Sound: The show was phenominal, I must say. I'd never seen Sting live before this gig, nor had I seen a live orchestra. Seeing both for the first time in one concert was a truely wonderous experience for me. The orchestra, whom Sting had only met 4 hours prior to the performance was due to start, played with seemingly the same Precision and musical vigour as the London Philharmonic. The set list, which was broken up into two parts, plus an encore, went like this;
Set 1
01. If I Ever Lose My Faith In You
02. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
03. Englishman In New York
04. Roxanne
05. Straight To My Heart
06. When We Dance
07. Russians
08. I Hung My Head
09. Shape of My Heart
10. Why Should I Cry For You?
11. We Work The Black Seam
12. Whenever I Say Your Name
13. Fields of Gold
14. Next To You
Set 2
15. A Thousand Years
16. This Cowboy Song
17. Tomorrow We'll See
18. Moon Over Bourbon Street
19. End of the Game
20. You Will Be My Ain True Love
21. All Would Envy
22. Mad About You
23. King of Pain
24. Every Breath You Take
Encore
Desert Rose
She's Too Good For Me
Fragile
I Was Brought To My Senses
In various songs, Sting brought on special guests to perform with him and the orchestra. Most of which were old friends of his from Newcastle. He brought on violinists, brass players and an accordion player, among others. Sting also played a lot of different instruments himself. He played tambourine, harmonica, classical acoustic, electric guitar and the thermin - all to a fair extent. Jo, his backing singer, also played various percussion, the triangle and Acoustic guitar.
As a fan, the new arrangements of the songs felt a little awkward at first. I didn't know what to make of them. Without the strong, tango drum-beat behind Roxanne, it didn't feel quite right. Without the jazzy bassline of Moon Over Bourbon Street, I didn't know if I prefered it or not. Regardless, I still enjoyed all the new versions, but I don't know if I prefered them to their original counterparts. Some of them did have a nice blend of old and new, however. Every Breath You Take was a fine example - the begining was very orchestrated, but it eventually came close to the original Police version. // 9
Perfomance: Sting was a real showman. He was in constant interaction with the audience, in and out of songs. During songs, he'd make the audience sing with him (doing the whole recalling vocals thing), he'd dance to us and make these grand, theatrical gestures with his hands where it was called upon. In I Hung My Head, he'd mimic the action of aiming a rifle and firing it. In Moon Over Bourbon Street, he donned a black, vampiric long-coat and played the thermin along to this odd, eerie, yet wonderously extravagant version.
Between songs, Sting would briefly recall tales from his past, memories of Newcastle as a child and what some of the songs were about. "This next song is about a man who's in love with someone much younger... Tragic." He recalls about All Would Envy, with great sarcasm. On top of this, he performed the final song of his Encore a capella. Unsurprisingly, the audience were deftly silent.
Besides Sting, other members on stage were just as engaging. Jo Laurie (the backing singer), although staring at Sting for quite some time during the performance, engaged the audience quite often, giving winks and smiles to whoever caught her eye. Steven Mercurio, the tour conductor, could have easily stole the show. He was so active, he caught my eye quite often. He was described as "the most athletic person on the stage" by Sting, jokingly. This activity did result in him almost tripping over his speaker-monitor. Luckily, there was no "'Mercurio' Falling".
The stage itself was heavily pronounced through various lighting and drapes all down the back walls. Above the stage, there were two giant, moving screens that portrayed various images for the songs - for example, in Moon Over Bourbon Street, the screens playede images of the moon, then a clip from Nosferatu. It was a very U2 thing to experience at time. Other times, the screens were linked to various cameras that were being used around the venue, showing close-ups of the players. I personally loved this feature as it's not someting that you expect to see in an enclose venue like The Sage. // 10
Impression: I'll admit, before going to see this show I was a little dubious. I guess when an artist has been something of an inspiration to you, it's only natural to be skeptical of how it'll actually be. That skepticism was obviously ill-founded though. My fears were soon pushed asside and I ended up having a marvelous night. It's doubtful that Sting would do a tour again in this format as he is an artist of constantly-shifting musical taste/flavour.
This tour may have been essentially once in a life-time, but if you could make it to any Sting concert, I'd recommend it; The man really knows what he's doing musically. He was witty and charming towards his audience and made us all feel really at ease. If you base his personallity on what you've seen in interviews, you'd pleasantly surprised with how down-to-earth he came accross at this performance. The ticket for where I was sat cost Ј76.50, but it cost me a hell of a lot more. I bought it second hand so the price was heavily inflated. Plus I paid a fair amount to actually get to Newcastle from Blackburn. Was it worth it? Would I go again? Of course it was worth it, I'd certainly go again. If you plan on going yourself, don't expect a rock gig. Expect pop-come-classical. If you go prepared, you'll be blown away. // 10
- Anthony Bentley (c) 2012
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