It’s official, Melbourne retains the title of being the country’s rock n’ roll capital as a number of Aussie venues are named among the most successful in the world.
Competing internationally with some of the biggest and best arenas, clubs, and theatres in the world, more than 10 Australian live music venues have made the Top 100 rankings in the annual mid-year report from US music industry trackers Pollstar, with five Melbourne venues accounting for the most of Australia’s venue representation.
Melbourne’s iconic Corner Hotel and Northcote Social Club were the only two Aussie venues to make the cut in the Top 100 Clubs section of Pollstar‘s mid-year listings, as Beat reports. The Corner Hotel landed at #14 on the poll, selling 64,771 tickets in the first six months of 2014, the Richmond venue rising from its position of #27 and 47,438 ticket sales from the same Pollstar rankings this time last year.
The Northcote Social Club – which didn’t make the cut in 2013 – made it in at #96 in the Clubs listings, selling 19,435 tickets in the first half of 2014.
Over in the Top 100 Arenas category, Rod Laver Arena ranked at #41 with 161,672 tickets, taking a dip from being the top-performing venue in Australia this time last year. In the same category, Sydney’s Allphones Arena ranked at #16 and the Qantas Credit Union Arena sat at #71 in the Top 100, while the Brisbane Entertainment Centre landed at #32, followed closely by Perth Arena ranked at #34.
Melbourne’s Palais Theatre was also the best performing Aussie rep in the the Top 100 Theatres, ranking #23 with 106,604 sales, while the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre scraped in at #95 with 31,604 tickets. AAMI Park hit #31 (with 62,950 tickets) and Etihad Stadium took #42 (31,335 tickets) in the Outdoor Stadium & Festival Sites category, along with two representatives from New South Wales and a single location from Brisbane.
New South Wales’ Hope Estate Winery superseded Melborne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl in the Top 50 Amphitheatres rankings, landing at #23 (42,032 tickets) and #41 (25,168 tickets) respectively.
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The Pollstar mid-year report also tracked the Top 100 global concert promoters, with seven Aussie representatives appearing among the world’s biggest, with Paul Dainty’s company Dainty Entertainment named the biggest Aussie promoter of the the first six months of 2014.
The Melbourne-based promoter hit #13 in the Top 100, responsible for 620,036 ticket sales – boosted by presenting recent tours by Eminem, Lionel Richie, and Michael Bublé – and followed closely by fellow Melbourne icon Michael Gudinski and his Frontier Touring Company; at #22 with 458,824 ticket sales, with another blockbuster start to the year with a second Aussie tour from Bruce Springsteen as well as the co-headline shows from Queens of the Stone Age and Nine Inch Nails.
Other promoters in the Top 100 included Michael Chugg’s Chugg Entertainment, ranking at #28 with 274,945 (down five spots from the same poll last year); Peter Noble’s Bluesfest touring company at #57 (with 152,097 tickets); Nine Lives (#60 with 145,832); Show Partners (#67 with 127,083); and Adrian Bohm Presents (#75 with 104,174).
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Retaining the #1 concert promoter position was Live Nation, remaining the biggest in the world while sales of its Australian and New Zealand touring arm (headed by Aussie Michael Coppel) are rolled together, crowning the Top 100 by shifting a juggernaut 9.8 million tickets worldwide.
