By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
April 28, 1997
(LAS VEGAS) While U2’s album “Pop” hasn’t been the sure thing that the music industry had hoped for, it has done well enough to kick-start the Irish supergroup’s 14-month, 100-city “PopMart” tour.
“Pop” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart when it was released March 4. But since then, sales haven’t been nearly as brisk as the band or its record company would like. With 850,000 copies sold, U2’s sales lag behind a slew of young female artists (Spice Girls, Jewel, LeAnn Rimes, Erykah Badu) and a dead rap star (The Notorious B.I.G.).
But U2, which has a 17-year legacy of critically acclaimed and commercially successful material, can pull off something none of them can do: They’re headlining not just the first stadium tour of 1997, but the first significant stadium tour in the last 2 1/2 years. The last artists to fill up this type of venue were Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, the Eagles, the Grateful Dead, and Elton John and Billy Joel on a double bill.
Even popular festivals such as the multi-act Lollapalooza play in amphitheatres (capacity 20,000 to 30,000) that are dwarfed by stadiums. Almost 100,000 fans will catch U2’s June 27 and 28 gigs at Soldier Field.
“Stadium tours in general always get a tremendous amount of press no matter who it is,” said Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of Pollstar, which tracks the concert business. “My understanding is that many of U2’s dates have not sold out. But it’s a general given in the music business that these kind of tours get people excited about going out to concerts. And that gets album sales going, which gets more people going out to shows.”
With more than 1.5 million tickets already sold, U2’s gross U.S. sales of $70 million have outpaced its 1992-93 “Zoo TV” tour by $3 million. But the figures are misleading, since the top ticket price of $52.50 on this tour is $22.50 higher than it was for “Zoo TV.” U2’s camp said it costs $250,000 per day to keep the tour – which travels with 250 crew members and hires an additional 200 more in each city – on the road.
The only other stadium possibility this year is a Rolling Stones tour, which is rumored to kick off in September.
But in Vegas, the place to be was at U2’s show, and the army of celebs in the crowd included Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Dr. Dre, David Schwimmer and Kevin “Hercules” Sorbo. Also scoring tix were Mel Gibson, Elisabeth Shue, Michael Stipe, Nicolas Cage, Trent Reznor and Dennis Franz.
But the most avid concertgoers were the fans who got there any way they could.
“I came with seven other people (from Los Angeles),” Leah Horwitz said. “Everybody either flew or drove in after they got off of work. I saw U2 at the Rose Bowl a few years ago, and it was the most amazing show. There was no way I was going to miss their kickoff date when it was so close to home.”
