Rolling Stones make the biggest bang in history
The Rolling Stones ' "A Bigger Bang" world tour certainly lived up to its name, reportedly bringing in more than a half-billion dollars and earning the title of top-grossing tour in history.
The sales figure--$558.3 million--far surpasses the previous $389 million record set by U2's Vertigo tour, according to Billboard. The magazine recently obtained the Stones' final tally from the band's longtime tour promoter, Michael Cohl.
The Bigger Bang outing, which started in the fall of 2005 and wrapped in London Aug. 26, drew 4.68 million fans across 144 shows, Billboard said. The final leg included makeup dates for gigs that were canceled last year after Keith Richards fell out of a tree and suffered a head injury in Fiji.
The two-year tour supported The Rolling Stones ' latest studio album, "A Bigger Bang," which surfaced in the summer of 2005. A four-DVD set documenting the trek was released in June in an exclusive deal with retailer Best Buy. The seven-hour collection features two complete concerts and two documentaries.
Footage from the tour will also be included in the upcoming Stones documentary, "Shine a Light," directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese. That film is scheduled to hit IMAX and standard movie theaters next spring.
Now that the far-reaching jaunt has concluded, will the veteran rock stars take a break? Frontman Mick Jagger told BBC News the rocking will continue.
"I'm sure the Rolling Stones will do more things and more records and more tours, and we've got no plans to stop any of that really," he said in a recent interview.
Meanwhile, Jagger's got his own thing going with the Tuesday (10/2) release of his solo retrospective, "The Very Best of Mick Jagger." The album features 17 tracks spanning the singer's solo career from 1970 onward and features three previously unreleased songs.
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