- Former Beatle shares a £710million fortune with his wife Nancy Shevell
- Simon Cowell’s wealth is up by £50million to £300million
- Adele heads young music rich list with £45million
- One Direction share £70million fortune
Sir Paul McCartney, now 71 and still touring, has added £30m to the wealth he shares with his third wife, Nancy, 53. With Shevell’s £150m stake in her family’s American trucking operation, the couple’s fortune stands at £710m.
Rising quickly up the list is Simon Cowell, worth £300m. His contracts for ITV’s X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent have helped to boost his fortune by £50m in a year. The success of the Ministry of Sound record label and brand has helped to add £70m to the wealth of Lord Palumbo, the Liberal Democrat peer, who is now worth £270m.
The combined wealth of Irish band U2 is down by £92m at £428m after the retirement of Paul McGuinness, their former manager, who now appears in the Music Millionaires Rich List in his own right with a £104m fortune. However, the individual wealth of the four band members, Paul Hewson (Bono), Adam Clayton, Dave Evans (the Edge) and Larry Mullen, has gone up £3m each, as last year they shared a joint fortune of £520m with McGuinness.
Mohammad and Kamaliya Zahoor, worth £300m, join the music wealth chart on the strength of Ukranian singer Kamaliya’s burgeoning pop career, funded by her entrepreneur husband Mohammad, who is a British-Pakistani citizen. Music mogul Roger Ames, who runs part of Live Nation, the concert search engine, returns to the list with a £120m fortune. David Bowie’s latest album The Next Day, which reached No 1 in the UK last year, helped to boost his fortune by £20m and for the first time the £15m fortune of his wife Iman Abdulmajid has been included, to put the couple’s total wealth this year at £135m.
Take That singer Gary Barlow, who was worth just £30m in 2009, has added £5m to his wealth in the past year, bringing his personal fortune to £65m. No deduction has been made to his wealth for the recent court ruling on tax avoidance until the matter is fully resolved.
The full 2014 chart of the 50 wealthiest music millionaires in Britain and Ireland is published in The Sunday Times Rich List 2014 this Sunday, May 18.
THE TOP 10 RICHEST STARS
The top 10 richest music millionaires in Britain and Ireland according to the Sunday Times Rich List are:
- Sir Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell – £710million
- Andrew Lloyd Webber – £640million
- U2 – £428million
- Simon Fuller – £382million
- Simon Cowell – £300million
- Sir Elton John – £260million
- Sir Mick Jagger – £215million
- David and Victoria Beckham – £210million
- Keith Richards – £200million
- Michael Flatley – £193million
The top ten richest young music millionaires in Britain and Ireland:
- Adele – £45million
- Calvin Harris – £30million
- Cheryl Cole – £16million
- Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson – £14million
- Leona Lewis – £13million
- Marcus Mumford and Carey Mulligan – £13million
- Katie Melua – £12million
- Jessie J – £10million
- Florence Welch – £10million
- Alex Turner – £9million
Singer Adele, 26, heads the list of young musicians, aged 30 and under, with a £45m fortune, up 50% (£15m) on last year, with continued success from album sales.
She is £15m ahead of the highest new entry to the young musicians list, Calvin Harris. The Scottish hit-maker and superstar DJ has had no less than nine top 10 hits from his current album, 18 months – the most from a single album in chart history. Now able to charge a reported $200,000 for a night’s work as a DJ in Las Vegas or Miami, Harris formerly stacked shelves in Marks & Spencer.
The combined wealth of the five members of One Direction is £70m, making 1D the richest boy band in history from Britain and Ireland. Niall Horan, 20, Zayn Malik, 21, Liam Payne, 20, Harry Styles 20, and Louis Tomlinson, 22, are each worth £14m. In 2013, the combined fortune of the band was just £25m, with each member worth £5m.
The four members of Mumford and Sons, all new entries to the Young Musicians Rich List, share a £37m fortune. Marcus Mumford, 27, and his actress wife, Carey Mulligan, 28, are jointly worth £13m, while Ted Dwane, 29, Ben Lovett, 27, and Winston Marshall, 26, are each worth £8m.
Third in the list of the wealthiest young bands is Sheffield indie rock band Arctic Monkeys, with a combined fortune of £30m. Jamie Cook, 28, Matt Helders 28, and Nick O’Malley, 28, are each worth £7m, while Alex Turner, 28, who has other music interests, is worth £9m.
The four members of JLS, JB Gill, 27, Marvin Humes, 29, Aston Merrygold, 26, and Oritse Williams, 27, are each worth £7m, putting their combined wealth at £28m.
