Most influential tours of all time

Hello esteemed forum.

I’m on an Achtung Baby kick lately and I’ve doing some reading about the ZooTV tour and all the bells and whistles which went with it.

Although I wasn’t really into U2 at the time - nor saw the tour - it seems like it was groundbreaking in a variety of ways.

With that in mind, are there any other famous tours which proved influential in terms of design/appearance/performance/creativity - or any other metric you wish to use?

It could even be something not so obvious, like how tickets were purchased or distributed.

Basically any tour which, with hindsight, is considered to be groundbreaking/game-changing.

Thanks for playing.

 

I'd have to think that the Grateful Dead and their Wall Of Sound for their 1974 Tour had to be somewhat game-changing as far as live sound quality.

 

The Billion Dollar Babies tour (Alice Cooper, 1973) is credited for introducing elaborate staging on regular stops. It is said to be the turning point between regular rock shows and big rock shows.

 

Stones 72

 

Stop Making Sense would be up there (and an influence on Zoo TV).

 

Not individual tours, but Grateful Dead in 1983/84 also started mail order for tours and a taper's section.

 

Dylan going electric.

 

Was the Monsters of Rock tour the first stacked act tour?

The Stones 81 tour was the first underwritten by a corporate sponsor.

 

Bob - Rolling Thunder '75 - '76

 

Black Flag's early tours were highly influential for many. They were pioneers as far as the whole "Do It Yourself" route on many levels.

 

What he said...

 

Beatles Summer 64 - first musical stadium tour

 

1980 Floyd's Wall Tour... only mounted 31 times. The only wall construction which has proven to more daunting has been that of Mr. Trump... thank goodness. < Sorry for the politics.

 

Artistically influential or commercially influential tours?

Commercially...

The Beatles in '66 and the Stones in '69 showed how to make money, and I am not making light of Altamont.

Then in '72, the Stones showed how to do it again.

The Dead throughout their career showed how to make a pretty large living off touring.

CSNY '74 didn't exactly break new ground, but it took what the Stones and by then others had done and took it to a bigger money-grab level still, even if it sounds good in retrospect. Bands including Zeppelin and The Who could be counted in the same fashion.

Many of Pink Floyd's tours showed how big tour's could stage a huge production, and even showed how to learn from their mistakes.

The Police's 1st U.S. (East Cosst and a couple Midwest dates really) tour set standards for how alterative bands including U.S. bands could break in the U.S., and this was before "alternative" was a category.

The Jacksons' victory tour set a new record for big that others have certainly followed, including Madonna's tours.

Madonna's Blonde Ambition Tour took the choreography of "pop" acts to a whole new level of complexity and staging which many others have followed.

The Stones again set industry standards, or their crew did, for stagecraft in 1989 with their 3-stage set up while touring -- 1 being used or torn down, 1 on the move and 1 being set up.

Yes, I'd say U2 have repeatedly set new standards for what could be staged profitably, starting with the Zoo TV tour.

Artistically influential tours would be another story.

 

The 1987 Def Jam Tour changed hip-hop

 

Pink Floyd's 1994-95 tour (which, of course, ended up being their last).

 

Peter Gabriel Security and Secret World 83 93
Genesis Lamb Lies Down on Broadway 74-75
King Crimson - Court 69. Lark's Tongue 73
Sade 2011
Bowie Diamond Dogs, Thin White Duke
The Who Quad
Todd Rundgren - RA

 

He has a few doesn’t he? Big time, Dylan 65-66.

And someone else mentioned Rolling Thunder. Good one. But I’ll go with Dylan and the Band, 73-74. Monster tour. Perhaps a template for future megatours.

 

Def Leppard 87/88 In The Round stage was kind of a unique thing then.

 

I would say two tours in 1974

1) Dylan & The Band. A reunion of sorts. I remember the demand for tickets and the millions of by-mail requests that I think set the template for superstar tours to come.
2) CSNY. Another reunion tour and although some tours (Beatles, most notably) had utilized some stadiums, this was the first tour where the vast majority of shows were booked in huge football/baseball stadiums. It also ushered in the decadence and excess of the decade with embroidered pillow cases and catering to the egos of superstars. Also, the members traveled separately, making it obvious the good Will was gone and it was a cash grab.

 

Oh, a couple other commercially influential tours and touring arrangements, Madonna's deal with Live Nation and Zep forcing a 90-10 split between band and promoters for concert gross certainly set precedents.

 

The 1960 UK tour by Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent, which was witnessed by a generation of would-be guitarists
who would soon be leading rocking bands of their own.



Eddie Cochran: The Original Rock Guitar Hero
The Influence of Eddie Cochran
The Anfield Iron: 1960 - Rock 'n' Roll Tales; the Beatles and Eddie Cochran Tours.
C'mon everybody: How Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent changed British

 

Hendrix 68 US tour.

It was the first tour that the artist toured with their own PA.

 

The Eagles in '94, since it influenced everybody to charge more for tickets.

 

Lollapalooza, influential as essentially a touring festival representing "alternative" music (whatever you want to call it, and even though it was invading the mainstream, it was still a game-changing evolution in rock and pop music).