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"Having played eighty shows across the U.S. this past year, U2 are the top concert earners for 2001, bringing home $109.7 million according to concert trade publication Pollstar. The Elevation Tour was in support of last year&amp;apos;s critically acclaimed All That You Can&amp;apos;t Leave Behind.\r\n&amp;quot;It would be amazing to have a show that had a really simply straightforward rock &amp;amp; roll band and then to take that somewhere else and into some sort of extraordinary moment visually,&amp;quot; the Edge told Rolling Stone last October, while the Elevation was still in the planning stages. The stripped down philosophy -- in stark contrast to the band&amp;apos;s lavish Pop Mart tour of 1997 -- paid off, as the Elevation Tour is also the second best-selling tour of all time. The Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge tour is still the highest grossing at $121.2 million.\r\nFollowing U2 on the list of 2001&amp;apos;s highest-grossing tour is &amp;apos;N Sync, who played forty-three shows this year and took in $86.6 million, besting their own numbers from last year when they took home $76.4 million; the Backstreet Boys who played a whopping ninety-eight shows this year and took home $82.1 million; the Dave Matthews Band (fifty-one shows, $60.5 million); and Elton John/Billy Joel (thirty-one shows, $57.2 million). Rounding out the top ten are Madonna ($54.7 million), Aerosmith ($49.3 million), Janet Jackson ($42.1 million), Eric Clapton ($36.6 million) and Neil Diamond ($35.4 million).\r\nOverall concert ticket sales reached $1.75 billion, with the average ticket price at $47.66, both figures slightly higher than last year&amp;apos;s $1.7 billion and $43.75.\r\n7. Incredible Moses Leroy, Electric Pocket Radio (Ultimatum): This young, African-American singer-songwriter-producer-multi-instrumentalist knows pop as well as he does his bedroom studio. A major talent waiting to explode."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/u2-2001s-top-touring-act-20011228>