The Rolling Stones A Bigger Bang tour, having kicked off in the autumn of 2005, and extended to honour dates postponed from earlier in the tour for various reasons – including falls from trees – finally wrapped on 26 August at the O2 in London. With the final, final figures in, the tour has, according to Billboard.biz, grossed a mind boggling $558,255,524 (€394,748,238) over half a US billion, making it easily the highest-grossing world tour ever, outselling U2's Vertigo, which racked up $389million (€275m) and their own $320m (€226m) Voodoo Lounge tour of 1994-95.

The Rolling Stones A Bigger Bang tour, having kicked off in the autumn of 2005, and extended to honour dates postponed from earlier in the tour for various reasons – including falls from trees – finally wrapped on 26 August at the O2 in London. With the final, final figures in, the tour has, according to Billboard.biz, grossed a mind boggling $558,255,524 (€394,748,238) over half a US billion, making it easily the highest-grossing world tour ever, outselling U2's Vertigo, which racked up $389million (€275m) and their own $320m (€226m) Voodoo Lounge tour of 1994-95.

The 144 Bigger Bang shows attracted a paying audience of 4,680,000 according to Stones tour producer Michael Cohl. "It was a long tour, but more than anything it was fantastic," Cohl told Billboard.biz. "We had to overcome a lot; this was like Homer's Odyssey. The accident in Fiji was part of this tour, it's not like it was some previous tour. There were all sorts of difficulties to overcome and it turned out to be just one amazing triumph."

Cohl recently sold the remaining interest in his promotions company CPI, including the merchandising and marketing divisions, to Live Nation. Cohl sits on the Live Nation board and has signed a five-year deal with the company and is quoted as saying, "I've come in from the cold, I'm full-time with the company. I'm about to become vice chairman, and I am the largest individual shareholder, so I'm there. I'm up to my neck in Live Nation.”