New from Routledge E:: C)r hie I RAY WADDELL [email protected] A Brief History of "Robins presents his Rock, Off the Record [work] with enthusiasm and breezy good Souled Out humor... His tone is McGraw /Hill Tour Sets New Milestone ideal for the topic and Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are in the record a separate, individual "tour." Like Twain, the format, a welcome relief books as a touring duo. McGraw /Hill trek utilized the same basic The second year of the McGraw /Hill (mega) production, title and theme for its en- from the disproportionate Soul2Soul tour grossed more than $52 million, tire run, making it one "tour" per se. number of self -important taking the two- summer total for the husband - Despite the big box office country is seeing and -wife co- headliners to more than $141 mil- these days, Brooks still holds the attendance academic treatises on lion, according to Billboard Boxscore record for a multiyear run at about 5.5 million. modern popular music." (billboard.biz, Sept. 4), That's enough to make "Garth definitely wins on attendance," says it the top -grossing country tour ever. The out- Scott Siman, McGraw's manager at Front Line - Kirktis Reviews ing wrapped Aug. 10 -11 at the Honda Center Management. "Of course, back then you could in Anaheim, Calif., with $2.5 million gross. sell 10 million records, too."

Soul2Soul II now tops Garth Brooks' three - Siman says that what makes Soul2 Soul year megatour in support of his 1998 Capitol unique is providing "two superstars," along release "Sevens," which grossed more than $105 with "the biggest, most state -of-the -art produc- million. Brooks had been the box-office stan- tion ever undertaken" by a country act, "rival- dard- bearer in the genre, with country's first ing the biggest rock productions of our time." and until now only $100 million run. Paperback ISBN13: 978 -0- 415 -97473 -8 $24.95 BOOKING HANNAH: Creative Artists Agency's Jeff Frasco is one busy agent. Tours that Frasco worked on in 2007 in- clude Tony Bennett, American Idols w!)Routledge 1-800-634-7064 I www.routledge.com Live, "So You Think You Can Dance," Taylor & Francis Group the Cheetah Girls. Chris Daughtry. an informa business Nelly Furtado, Robbie Williams. "High School Musical" and Miley Cyrus' upcoming "Hannah Montana" tour. if Additionally, there could be an Annie Lennox tour this fall, a Duran Duran run in February and the Spice Girls reunion IT'S "MORE THAN A MEMORY" tour this winter. Frasco also books coun- try's Carrie Underwood. and is working with Travis Tritt and Kelly Pickier in con- junction with CAA's Nashville office. Oh, and Fantasia is in "The Color Purple." But right now it's Cyrus as Hannah HISTORY! Montana that has the abuzz. The IT'S industry tour, with her father Billy Ray onboard, A RECORD THAT WILL NEVER BE BROKEN sold out all 54 dates within 20 minutes. "Nothing surprises me with the Disney stuff," Frasco says. "The Cheetah Girls CURB MUSIC PUBLISHING did amazingly well, and 'High School Mu- sical' was incredible." CONGRATULATES The tour begins Oct. 18 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. The Nov. 23 show at Nashville's Sommet Center sold out in GARTH BROOKS about 12 minutes, according to booking AND CURB WRITERS: McGraw /Hill drew 1,673,667 fans to 117 VP Brock Jones. "It blew completely up," Jones shows. The first Soul2Soul tour in 2000 grossed says. "If I could have rolled into a second date, million. McGraw and Hill first generated we would've gone clean on that as well." LEE BRICE, KYLE JACOBS AND BILLY MONTANA $50 sparks on the Spontaneous Combustion tour Shows like Hannah Montana or Cheetah FOR THE HIGHEST CHARTING COUNTRY SINGLE DEBUT EVER! in 1996. Girls bring some new customers to live music, Rod Essig and John Huie in Creative Artists which can be a doubled -edged sword. - Agency's Nashville office were the agents for In other words, a lot oflittle Hannah fannahs the Soul2Soul tour, and Live Nation was the na- were left without tickets, and their parents were tional promoter in 2007 for Soul2Soul. In 2006, likely puzzled by how quickly seats can move JIL the tour worked with Live Nation, AEG Live and from the primary to the much more expensive such independents as Jam Productions, Gary secondary market in today's concert world. "The Marx, Outback Concerts, Fantasma Produc- big issue is a lot of the people who wanted to tions, Another Planet, Glenn Smith, Lowell buy tickets are not typically concertgoers and "MORE THAN A MEMORY" 1ST WEEK #1 R &R MacGregor and Beaver Productions. they don't understand the speed of the Inter- The previous two -year gross record had been net," Jones says. "And, frankly, if you're stand- THANKS TO GARTH BROOKS, Shania Twain in 2003 -2004 at about $90 mil- ing in line at Kroger and you're third in line, SCOTT BORCHETTA, CURB MUSIC lion. Kenny Chesney has grossed about $300 you're probably out of luck." SCOT SHERROD, P U B L I S H I N G, I N C. million during the past six years, but each year For 24/7 touring news ALLEN REYNOLDS, BOB DOYLE the set is struck and the next year has its own and analysis, see identity, title and production, making each run billboard.biz /touring.

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