57th & 9th: World Tour

Sting gave his first concert in Moscow in five years...

On Tuesday, October 3, the Olympic Sports Complex hosted a sold-out performance by the British singer.

The last time Sting gave a concert in the Russian capital was in July 2012 as part of the Back to Bass Tour: a tour in which the singer performed golden hits accumulated over the years of his career in The Police and his solo work.

In five years, Moscow has missed Sting. The date of the concert, dedicated to the release of the album "57th & 9th", was announced in June, the cheapest tickets were sold out literally within a month, a few days before the performance only the most expensive seats were on sale, and 10 days before the event there was a full house. An extremely rare thing for such a large venue as the Olympic.

As a result, along the way from the metro station "Prospekt Mira" to the sports complex, every 10-20 meters there were people holding signs in their hands "Buy a ticket", and an impressive crowd slowly moved towards the security cordons...

Sting's son Joe Sumner was announced as a warm-up act, perhaps that is why by 8 p.m. there were enough empty seats in the stands of the Olympic: everyone was waiting for the main hero of the evening. To the surprise of the audience, Sting did not keep them waiting and came out on stage with a guitar at the beginning of the ninth. He greeted and introduced Sumner in Russian: "This is my son Joe," after which the father and son sang a duet of a song from the new album, "Heading South on the Great North Road." Then Joe remained on stage alone, singing six songs accompanied by a guitar. The "star" son did not cause any particular delight, but he was received warmly.

After Sumner Jr.'s performance, the main part of the show began. Sting and his son were accompanied by two guitarists, a drummer, and an accordionist. Compared to the musician's previous tours, the lineup looked rather ascetic, but there was a clear logic to it: it was not for nothing that Sting announced his return to rock in his latest album. Thus, in "Englishman in New York", "Fields of Gold", "Message in a Bottle", the bass and guitar came to the fore, which gave an interesting opportunity to listen to the music of these hits, as they say, "in its purest form".

Despite the fact that the concert was timed to coincide with the release of the new album "57th & 9th", only two more songs were performed from this record: "I Can't Stop Thinking About You" and "Petrol Head".

The rest of the track list consisted of time-tested and beloved songs: "Shape of My Heart", "Walking on the Moon", "Desert Rose", "Roxanne", "Every Breath You Take".

At the very end, "Fragile" was traditionally performed. And the enthusiastic roar that covered the packed hall with the last chords of this song seemed to make it clear: "Our dear Sting, come more often!"

(c) vm.ru by Ivan Yurchenko

Sting performed in Moscow...

As part of the tour in support of the album "57th & 9th", Sting and his new band performed at the Moscow sports complex "Olympic". The musician surprised many, but it is unlikely to disappoint anyone. says Boris Barabanov.

The last time Sting gave a full-fledged solo concert in Russia was before 2014. And after the annexation of Crimea and the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, he made it clear in every way that he was not ready to perform here against such a backdrop. However, the artist's anger soon changed to mercy. In the spring of 2016, he performed in Moscow at the wedding of Mikhail Gutseriev's daughter, and in the fall - at the "New Wave" competition in Sochi. Now Sting has arrived with a new backing band, which the audience saw part of in Sochi, and a new program, the formal basis for which was the album "57th & 9th" (2016), the first studio recording of original pop and rock material since 2003. 

During these 13 years, he has been working on new arrangements of old songs, as well as reviving the lute music of the Renaissance and writing the musical "The Last Ship". Sting's concert was opened by his son Joe Sumner, who had once come to Russia with his father as the frontman of the opening band Fiction Plane. The evening began with a duet between father and son, and then Sumner Jr. showed a short set of Fiction Plane songs and his own material. It became clear from this mini-concert that Joe Sumner is quite capable of holding the audience without an accompanying band, not only with the help of a strong, bright voice similar to his father's, but also with the help of sampler pedals and excellent guitar skills. It was easy to imagine Joe Sumner on tour with his father's song material.

The main part of the concert confirmed this prospect. Sumner the son remained on stage as a backing vocalist. He handled all the additional vocal parts flawlessly, and also reached high notes well when his father allowed him to. In the end, no one's voice gets better with age, and such an assistant will be increasingly necessary for the actively touring Sting over the years. 

The tour in support of the album "57th & 9th" has been ongoing since February 2017, and at all venues, including the Olympic SC, Sting played a program with approximately the same ratio and similar arrangement of new songs, hits of the 1980s-1990s and the golden legacy of the group The Police, in which he once became famous. Sting began with The Police's song "Synchronicity II" and then wisely alternated things from his old group with his own material. He got to the ballad block in the middle of the concert. And as soon as the last chord of "Shape Of My Heart" sounded, Sting's group immediately sharply increased the speed - the new rock and roll "Petrol Head" sounded, and immediately after it - the energetic "She`s Too Good For Me". Sting did not take breaks - the group played music in the mode of a DJ set. This is how St. Petersburg bands usually play in Moscow halls when they are late for their train.

In the 1980s, Sting formed the image of a gentleman playing expensive pop music. His concert line-up included virtuoso pianists, trumpeters, and saxophonists, each of whom later became a big star in their own right. Music lovers appreciated his jazzy handling of rhythm in his albums. Later, in the new century, he reworked his hits for an orchestra and toured for a long time with the appropriate accompaniment. Everything was moving towards the fact that in his seventh decade he would finally settle down. Especially since his existence off stage had all the signs of the life of a prosperous bourgeois. And now in Moscow he has managed to present a line of wines of his own production.

However, on stage, Sting and his colleagues are now a 100% rock band. And with all the signs of a family business. Not only does Sting play with his son, but his long-time companion, guitarist Dominic Miller, also handed a second guitar to his son Rufus on the current tour. Josh Freese, who has never played jazz in his life, is on the drums. His resume includes Nine Inch Nails, Guns N`Roses, A Perfect Circle, that is, bands that carry the most rock DNA. Sting is now doing just fine without brass and keyboards, as well as without his long-time partner-singer Jo Lowry: there is no place for women on this ship. All the solos familiar to fans, which are beyond the competence of rock instrumentalists, are entrusted to an accordionist named Percy Cardon. However, Sting did part with some iconic parts that were firmly entrenched in the audience's memory. For example, he deleted from "Englishman In New York" the solo once recorded by saxophonist Branford Marsalis, and it's not as if the song has lost much in the current context.

Dressed in plain jeans and T-shirts, the musicians did not try to artificially decorate the songs: their merits have been proven for decades. People played in simple concert lighting, without smoke, rarely changing instruments, and on the screens there was nothing but their close-ups and medium shots, skilfully mixed by video engineers in live broadcast mode. Sting completely excluded the signs of an "expensive show" from the stage design. And this fact is unlikely to greatly disappoint the spectators who bought seats in the VIP tribune for 50 thousand roubles. The fact is that the concert organizers managed to achieve crystal clear sound, which for the Olympic SC is rather an exception to the rule. Regardless of their place in the hall, Moscow spectators received music exactly as the author intended. Isn't this the main value of any concert?

As expected, the audience did not recognize David Bowie's song "Ashes To Ashes", which was performed by Sting and Joe Sumner as a duet, just as they did not recognize it at the summer Depeche Mode show "Heroes" by the same author. Alas, Bowie is not considered a "Russian folk artist", and people left the stands for a smoke break. It could have been assumed that Sting would also remember Tom Petty, who had died the day before, and maybe even perform something from his repertoire. However, Sting did not deviate from the script, especially since Petty was even less well-known in Russia than Bowie. Only before the final "Fragile" did Sting allow himself one unplanned remark. He said that he dedicated the song to everyone who died in Las Vegas.

(c) kommersant by Boris Barabanov.