COLDPLAY’S UNIVERSE
EUROPEAN STADIUM RUNS CONTINUE TO YIELD HUGE RESULTS, WITH THE CHRIS MARTIN-FRONTED BAND LEADING IN JULY
COLDPLAY HAS BEEN hovering in the upper reaches of Billboard’s monthly Top Tours chart for most of the year. It was No. 5 in March and April, powered by 11 shows in Latin America, and hit Nos. 3 and 7, respectively, in May and June during a 12date trek through North America. But once it arrived in Europe, the band struck gold, with the first 11 continental dates of the Music of the Spheres tour making it the highest-grossing touring act of July.
According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Coldplay’s stops in Berlin; Paris; Frankfurt, Germany; and Warsaw, Poland, earned a combined $66.7 million and sold 731,000 tickets, averaging $6.1 million and 66,000 tickets per night.
Coldplay succeeds fellow U.K.-originating artist Ed Sheeran atop the chart, who similarly led thanks to a streak of European stadium shows (he ranks at No. 3 in July). Joined by Iron Maiden, Guns N’ Roses and Lady Gaga at Nos. 7, 9 and
10, respectively, European stadium runs make up half of the month’s top 10 tours, plus Elton John and Red Hot Chili Peppers, who split July between Europe and North America.