8 Wednesday January 19 2022 | the times
arts
it’s the other way around.” Def
Leppard played on Fridays, Saturdays
and Wednesdays, “so on Sunday,
Monday and Tuesdays you’re off
golfing, writing new songs and just
hanging out”.
During their first residency Elliott
and his bandmates stayed in hotel
rooms in Vegas, which proved to be
a mistake. “They offer you
accommodation but the big stars will
never take it because you just don’t
know who’s gonna be next door,” he
says. “We had to get security guards to
check the corridor and if it was clear
we’d run like hell to get our key in the
door before somebody clocks us and
bangs on the door all night looking
for a party.” The second time around,Viva Las Vegas!
Why the stars
head for Sin City
Adele is joining the fleet of singers who have realised
that residencies on the Strip are fun, family-friendly
— and bring in big bucks, says Ed Potton
It’s unclear whether Adele will live
in Vegas or commute back to Beverly
Hills. Either way, she will not be away
from Angelo, her nine-year-old son,
for long. Dion decided to move to
the area, buying a mansion in
Henderson, Nevada, a 20-minute
drive from Vegas, which let her be
near her three children. “Vegas has
given me a motherhood!” she told
Today last year (her interviews are
as mushy as her songs). “It gave me
an opportunity to be a mum, for
them to be kids, for me to perform
for my fans and every night come
home. That is rare.”
“It’s a great life,” Elliott says.
“Having toured around shitholes for
40-odd years, to take a month whereF
rank Sinatra once said:
“Las Vegas is the only
place I know where
money really talks. It
says ‘Goodbye’.” Unless,
that is, you’re a music
star, in which case it
says a sunny: “Hello! Can
I introduce you to a lorry load of my
friends?” While dollars flow from the
tens of millions of punters who visit
Sin City each year, those who play
residencies there are guaranteed to
land a jackpot. For almost 80 years
musicians have been making Vegas
their temporary home, from Liberace
to Sinatra, Elvis Presley to Celine
Dion, Britney Spears to Lady Gaga.
The latest to board this diamanté-
encrusted gravy train is Adele, who
this week starts a 12-week run at the
4,000-capacity Colosseum of Caesars
Palace Hotel. She will be playing two
shows a weekend until April, with each
date earning her a reputed £1.4 million.
Tickets have been changing hands
for more than £30,000 each. Even that
is dwarfed by Dion, whose Vegas
residencies in 2003-07 and 2011-19
generated more than half a billion
pounds in ticket sales. Under the
terms of her present deal, Dion will
earn another £200 million for shows
there over the next five years.
So a residency in Vegas is
eye-wateringly lucrative, and it’s also
convenient. “It’s the only time that
the audience comes to you,” says Joe
Elliott, the singer of Def Leppard, who
did residencies there in 2013 and 2019.
Basing yourself at one venue allows
acts to avoid the grind, stress and
uncertainty of touring, and familiarity
with the stage set-up means they
don’t have to soundcheck every night.
Plus, Los Angeles is only an hour’s
flight away. “When Rod Stewart was
doing his residency, apparently he
borrowed a plane off the promoter
and after his gig on the Saturday night
would fly back to LA and he’d be back
in his own bed,” Elliott says.
There are downsides, including the
bone-dry air of the Nevada desert.
“That is a killer for singers,” Elliott
says. “I had to fill my bath with boiling
water every night and put kettles and
humidifiers all over the place, so you
wake up drowned.” Dion had the same
problem, which her hosts solved by
spending hundreds of thousands of
dollars on humidifiers on stage and in
her home. Elliott advises Adele, who
has cancelled shows in the past after
damaging her vocal cords, to “enjoy
the fact that you will be travelling
very little but for God’s sake get
a humidifier in your room”.