(Credits: Far Out / Nationaal Archief)
In 2023, Ed Sheeran was taken to court by Marvin Gaye’s estate as they claimed he had copied the song ‘Let’s Get It On’ when writing his 2014 hit ‘Thinking Out Loud’. Sheeran was found not guilty of plagiarism, as it was held that while there were some similarities in the songs, it couldn’t be said that he had blatantly copied Gaye.
In a bid to prove that he hadn’t ripped the soul singer off, Ed Sheeran took his guitar into court and played a medley of different songs, all of which are recognised as individual but that use the same chord structure and rhythm. When discussing the similarities between the two songs, Ed Sheeran’s lawyer said that the chords were “The letters of the alphabet of music,” adding, “These are basic musical building blocks that songwriters now and forever must be free to use, or all of us who love music will be poorer for it.”
Sheeran’s lawyer is correct, but it begs the question, if a lot of the music we listen to is built atop the same foundation, and many songs replicate one another as a result, why do we continue listening to new stuff? Surely music has been completed at this point? What can a modern songwriter give me that the likes of Nina Simon, Marvin Gaye, Paul McCartney, and Brian Wilson couldn’t? Well, if you ask a lot of people, they’ll say nothing and argue modern music is rubbish, but if you ask more sensible people, they will give you a range of answers.
One of the most notable answers would be that a lot of heritage artists either aren’t alive or hardly tour anymore. There is a lot more to experiencing music than just listening to it. Going to a live show is something that no other art form can give you, as you stand in a room with like-minded individuals and strangers and find yourself connected by nothing more than another stranger and the songs they’ve written. It’s one of the most beautiful and profound feelings in the world, but it remains incredibly important.
If you ever doubt how important the live experience is, just look at how many bands have made a career out of persistently touring. Even if they haven’t released good music for decades, people still flock to see them live, as that connection with the rest of the crowd, hearing those songs performed in the flesh, is addictive. It begs the question, out of all the popular bands and artists out there, who has performed live the most?
So, which artist has played the most live gigs?
The question is much harder to work out than you might think. For instance, many artists will have played in small rooms before they had a sniff of success, and these will have likely performed the most out of everyone. However, in terms of tours that have been recorded and there is a paper trail of, the Rolling Stones are heads and shoulders above the rest of the competition when it comes to playing live.
Mick Jagger and Co have done a total of 51 world tours during their time as a band, which is mighty impressive but to be expected given how long the four-piece have been making music. Not far behind them are Bob Dylan and Elton John, with 47 and 44 world tours retrospectively. Just behind those two are Kiss and Led Zeppelin, who managed 31 world tours apiece.
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