Elton John on road to riches with Yellow Brick tour record

SIR ELTON JOHN has topped the table for the highest grossing tour of all time after racking up £665.1 million from the latest Oceania leg of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road show.

Sir Elton, 75, has outdone Ed Sheeran, a close friend, who previously held the record with his Divide tour.

The Oscar, Emmy and Brit winner began his tour performances in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in September 2018. His 2023 schedule for a one-man show that could ultimately earn him $1 billion includes at least 50 European dates.

Sir Elton was the first act in history to surpass the £650million mark earned from 278 global shows. Sheeran’s two and a half year road trek, which ran until August 2019, grossed more than £631 million from 257 shows for which there were 8.8million tickets.

Sir Elton’s festival appearances, such as Glastonbury, will not be counted in the final sum as they are separate from his solo work.

Billboard Boxscore, the American music analytics company, revealed the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour grossed £609.8million by the end of 2022. This month, Sir Elton banked receipts of £219.5 million, which finally saw him surpass Sheeran’s tour haul.

Last night, Billboard’s Eric Frankenberg confirmed: “The Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour has grossed £665.1 million across 278 shows so far – more than any tour in Boxscore history.” Sir Elton’s global trek began in North America and included 42 performances in 2018, then 111 more in 2019 and another 25 in 2020 before the Covid pandemic forced a halt to the gigs.

He completed 93 concerts in 2022, capping a blockbuster year on the road with three sold-out shows at the LA Dodgers baseball stadium in Los Angeles in November and with £222.6 million in gross takings reported to Pollstar last year, his tour ranked second only to Bad Bunny among the Top 200 Worldwide Tours for 2022.

Among the arenas in Britain booked to host the tour during a final 15-week sweep through Europe is The O2 in London, where Sir Elton will perform for nine nights in April with a tenth performance scheduled for May 30.

He also has three shows apiece planned for the AO Arena in Manchester and the Utilita Arena in Birmingham, along with two-night gigs in Liverpool, Aberdeen and Glasgow.

There will also be single shows in Belfast, Leeds and Birmingham’s Resorts World Arena.