YEAR-END SPECIAL: Congratulations to all of the Venues that appeared on the 2021 Top Worldwide Arena Chart!

#1 @BrdgstoneArena
#2 @TheGarden
#3 @TheForum
#4 @StateFarmArena
#5 #MGMGrandGarden
#6 @Golden1Center
#7 @cryptocomarena
#8 @ToyotaCenter
#9 @AACenter
#10 @MoSunArenaPA pic.twitter.com/1bu6qYf9sQ

— Pollstar (@Pollstar) December 13, 2021

The hitmakers climbed to the top of the list with their No Filter Tour, which was rescheduled to end this year due to COVID. Although the band only played a dozen dates from their tour, the group earned an impressive £87 million from the stadium shows. The tour was the first run of live shows which the group played since the tragic passing of drummer Charlie Watts.

The rockers’ recent tour has been heralded not just for its financial success but for its positive influence within the music industry. President and co-CEO of Concerts West, John Meglen has provided the following statement concerning the tour, “It’s a testament to all of the people who were out on the road and on our team, You have to give every single person out there credit for a ton of buckling down and saying, ‘Let’s go out and get this thing done,’ because we all wanted to get it done. We didn’t want to lose a show. And we’re watching all the others out there and going, ‘Man, they’re not taking it serious enough.”

Meglen also stated that the tour’s successes lay in adherence to the COVID guidelines, “We had a very, very strict bubble, both for the entourage and the same with Opie (veteran tour production director Dale “Opie” Skjerseth) on the production crew, When we moved into St. Louis for the first show (the run debuted on Sept. 26 at The Dome), we really got into all of the daily or every-other-day testing.” The tour required all crew members to be vaccinated and tested regularly, the team also adhered to strict rulings which included no unpermitted persons allowed backstage and dressing rooms to be fully sanitized. Meglen continued to add, “We had to be very, very strict, At the show in L.A., my wife was up in the suite, but I couldn’t go up and see her.”

Former One Direction band member Harry Styles placed at number two within the list, the “Watermelon Sugar” singer earned £65.5 million from his Love On Tour concert series. Much like The Rolling Stones’ No Filter tour, Styles had to postpone the tour twice due to social restrictions placed to manage COVID. Styles embarked on his second concert tour in support of his second solo album Fine Line. The British artist made £6.1 million alone from his three nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden. With over 669,051 tickets sold, Styles has become the highest ticket selling artist of 2021.

The Hella Mega Tour has landed in third place, the concert series featured a trio of iconic bands and earned £50.8 million. The tour featured Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Weezer and is set to embark on its European and UK leg in 2022. The Eagles came in fourth place within the list, the group’s live shows brought in £44.7 million. The top five was concluded by Dead & Company, the supergroup made up of former Grateful Dead band members generated £37.9 million from live shows in 2021.

It has been a difficult 18 months for grassroots music venues across the UK. When the pandemic came last March, there was the very real threat of at least 500 venues facing closure. However, many have been saved due to public support and donations to the Music Venue Trust’s (MVT) #SaveOurVenues campaign. This as well as the pressure being put on the government and a number being saved by the Cultural Recovery Fund have helped saved a large number of venues.

Despite the MVT’s mostly successful efforts to “reopen every venue safely” with the hard work of people on the ground, it now appears that a lot of these venues are still in a difficult financial situation.

MVT CEO Mark Davyd told NME. “The grassroots music venue sector is more than £90million in debt, Getting that paid off isn’t going to be done this year, it likely won’t be done next year and might not be until 2024 or 2025 if things keep going as they are. The average debt they’re emerging with is around £80,000-£120,000 per venue – some are in much more significant debt than that.”

Davyd said that these debts were because of “landlords, suppliers, services and money that’s owed within their supply chain,” and that the best response would be for music fans to return to venues when they feel ready. He went on to praise venues’ efforts for making their spaces more COVID-safe, and for fans for taking precautionary measures – with around 95 per cent of gig-goers surveyed either being double vaccinated, having taken a COVID test before a show or having proof of immunity.

He then went on to say “Venues took on a lot of work and effort to try and understand what they should do to make their spaces safe, and then they went out and did it, The facts are that case numbers were rising significantly and very, very high – right up until the ‘freedom day’ of July 19. Venues then opened on July 19 and, in the following six weeks, case rates went down week on week. The most surprising statistic of all is that they went down by 29 per cent across the country, but of the 100 grassroots music venues that we tracked in different locations it went down by 38 per cent in the locality of those venues.”

He continued: “If you like science and believe in correlation rather than causality, you could argue that if you want to reduce transmission rates then you should open more grassroots music venues. The proof is in the evidence and the fact that grassroots music venues have contributed very little to any rise in transmissions. They’ve really managed this very well with air filtration, air quality, risk management and by working incredibly hard.”

Davyd also said that the best way to help venues through this difficult period is to get back to shows and to take a test and stay safe before doing so. “One of the key messages of our #TakeATest campaign is that the artists, the crew, the bar and venue staff are all taking a test to make sure these shows can go ahead,”

The artists are taking a test. The crew are taking a test. The staff are taking a test. That just leaves you, the audience to make your decision.

Please play your part and help us to Reopen Every Venue Safely. #TakeATest pic.twitter.com/LfoL8TTpI8

— Music Venue Trust (@musicvenuetrust) July 19, 2021

Visit here with information on how to help or donate to the #SaveOurVenues campaign.

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat

Prints of the iconic artists being sold include Stormzy, David Bowie, Liam Gallagher, Bob Marley, Arctic Monkeys, The Streets, Tina Turner, Fatboy Slim, Alice Cooper, Sting and many more. Photographer Ed Robinson who organised the funding for ‘Prints For Music,’ hopes to raise over 100k in support of the live music sector.

In an Interview with Music Week Robinson said, “Like so many others, the struggles of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected me deeply on a personal level as well as professionally. I have reached out to the people I know in the music and photographic industries with the simple idea to try to help those who are not getting the support they need to survive this crisis.”

He added, “For many photographers who have been privileged enough to have been given access to photograph these artists, it has only been made possible by the efforts of their production teams. None of these photographs would have been possible without the artists and those who support them. This initiative is our way of giving back in their time of need. It will help preserve their livelihoods and enable the shows to go on in the future.”

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A post shared by Stagehand (@stagehandcharity)

The funds that are raised will be offered as grants to out-of-work production and technician stuff in the live music sector. The impact of the coronavirus has left thousands of musicians and industry workers without jobs and struggling. Thousands of gigs, live music venues, concert halls and festivals have had to cancel or reschedule events throughout this year and the next. The UK is the second biggest music industry globally (after the US) and in 2020, Oxford economics reported that music jobs will amount to 77,000, which is a 60% drop compared with 2018.

The report noted that the, “economy would drop by $3bn, with the collapse in live music and touring being the single biggest factor contributing to the decline.” It also stated that live music would be effectively “decimated across the whole of 2020” and that the recovery would take at least three to four years to return to where it was in 2019.

Until the government makes decisions on when live music will be able to return, charities such as ‘Stagehand’ play a big part in helping musicians  keep up their hopes of returning to their livelihood. Music Week stated that chair of Stagehands board of trustee’s, Mike Lowe said,  “The livelihoods of people working in live music productions has been decimated by the effects of Covid-19. Every day we hear from people who are struggling and Stagehand is raising funds to help those in most need, with the simple aim of helping to keep roofs over heads and food on tables.”

Priced at £95, prints can be purchased from the ‘Prints For Music’ website up until 11th December.