divide tour 2019

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Ed Sheeran breaks U2's record for highest-grossing tour ever

Suffolk singer’s Divide tour has generated over $736m (£607m), and still has 12 dates left to run

Ed Sheeran’s Divide Tour has been named the highest-grossing tour of all time, breaking a record set by U2 that had stood for eight years.

Coming off the back of the chart-topping album of the same name, the Divide tour began in March 2017, and will have encompassed 255 shows when it finishes with four homecoming gigs in Ipswich later this month. So far it has grossed $736m (£607m), breaking U2 ’s record of $735m, with 12 dates still left to play.

It has also been named the most attended tour of all time: when it finishes, more than 8.5m people across 43 countries will have seen Sheeran perform, breaking U2’s record of 7.3m.

Writing on Instagram , Sheeran said: “Thanks so much for each and every one of you who have come to a show. 12 shows left, will never forget it.”

Sheeran’s manager Stuart Camp told Pollstar , who amassed the tour data: “What Ed has accomplished is truly incredible … to even be in the same ballpark as [U2] or spoken in the same sentence with a touring act like that is very humbling”.

U2’s record was set in 2011 by their 110-date 360° tour. Rather than focusing on stadiums as U2 did, Sheeran has included more intimate arenas – his average concert attendance is 34,541, around half U2’s 66,091 average. He also rejected VIP areas and sold tickets at a relatively low price, 14.2% lower on average than U2’s, but the sheer number of dates has ensured the record was broken nonetheless.

Sheeran found time to record a new album during the tour, No 6 Collaborations Project , featuring all-star collaborations with the likes of Cardi B, Bruno Mars, Stormzy, Eminem and Justin Bieber. It was released on 12 July and is currently No 1 in the UK and US, while two of its singles, I Don’t Care and Beautiful People, have topped the UK singles chart.

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Ed Sheeran's Divide Tour sets three records ahead of final shows

Ed Sheeran's third world concert tour, ÷ [ Divide ] Tour , has proved incredibly popular. So popular in fact, it's earned him three Guinness World Records titles.

As his show enters its final stages, the ever-popular singer-songwriter has achieved the highest attendance for a music tour , highest-grossing music tour by a solo artist and highest-grossing music tour .

Named after his chart-topping album, the tour began in March 2017. By the time it ends in Ipswich (UK) on 26 August, Sheeran will have completed a staggering 260-date musical trek across six continents. 

The tour reportedly became the most profitable music tour of all time after notching up a gross of $736.7 million (£666.2 million) at the 250th show at Messegelände Hannover (Hanover Fairground) in Germany on 2 August this year. 

This lucrative journey has beaten the previous highest-grossing tour, U2's 360° Tour ($736,421,584 – or £450,031,000 – from 110 shows between June 2009 and July 2011), with a handful of dates to spare.

The record for highest attendance for a music tour , which Sheeran achieved during the same tour, was surpassed in France on 24 May 2019 when a show at the Groupama Stadium in Lyon eclipsed U2's attendance figures, raising the benchmark from 7,272,046 to 8.1 million people.

Due to Sheeran's heady talents, the UK along with the USA lead the way in Guinness World Records 2020 for 'Live Music' related records. 

The  ÷   Tour had already made it into the annual for the highest-grossing music tour in a single year , generating $429.5 m (£336.6 m) from 99 shows in 2018 while Sheeran's friend and collaborator, Taylor Swift, also features having achieved the  highest-grossing music tour by a female artist (current year) . 

Swift’s Reputation Stadium Tour grossed $345.7 million (£269.4 million) in 2018, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. The American superstar's fifth concert tour, in support of her 2017 album of the same name, was also the second-highest-grossing tour of 2018 after Sheeran’s ÷ Tour .

Power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z, aka The Carters, also appear in the new book having achieved the record for highest-grossing music tour by a duo (current year) . 

Their On the Run II Tour grossed $253.5 million (£195.2 million) from 48 shows in 2018, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. 

The American duo kicked off their second co-headlining stadium tour at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium in Wales, UK, on 6 June 2018, with the final performance taking place at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Washington, USA, on 4 October 2018.

For a full listing of all the amazing music records, make sure you grab your copy of Guinness World Records 2020 !

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Exclusive: Ed Sheeran’s ‘Divide Tour’ To Break U2’s All-Time Touring Record Tonight

• Pollstar Staff
• 6:00 pm, Friday, 08/02/2019

After topping Pollstar’s 2018 Year End Top 100 Worldwide Tours chart , it seemed only a matter of time before Ed Sheeran’s “Divide Tour” would catch up to and surpass U2’s all-time record-setting “360 Tour” as it continued into 2019. Now, Pollstar can project that, on Aug. 2, Ed Sheeran’s “Divide Tour” will officially break U2’s record at Messegelände in Hannover, Germany, the 246th show of Sheeran’s nearly two-and-a-half year global trek. Pollstar forecasts the tour’s total gross will reach $736.7 million, surpassing U2’s record $735.4 million set on July 30, 2011, a towering accomplishment many thought would never be broken. “I just found out the Divide tour is now the highest-grossing tour of all time, this is amazing!” says Ed Sheeran. “I feel very lucky to have experienced all of the wonderful countries and crowds over the past 2 ½ years. Thank you to the fans and everyone who made it possible.” Sheeran, along with a powerful international and domestic team led by manager Stuart Camp, employed a novel touring strategy which combined a high number of shows, multiple stadium and arena plays and relatively low-priced tickets. The “Divide” tour’s final show tally is forecasted at 255 running from March 16, 2017, to Aug. 26, 2019, for a total of 893 days and the final four shows set for Aug. 23-26 in Ipswich, England, near Sheeran’s Suffolk hometown. This compared with the U2 360 Tour’s 110 shows and which ran from June 30, 2009 through July 30, 2011 for 760 days. Yet, the “Divide” tour’s reasonable $86.75 average ticket price was the lowest of last year’s Top Ten of Pollstar ’s 2018 Year End Top 100 Worldwide Tours chart and the No. 1 tour. The tour also had no VIP ticketing and mounted an aggressive campaign against scalpers and the secondary market. The tour’s average ticket price was 14.2% lower than U2’s $101.15 average for its “360 Tour.” The sheer volume of “Divide” shows meant the tour surpassed U2’s total attendance record earlier than the gross sales record despite having a lower average attendance of 34,541 per show, nearly half of U2’s 360’s 66,091 average. On May 24, at Groupama Stadium in Decines-Charpieu, France, the tour topped U2’s attendance record of 7.3 million with a total attendance at 7,315,970. “Divide” total attendance is projected to finish up at 8,504,493 .  “What Ed has accomplished is truly incredible,” said Stuart Camp, Sheeran’s longtime manager. “I thought we might have a shot at having the highest attendance record but not the highest grossing tour.” It also turns out that Camp is a massive fan of a certain Irish quartet.

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• Live Concert Industry

Ed Sheeran’s Divide Tour Is Officially the Highest-Grossing Concert Tour of All Time, Beating Out U2’s 360 Tour

Ed Sheeran’s ongoing Divide Tour just became the highest-grossing tour of all time — and counting.  Ticket prices were far lower than most other top-ranked tours.

The ranking comes from Pollstar, which emailed its findings to Digital Music News this morning.

According to the concert tracking company, Ed Sheeran’s Divide Tour crossed $736.7 million in estimated gross revenues today (Friday, August 2nd) with its stop in Hannover, Germany.  That beats U2’s all-time record of $735.4 million, set on July 30th, 2011.

Sheeran’s tally is still going, however, with the final dates slated for August 23-26 in Ipswich, England.  Overall, Sheeran’s Divide Tour has been going for more than two years, with roughly 255 shows spanning 893 days.

That span is impressively long, but it makes the comparison to U2 a bit difficult. U2’s 360 Tour had far fewer dates — 110 shows total — but it also stretched an impressive 760 days from June 30th, 2009 to July 30th, 2011. Both tours were longer than two years, however, with U2 focusing on fewer dates with far higher prices.

The ticket pricing differences are notable, and not just in comparison to U2.

According to Pollstar, the average ticket price on Divide is $86.75, which is actually cheap compared to most big-name tours.  By comparison, the average ticket price for U2’s 360 tour was $101.15, which is actually $115.94 in 2019 inflation-adjusted dollars.

That’s a difference of nearly 34%, with far fewer U2 shows available by comparison.

Divide’s lower ticket price is more fitting for the 2019 industry, especially for younger crowds.

After all, most Ed Sheeran fans are also attending festivals and other outings, meaning that available disposable income can quickly become cramped. In one scenario, a single Coachella weekend can deplete $1,000 or more in funds, making it far more difficult to attend a single-artist event.

Accordingly, Sheeran was strategically smart to lower his prices. The result, however, was far greater ticket sales volume, which ultimately beat U2’s math. “I thought we might have a shot at having the highest attendance record but not the highest-grossing tour,” remarked Ed Sheeran’s manager, Stuart Camp.

Camp also had a long thank you list, with an army of agencies, touring companies, and other specialists putting Divide together across multiple continents. The list includes CAA’s Jon Ollier, Paradigm’s Marty Diamond, MTG’s Louis Messina, Frontier’s Michael Gudinski, FK Scorpio’s Folkert Koopmans, Kilimanjaro’s Stuart Galbraith and Steve Tilley, Dan Ealam of DHP Family, Simon Jones at AEG as well as tour manager Mark Friend and production manager Chris Marsh.

Meanwhile, Sheeran himself is staring at another smashing threshold.

At just 28, it’s speculated that the singer-songwriter could become a billionaire before age 30 , and Divide’s receipts certainly aren’t hurting Sheeran’s chances.

4 Responses

So he makes more than most musicians combined. Does anyone think he is more talented than almost all the musicians in the world combined? Time for a music revolution and a media that will dare to talk about it, the biggest news in music.

PPl love his music so that we cannot deny.

This is great but once you factor in the time value of money, it is not the highest given that 7 or 8 years has passed since the record it beat. So while it may have beat it, when you take into account TVM, it did not.

Movies do two charts that show with and without time value. This should be done here. 🙂

Ed has worked hard. No doubt about it. He is amazing. But a few items people don’t know about below: 1. Ed makes more than other musicians because..well…he does not have a band when he performs. It’s him, and a loop pedal. No money goes towards band members, band leader, etc. Which means he gets all the profit from the shows, which is how artists make their money. 2. I appreciate the lower-price strategy but can’t help but wonder if it’s because the production for his shows are very basic and a combination of him having a goal of having the highest tour gross of all time. Lowering prices were most likely to sell seats…not because of the actual target audience. Either way, he can sell tickets, no doubt about it. But setting them low helped him secure attendance.

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Ed Sheeran’s Divide Tour Sets New All-Time Touring Record

Ed Sheeran’s record-smashing Divide tour concluded last night and Pollstar can officially confirm that it’s the highest-grossing tour of all time, reaching an overall gross of $775.6 million from 8.9 million tickets sold on six continents. The previous record was U2’s 360 tour, which reached $735.3 over the span of two years.

The final show (Monday, Aug. 26) was one of four held at Chantry Park in Ipswich, England, near Sheeran’s hometown. That four-night stand grossed $12.9 million on 139,984 tickets.

Sheeran reached No. 1 on the list of the all-time top-grossing tours earlier this month on Aug. 2 with the first night of a two-show run at Messegelände, a fairgrounds and outdoor exhibition area in Hannover, Germany. Sales from the first show took the Divide tour’s overall gross to $736.8 million, surpassing the gross record held by U2 for eight years. The Irish band earned a record-setting $735.3 million on the 360 tour that ran from Feb. 2009 through July 2011.

Following Sheeran and U2 are three tours in the $500 million range on the tally of all-time top grossers. Guns N’ Roses currently holds the third spot on the list with the band’s ongoing Not In This Lifetime… tour that is set to make a sweep through North American markets this fall. Overall tour grosses currently top the $560 million range but the band’s No. 3 all-time ranking will solidify as the tour progresses.

Pollstar’s Top-Grossing Tours of All-Time

Artist - Tour Name - Year(s) - Gross (in millions) - Tickets Sold (in millions) - # of shows

• Ed Sheeran - Divide - 2017-2019 - $775.6 - 8.9 - 255
• U2 - 360 - 2009-2011 - $735.3 - 7.2 - 110
• Guns N' Roses - Not In This Lifetime... - 2016-ongoing - $561.1 - 5.1 - 145
• The Rolling Stones - A Bigger Bang - 2005-2007 - $558.2 - 4.6 - 144
• Coldplay - A Head Full of Dreams - 2017-2017 - $523.0 - 5.3 - 114
• Roger Waters - The Wall Live - 2010-2013 - $460.2 - 4.1 - 220
• AC/DC - Black Ice - 2008-2010 - $441.9 - 4.9 - 165
• Madonna - Sticky & Sweet - 2008-2009 - $411.1 - 3.5 - 85
• U2 - Vertigo - 2005-2006 - $395.6 - 4.6 - 131
• Pink - Beautiful Trauma - 2018-ongoing - $380.3 - 3.0 – 154

The Rolling Stones were the first to smash the all-time highest-grossing tour record in this century, setting the bar high in 2007 after the completion of A Bigger Bang, the iconic rock band’s two-year trek that earned more than $558 million. Coldplay joined the top five in 2017 with an overall take that also topped half-a-billion dollars from A Head Full of Dreams tour, the band’s worldwide trek that included performances in 2016 and 2017.

The “Divide” tour spanned almost two-and-a-half years with 255 performances and broke a number of records around the world, including:

Denmark: Most tickets sold for one artist in one day.

France: Most concerts in the same stadium.

Ireland: Ed’s stadium tour of Ireland in May 2018 was the biggest tour in Irish history.

Scotland: Most amount of tickets sold ever at Glasgow Hampden Park.

Wales: First artist to sell out 4 consecutive nights; fastest selling artist in venue history.

South America: First artist ever to play three dates at Sao Paulo’s Allianz Stadium on one tour.

South Africa: Biggest ever and highest grossing tour with 225,000 tickets sold.

Jakarta: Biggest concert in its history.

Kuala Lumpur : Biggest concert in its history.

Hong Kong : Biggest-ever outdoor concerts.

Australia & New Zealand:

Highest ticket sales for a single concert tour in Australia.

Highest ticket sales for a single concert tour in New Zealand.

Biggest stadium tour of Australia and New Zealand.

Austria: First artist who played four stadium shows in one tour and one year

Latvia: Riga show with 50,437 sold tickets was the best ever attended international artist show in Latvia ever, as well as the highest-grossing.

Iceland: Most tickets sold at the biggest shows in Iceland’s history with one in seven of the population attending.

Portugal : Most amount of tickets sold in Portugal’s history by an international artist.

Spain: First and only artist who has sold out the three venues at the Anella Olímpica (Olympic Ring) in Barcelona one after the other – in straight succession.

Czech Republic : Best-selling international artist in the entire history of the Czech Republic with more than 142k tickets sold for his two Prague shows.

Finland: The Helsinki shows on 23 and 24 July 2019 in front of 108,000 fans were the largest concerts ever staged in Finland.

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Tour Divide 2019

June 14, 2019 @ 8:00 am,  alberta, canada    2745mi (4,418km).

Next Event Sat Dec 23, 2017

Next Event:

2019 Navad 1000

The 2019 Tour Divide takes place on Friday, June 14th at 8AM. Race the length of Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, from Banff to New Mexico, 2,745 miles of ultra-endurance bikepacking.

Date: June 14, 2019

Time: 8:00 am

Event Website

Tour Divide Grand Depart

Banff , Alberta Canada

The Tour Divide roughly follows the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) is the most recognized and important off-pavement cycling route in the United States, if not the world. The route crisscrosses the Continental Divide from north to south starting in Banff, Alberta, Canada and finishing at the US/Mexico border in Antelope Wells, New Mexico.

Time-trial season on the GDMBR begins annually with Grand Départ, occurring on the second Friday in June from both termini of the Route; the main Depart takes place in Bannf, Alberta. The Tour Divide see hundreds of riders each year, with the goal of these Solstice common starts is for athletes to challenge the Route in situ, under similar weather conditions and maximum daylight. If one cannot make a grand départ, there is a season-long ITT-Divide format to contend. Tour Divide requires no entry fee or formal registration. There are no prizes for finishing. Riders who carry SPOT GPS Messengers are tracked via the Live tracker.

For more on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, check out our guide, here . Also, find the Rigs of the 2019 Tour Divide here , and check out #tour-divide for many more articles and resources.

Timing and Records

It’s a small and select group of athletes.  Here are your Grand Depart winners since the inception of the race in 2008.

Men: Matthew Lee – 19:12:00 Women : Mary Collier – 29:17:37

Men: Matthew Lee – 17:23:45 Women: Jill Homer – 24:07:24

Men: Matthew Lee – 17:16:10 Women: Cricket Butler – 26:09:36

Men: Kurt Refsnider – 15:20:51 Women: Caroline Soong – 22:09:59

Men: Ollie Whalley (R) – 16:02:54 Women: Eszter Horanyi – 19:03:35

Men : Mike Hall – 14:11:55 Women: Sara Dallman – 22:19:05

Men: Jefe Branham – 16:02:39 Women:  Alice Drobna (SS) – 22:06:36

Men: Josh Kato – 14:11:37 Women: Bethany Dunne – 19:02:37

Men: Mike Hall – 13:22:51 Woman: Jackie Bernardi – 19:21:41

Men: Brian Lucido – 14:22:50 Women: Marketa Peggy Marvanova – 22:18:04

Men: Lewis Ciddor – 15:02:08 Women: Alexandera Houchin – 23:03:51

Notable ITT’s

Jay Petervary – 2011 – 17:09:01 Jay Petervary – 2012 – 15:16:04 Billy Rice – 2013 – Yo-Yo (NoBo & SoBo) 44:42:00 Lael Wilcox – 2015  – 15:10:59

Current Records

Men:  Mike Hall – 2016 – 13:22:51 Women: Lael Wilcox – 2015 – 15:10:59

(*) Year with a re-route, race records could not be made; (R) Rookie; (SS) Single Speed.

Event image by Matt & Brett, A View From Two Wheels. 

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Tour divide 2019.

Banff, AB, Canada

Running from Banff in Canada to Antelope Wells on the Mexican border, the Tour Divide is for many the halo event of Bikepack Ultraracing. With both South Bound and North Bound riders racing self-supported across approx. 2,745 miles (4,420km) of the ACA's Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, with a few diversions to spice it up. The 2019 edition had perhaps the deepest starting field ever, with prior winners of Tour Divide, TCR, TransAm, Terra Australis and Italy Divide all lining up. This year's race was epic!

14:00, 14 June, 2019

Distance — Elevation

2745 miles — 44,400m

Chris Seistrup

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Ed Sheeran Celebrates Record-Breaking Divide Tour in Triumphant Post: ‘Biggest Of All Time’

Ed Sheeran's Divide Tour officially ended on Aug. 26, and now Sheeran is taking to Instagram to celebrate the two-and-a-half year run.

By Kirsten Spruch

Kirsten Spruch

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Ed Sheeran ‘s Divide Tour officially ended on Aug. 26, and now Sheeran is taking to Instagram to celebrate the two-and-a-half year run.

“9 million people, 893 days, 46 countries, 175 cities, 260 shows, 268 touring crew, 193265 miles travelled, 2 broken arms, 3 marriages, 4 babies. What a wild ride this Divide tour has been,” he wrote.

Sheeran went on to explain the process and how he wrote Divide  in 2015, then recorded and promoted it the following year. “It’s so weird to put it to bed and move on,” he continued, before thanking everyone who helped during the process. “Most of all I want to thank my fantastic touring team, who have given up their lives for 2 and a half years to help me achieve my dreams. Thank you for all of your hard work and constant friendship.”

See latest videos, charts and news

Ed Sheeran's Record-Breaking Divide Tour Posts Final Numbers: 255 Shows, $776.2 Million Grossed

“The Divide tour – 2017 -2019. Officially the biggest tour of all time, so weird to say that, and we survived it !” Sheeran concluded.

Trending on Billboard

The Divide Tour truly is the biggest tour of all time. It began on March 17, 2016, went for 255 dates, and grossed a record-setting $776.2 million according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore — making it the highest-grossing tour of all time.

See the triumphant post below.

        View this post on Instagram                   9 million people, 893 days, 46 countries, 175 cities, 260 shows, 268 touring crew, 193265 miles travelled, 2 broken arms, 3 marriages, 4 babies. What a wild ride this Divide tour has been. The whole process of writing the album starting in 2015, then recording it in 2016, promoting it, setting out on the road to play it for all of you guys. It’s so weird to put it to bed and move on. Thank you to everyone involved in this whole Divide process, all the people who helped make the album, all the people who helped promote the album, all the fans who listened and came to watch, this wouldn’t be possible without you. Most of all I want to thank my fantastic touring team, who have given up their lives for 2 and a half years to help me achieve my dreams. Thank you for all of your hard work and constant friendship. The Divide tour – 2017 -2019. Officially the biggest tour of all time, so weird to say that, and we survived it ! A post shared by Ed Sheeran (@teddysphotos) on Aug 28, 2019 at 8:47am PDT

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Ed Sheeran Announces 18-Month Hiatus From Music

The 28-year-old singer called the end of his 'Divide' tour 'bittersweet.'

Ed Sheeran is getting ready to take a break.

At the final show of his  Divide tour on Monday, the 28-year-old singer revealed that he planned to take a break from music for a while. According to The Sun , Sheeran told the crowd in Ipswich, England, that it would be his "last gig for probably 18 months."

"As you may or may not know, I’ve been on the Divide tour for over two years now and this is the last day of the whole thing," he reportedly told the crowd of his tour, which kicked off in Italy back in March 2017. "There is something very bittersweet about it. I love that you guys are here and we are ending it in Ipswich. This is my last gig for probably 18 months."

He went on to detail his massive tour, during which, he said, he played in front of nine million people. According to Pollstar , his Divide tour was the highest-grossing tour of all time, reaching a staggering overall gross of $775.6 million from 8.9 million tickets sold on six continents.

"We’ve played all around the world. Glastonbury, Wembley Stadium. All these amazing venues, America, New Zealand, Australia, Asia, South America — it’s been a wild one," he said, according to the outlet. "I was told before I came on that now at the end of this tour I’ve played to nine million people around the world. It is the biggest tour ever."

"It’s been an emotional day for a lot of people backstage. It kind of feels like, in a weird way, that you’re breaking up with a girlfriend that you’ve been with for years," he added. "It sounds odd but it has been a long tour."

In an Instagram post on Wednesday, Sheeran reflected on the massive tour.

"9 million people, 893 days, 46 countries, 175 cities, 260 shows, 268 touring crew, 193265 miles traveled, 2 broken arms, 3 marriages, 4 babies. What a wild ride this Divide tour has been," he wrote alongside pics of his tour crew. "The whole process of writing the album starting in 2015, then recording it in 2016, promoting it, setting out on the road to play it for all of you guys. It’s so weird to put it to bed and move on."

"Thank you to everyone involved in this whole Divide process, all the people who helped make the album, all the people who helped promote the album, all the fans who listened and came to watch, this wouldn’t be possible without you," he continued. "Most of all I want to thank my fantastic touring team, who have given up their lives for 2 and a half years to help me achieve my dreams. Thank you for all of your hard work and constant friendship."

"The Divide tour - 2017 -2019," he concluded. "Officially the biggest tour of all time, so weird to say that, and we survived it!"

Additionally, in a post to his Instagram Story on Wednesday, Sheeran assured his fans that his break from music would be temporary.

"I'm not bloody retiring either, press are being over dramatic," Sheeran, who confirmed in July that he and Cherry Seaborn had tied the knot, wrote. "I'm having 18 months off to make another album and hang out with my cats."

Watch the video below for more on Sheeran.

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Ed Sheeran Sets New All-Time Touring Record with Support from Meyer Sound LEO Family

We were fortunate that on this tour we were able to take Major Tom’s Meyer PA with us almost everywhere. We’ve taken it on and off airplanes a dozen times, in and out of ocean-going containers eight times, plus through torrential rain and heavy winds and even sand pits. And that same system is still going, which is a massive accolade for Meyer Sound.”

Chris Marsh Ed Sheeran Production Manager and FOH Engineer

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Ed Sheeran’s epic ÷ (“Divide”) Tour has been elevated to Pollstar’s highest ranking tour of all time, handily outdistancing the old marks for both tour gross receipts and attendance totals. As has been the case since the globe-circling odyssey launched in 2017, Sheeran’s veteran audio crew relies on a Meyer Sound LEO Family system to ensure an intimate, one-to-one audio connection between the appealing pop icon and his legions of devoted fans.

Production Manager and FOH Engineer Chris Marsh, who has been with Sheeran since his first headline tour in 2011, has tapped Meyer Sound’s LEO Family as his preferred audio reinforcement solution since 2013. A system provided by UK-based Major Tom, Ltd. accompanied the tour, and was deployed for all shows except for a handful of the more scattered “one-off” performances.

“We started using LEO on the earlier arena tours before we got into stadiums, and the first thing that was really noticeable was headroom,” Marsh recalls. “It seemed like we never would run out of it. Also, the clarity and definition are exceptional. Ed’s looping has many layers to it, and sometimes other PAs just seemed to make noise. With LEO there is a separation in the mix I can’t find in the other systems I’ve worked with.”

Marsh also finds that the LEO Family solution makes it easy to live with himself whilst wearing the two hats as FOH engineer and production manager. “Yes, as FOH engineer I want to have the sound of the LEO Family, and fortunately I can sell that to my production manager hat by the fact that it takes up less truck space. Of course they also take less space by the side of the stage, and in the past we’ve had issues finding space for that extra infrastructure on shows where we couldn’t bring the Meyer PA.”

In its current incarnation, the ÷ (“Divide”) Tour system is built around four main hangs of 18-each LEO line array loudspeakers, augmented on the low end by nine flown 1100‑LFC low frequency control elements plus 24 1100-LFC elements on the ground in dual end-fire arrays. Stage front and fill systems comprise LINA and UPA-1P loudspeakers. Delays are MILO line array loudspeakers, 14 per hang, with LEOPARD line array loudspeakers added when required as delay ground fill.

A somewhat unusual twist on the tour’s final leg (#14) through Europe is the mix of large football stadiums and open “greenfield” sites — parks, fairgrounds and, in Helsinki, a decommissioned airfield. This venue strategy was occasioned, according to Marsh, by the difficulty in finding venues along the route able to accommodate the numbers dictated by ticket demand. It fell to Audio Systems Engineer Charlie Albin to ensure the system was re-adapted to different circumstances on a show-to-show basis.

“A flat greenfield site is simpler than what we do in a stadium, but there’s still work to be done with time and phase alignment, particularly where our main system blends into the delays,” Albin remarks. “Probably the biggest challenge is trying to balance a system of this size over considerable distances, and I’m lucky that with the LEO Family PA we have the tonality from the array is incredibly similar whether you sit 10 meters away from it or 100 meters away. That makes my life so much easier.”

A new addition to the Meyer Sound digital toolkit, Low Mid Beam Control (LMBC) in the latest version of Compass control software, also was welcomed by Albin. “LMBC has been a strong feature on this last campaign,” he attests. “It has enabled us to get smoother frequency response across the entire audience area, and we can do it without using as much EQ. Also, the new way of doing delay integration is a bit more consistent across the various loudspeakers, so it helps us combine the different elements of our PA smoothly.”

In his show-time role at FOH, Chris Marsh has enjoyed the frequent respite from the quirks and inconsistencies of stadium acoustics. “The LEO Family really comes into its own on a greenfield site, without all the interferences of stadium surfaces. I’m not forced to pull frequencies out with EQ to battle house acoustics. It gives me an opportunity to play with effects, as you can really hear the difference in parameters and every slight adjustment is clearly audible.”

It’s been a long and grueling odyssey since the record-breaking tour launched on March 16, 2017 in Turin, Italy. Although everybody is ready for an extended holiday, Sheeran and his crew remain energetic and exuberant to the end. And, except for Sheeran’s bicycle tumble arm fracture in 2017, the tour has been trouble-free personally and technically.

“We were fortunate that on this tour we were able to take Major Tom’s Meyer PA with us almost everywhere,” comments Marsh. “We’ve taken it on and off airplanes a dozen times, in and out of ocean-going containers eight times, plus through torrential rain and heavy winds and even sand pits. And that same system is still going, which is a massive accolade for Meyer Sound.”

The ÷ (“Divide”) Tour encompassed 255 shows, closing with three concerts in Ipswich, England on August 24 – 26. As of August 2, the tour had surpassed U2’s former record (for the “360 Tour”) by chalking up total ticket sales of $736 million, with twelve shows remaining. The tour is set to break attendance records as well, with 8.5 million coming to the shows compared to 7.3 million for U2. Although Sheeran’s ticket prices were lower than those for the U2 tour, he made up for it with the sheer number of shows scheduled.

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Ed Sheeran announces he's taking 18 months off and reflects on the 'wild ride' of his record-breaking 'Divide' tour

Ed Sheeran’s "Divide" tour ended its two-year run earlier this week, officially becoming the highest-grossing tour of all-time.

Now that the singer's had a few days to process it, he posted a message to Instagram on Wednesday reflecting on the "wild ride" and thanking his entire crew.

"The whole process of writing the album starting in 2015, then recording it in 2016, promoting it, setting out on the road to play it for all of you guys. It’s so weird to put it to bed and move on," he wrote.

He went on to acknowledge everyone involved in making and promoting the album, as well as all the fans who listened to the album and came out to see him on tour.

(MORE: Jennifer Lopez on turning 50: 'You don't get to write women off at a certain point in their life')

"Most of all I want to thank my fantastic touring team, who have given up their lives for 2 and a half years to help me achieve my dreams," he concluded the post. "Thank you for all of your hard work and constant friendship. The Divide tour - 2017 -2019. Officially the biggest tour of all time, so weird to say that, and we survived it!"

He also noted that the tour lasted 893 days and those involved experienced "2 broken arms, 3 marriages" and "4 babies."

Sheeran and his crew traveled a total of 193,265 miles and visited 175 cities in 46 countries.

According to Billboard Boxscore , the tour sold 8.9 million tickets and grossed $776.2 million.

During his final hometown show in Ipswich, England, on Monday, Sheeran reportedly told the crowd it probably would be his last gig for 18 months. He later shared an Instagram story clarifying that the time span would be used "to make another album and hang out with my cats."

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