Talking of awards, it was also the Billboard Touring Awards in New York last night. These basically present awards based on previously released sales statistics, so it's not exactly a night of surprises.
The Rolling Stones' Bigger Bang tour took the top prizes - Top Draw, which is based on number of tickets sold (nearly 2 million), and Top Tour, which is based on amount of cash in the till (nearly $230 million). Madonna took the Top Boxscore Award for her $22 million eight day sell out run at London's Wembley Arena, while her management - Guy Oseary and Angela Becker - were presented with the Top Manager award. Kenny Chesney got the Top Package prize for his multi-artist Road And The Radio Tour, while Nickelback picked up the Breakthrough Act Award. On a corporate level, Live Nation won Top Promoter and Chicago's Jam Productions took the Top Independent Promoter Award.
Elsewhere, Elton John received a lifetime achievement style Legend Of Live award, while the Music Rising programme, the previously reported charitable initiative to help the music community affected by Hurricane Katrina last year, established by Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, producer Bob Ezrin and U2's the Edge, was presented with Billboard's Humanitarian Award.