Legs 5 | ||
Start date 23 September 1997 (1997-09-23) End date 19 September 1998 (1998-09-19) No. of shows 47 in North America37 in Europe7 in South America6 in Asia97 total Box office $274 million ($402.61 in 2017 dollars) | ||
The rolling stones gimme shelter live official promo
The Bridges to Babylon Tour was a worldwide concert tour by The Rolling Stones. Staged in support of their album Bridges to Babylon, the tour visited stadiums from 1997 to 1998. It grossed over $274 million, becoming the second-highest-grossing tour at that time, behind their own Voodoo Lounge Tour of 1994–1995. The Bridges to Babylon Tour was followed by 1999's No Security Tour.
Contents
- The rolling stones gimme shelter live official promo
- Bridges to babylon tour press conference rolling stones
- History
- The Rolling Stones
- Additional musicians
- References
Bridges to babylon tour press conference rolling stones
History
The tour was announced in a press conference held underneath the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.
The tour began on 9 September 1997 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and comprised fifty-six shows in North America, nine shows in South America, six shows in Japan and thirty-seven shows in Europe. It concluded on 19 September 1998 in Istanbul, Turkey. Five shows were cancelled (in Marseilles, Paris, Lyon, Bilbao and Gijón), and five more were postponed (in Italy, Ireland and Great Britain).
The production was designed by Mark Fisher, Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger and Patrick Woodroffe. The show opened with a circular central screen exploding with fireworks, from which guitarist Keith Richards emerged playing the classic riff from "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". The stage design included a 46 m (150 ft) long telescoping cantilever bridge that extended from the main stage to a 'B' stage in the center of the field.
One of the innovations on this tour was the "web vote": Fans who had purchased a ticket could vote for a song which they wanted to hear. If a song was picked by the web vote 4 shows in a row it became a permanent part of the set list ("Gimme Shelter" was added early on in the tour and "Under My Thumb" came one shy of 4 on 6 occasions, but never was requested for 4 consecutive shows). A few shows had no web vote (for example at the Brazil shows where the band performed a duet with Bob Dylan on "Like a Rolling Stone").
This was the first tour where a B-stage was featured at most shows (they had used one on the Voodoo Lounge Tour, but only at one show). The band normally played three numbers on the B-stage, with the exception of the final show where only two songs were played there.
The Bridges to Babylon Tour was the second-highest-grossing tour at the time, behind their own record-breaking 1994–1995 Voodoo Lounge Tour. It was believed 4.577 million people attended the tour over the 108 shows: 2.02 million in Europe, 2.009 million in North America, 348,000 in Argentina and Brazil, and 200,000 in Japan. The tour reached 25 countries and is the second–largest North American tour of all time – second to the Rolling Stones' 2005–2007 A Bigger Bang Tour.
The tour is documented by a concert album called No Security and a DVD release of the St. Louis, Missouri show. In 1999 the band commenced another tour called the No Security Tour, which played much smaller venues and fewer destinations.