By Ricardo Baca
Denver Post Pop Music Critic
The Police may have been the big winners at Thursday night’s Billboard Touring Awards, but Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre also took home a big honor.
After its biggest season to date, Red Rocks was awarded Billboard Magazine’s top amphitheater award at the ceremony Thursday night at New York’s Roosevelt Hotel. It’s an honor for the natural outdoor amphitheater in Morrison, but industry trademag Pollstar actually named its small outdoor venue award “the Red Rocks award” after the venue won it repeatedly. This year’s top arena honor went to New York’s Madison Square Gardens, and the top club nod went to Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club.
Red Rocks hosted a record-breaking 86 events in 2007, 68 of which were concerts. The 9,450-capacity venue is an intimate amphitheater, but it still smashed the attendance of much larger amphitheaters across the U.S. this past season because it was in use so often.
Part of the reason the amphitheater got so much use was because there were so many artists touring this summer who were a natural fit for Red Rocks. Two Bob Dylan dates; the inaugural, two-day Monolith Festival; and the String Cheese Incident’s four-day goodbye stint helped fill the seats.
Another reason for the amphitheater’s packed schedule was the changing climate of local promoters. This was promoter Chuck Morris’ first full summer season in his new seat as chief executive at AEG Live Rocky Mountains. He left Live Nation last September to head up AEG’s local branch, and both Morris and his competitors at Live Nation booked Red Rocks aggressively — and successfully — this year.
The Police’s reunion tour was the toast of Thursday’s Billboard awards, which are based on the Billboard Boxscore chart and actual box office performance from Jan. 1, 2007-Sept. 30, 2007. The Police won the top tour and top draw awards for grossing more than $171 million and selling more than 1.5 million tickets to 53 shows.
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
