The Smiley Smile Message Board

I assume that the tour was a success financially?

Curiously, I didn't see or hear a lot about corporate sponsorship for this tour.  I had assumed that being a somewhat groundbreaking tour (50 years) and the fair amount of press generated, that a major sponsor would have jumped on board.

Was Mike's current agreement suspended for this tour, or was he in fact responsible for the same terms as required with the Mike and Bruce tours?

For the non-BRI participants, was this a lucrative gig?  I am thinking about Dave specifically..would this be a "game changer" for him financially?

We will never know who gets what and it is nobody's business but those involved but Al mentioned the tour turnover figure of $70m many months ago. That was before Australia and London were announced.

Going by Jons 'Lost Beach Boy' book, I think Dave would have done ok this year compared to his so called 'lost' years...and good luck too him!

I don't think we'll ever know much of any particulars. They surely made plenty of money by the standards of most "normal" folks. There was no evidence of poor ticket sales in any city from what I heard.

There has been discussion in other threads, mostly revolving around future potential Mike/Bruce gigs, that it's easily conceivable that Mike actually made less money on this reunion tour than he would on a typical Mike/Bruce BB tour, simply due to not having to split any proceeds (other than the licensing fee) with any other corporate BB members.

The total obvious but completely speculative take on it would be that Al and David made more touring this year than they have for some time (perhaps ever for David), but that has as much to do with the sheer lack of gigs those two guys have played in recent years. It's a total guess as to whether Brian made more than he usually does on his tours, although he certainly played more gigs in a short, compacted period of time on this tour than he usually does.

Others who have more inside info have stated that this tour was not produced under the normal Mike/Bruce production operation, but was produced by a "50 Big Ones" production company which involves some kind of partnership between Brian, Mike, and Joe Thomas.

I think the tour has been plenty successful, but some are fearing that we may not see another tour if it continues to be a lesser financial opportunity for Mike. Obviously, again speculation, is that Brian and Al (and Carl's estate) have some leverage in that if they really wanted to make sure only a reunion lineup tours in the future, they could vote to only allow the reunion lineup to have a license to use the name. I somehow doubt Carl's estate and Brian feel *that* strongly about continuing the "reunion" tour for numerous years, but we can hope!

Not to mention the extra cash the 5 guys made off their VIP meet & greets every night....

I think it's fair to say they all walked away with a nice 7-8 figure pay check