In 1999, on a cold November night in Dublin, at the MTV European Music Video awards, Luciano Ligabue took to the stage, briefly. The Italian rock star was greeted by a baffled audience. Part of the price of staging a ‘European’ event many presumed. An interlude between Ricky Martin and Britney Spears.

Last saturday, Ligabue played to around 200,000 people in Reggio Emilia, setting a record for the largest audience for a European concert by a single group/artist. The previous record, apparently, was held by U2 playing at the same venue to 146,000 people in 1997.

Ligabue’s music is as Italian as U2’s is Irish. He plays rock tunes that could fit on any American FM station, were it not for the language barrier.

This Monkey’s not too sure what to make of attendance figures and record books, but the next time someone spouts out the line that ‘music is a universal language’, ask them where the largest single concert in Europe was, and by whom…