Which musician has performed the most gigs

[HOGEPH]

Just watching B.B. King on BBC4, never realised he's 85, and has performed over 15000 gigs.

Any suggestions for equally busy musicians? I suppose the Stones must have clocked up quite a few in their time.

[anonymous-user]

Think Sir Paul McCartney is fairly prolific

[lauda]

Bob Dylan is always on tour so I imagine he is well up there in terms of high profile acts that a lot of people would have heard of.

[amnesia182]

Status Quo LOL

[McSam]

Fifteen thousand?! What, one every single night for 41 years? Really?

[V100]

McSam said:

Fifteen thousand?! What, one every single night for 41 years? Really?

He will have done gigs before he made it as well you know.

[Animal]

He started performing in a church group at 13 (70-plus years!) and you can bet he's often played more than one show in a day.

I read an interview a little while ago in which he said he'd made some bad decisions early on and didn't own a lot of his music, hence him performing a lot to earn a living.

[55allgold]

Same with a lot of old-school blues players: if they didn't play, they didn't eat. Old fashioned 'sing for your supper' touring.

[audidoody]

These acts have been playing live solidly for 40 years:

Ray Davies
Stones
Paul Jones (Manfred Mann, Blues Band)
Springsteen
Robert Plant
Paul Rodgers
Eric Clapton

But I'd agree that Dylan is probably a front runner

[C2james]

V100 said:

McSam said:

Fifteen thousand?! What, one every single night for 41 years? Really?

He will have done gigs before he made it as well you know.

when bb king was starting out he played 300 gigs a year at one point.

[McSam]

C2james said:

V100 said:

McSam said:

Fifteen thousand?! What, one every single night for 41 years? Really?

He will have done gigs before he made it as well you know.

when bb king was starting out he played 300 gigs a year at one point.

Fair enough.. Of course it will have spanned much more than that 41 years, but it seems an absolutely colossal amount, doesn't it? Averages at a gig every other day for his whole life..

[Dracoro]

McSam said:

C2james said:

V100 said:

McSam said:

Fifteen thousand?! What, one every single night for 41 years? Really?

He will have done gigs before he made it as well you know.

when bb king was starting out he played 300 gigs a year at one point.

Fair enough.. Of course it will have spanned much more than that 41 years, but it seems an absolutely colossal amount, doesn't it? Averages at a gig every other day for his whole life..

But it's his job. I suspect many of us has worked 300 days (8 hours rather then 2 for a gig) a year for donkeys years. How is it, really, any different?

[Animal]

It tells you something about the man's popularity and enthusiasm for what he does...

[davepoth]

Dracoro said:

But it's his job. I suspect many of us has worked 300 days (8 hours rather then 2 for a gig) a year for donkeys years. How is it, really, any different?

It's not just two hours, once you add in all the travelling, press stuff, soundcheck, and partying.

Chances are that during the early days he would do more than one different gig per day.

[Dracoro]

davepoth said:

Dracoro said:

But it's his job. I suspect many of us has worked 300 days (8 hours rather then 2 for a gig) a year for donkeys years. How is it, really, any different?

It's not just two hours, once you add in all the travelling, press stuff, soundcheck, and partying.

Chances are that during the early days he would do more than one different gig per day.

Partying isn't work

I know what you mean, and I'm not trying to trivialise his achievements, just stating a bit of perspective. It's his job/career so no wonder he spends many hours a day on it.

[tubbystu]

C2james said:

when bb king was starting out he played 300 gigs a year at one point.

And he regularly played in excess of 200 a year for most of the 50's/60's/70's. 15,000 is easily possible.

At 85 he still has a 100+ shows a year schedule, that some much more youthful artists would shy away from.

Mind you he does have a 10 or 12 piece band, most of whom have been with him for many years - to fund, feed, hotel etc and many of his shows are small arena/theatre (circa 1,200 - 5,000 audience).

What else was he going to do ? Go back to badly driving a tractor NB: his words, not mine...........