales and merchandising, though they returned for a well-received one-off performance for the London 2012 Olympic Games closing ceremony.
Tickets for Spice World 2019 are on sale this Saturday (10 November) from Ticketmaster and SJM’s Gigs and Tours, with Twickets as the official resale partner.
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