Back to Bass Tour: 2011/12

If Sting had shouted ''Dřepkins!'', the whole hall would have knelt...

Sting has been taking stock for several years now. First, he and his colleagues brushed aside The Police, then he set off on a brilliant pop tour with orchestras behind him, and now, for his sixtieth birthday, he gave himself a rope, on which he hung his bass around his neck after a long time. And you know what? It still works.

The week-long sold-out concert at the Prague Congress Centre, where Sting unpacked more than twenty songs from his biographical box, had a clear script. After a perfectly composed start, there were tried-and-true tracks interspersed with songs by the Police. These were replaced by Sting's treats from newer albums, and the end belonged to the classics and an acoustic dot with crowd singing. No over combined effects, neon shortcuts from Matějská and moody projections with meaningless ornaments. Just great music.

Sting knows how to make the most of the minimum. And that includes his wardrobe. In a plain T-shirt that anyone in the audience could buy in the lobby, he put on a show that would have put out the stars on all the red carpets in the world. (It's true that his curves help him a lot. The figure of a gym instructor, which defies common ideas about the lifestyle of rock stars, is undeniable.)

When he arrived on stage, he only had to exhaust his rich vocabulary in Czech (Dobrý večer, Praho. Thanks) and crowds would have flocked to his open arms. The opening melody 'All This Time' only confirmed that the Congress Centre - despite the management's wishes - is a space completely unsuitable for events where people dance from the first notes. Moreover, when the chorus of 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic' from Police lit up, Sting could see the sold-out plush seats: people were moving around in them funny and clapping with their eyes shining.

Unlike concerts with an orchestra, he even talked and introduced most of his songs with his own memory, linked to the creation of the text.

Among other things, the Czech listener learned that thanks to 'Ghost Story' he was talking to his deceased father by the fireplace or that he was led to the song 'The End of the Game' by a fox that had bleached his chicken coop.

The atmosphere in the hall could not have been better. Sting extended his October birthday on tour and enjoyed his sixtieth birthday with everyone in the hall in a completely relaxed manner. And that also means the great band led by the Miller family, i.e. Sting's court guitarist Dominik and his son Rufus.

She didn't show off unnecessarily, but simply played great with the help of the pleasant Australian vocalist Jo Lawry, even though there was an unwanted "binding" from the wiretaps. Moreover, one didn't feel like she was just slavishly replaying a similar program for dozens of months, which only changes in nuances depending on how much the master sleeps.

Sting also mixed the songs for the gentlemen so that they wouldn't get bored and played the rock blaster Demolition Man, the western country 'Love Is Stronger Than Justice' and the hit 'Desert Rose' with elements of world music. (Following the example of the film Critics' Choice Awards, I would give the award mainly to the jazz-tinged punk 'Driven To Tears', with which Sting set out to fight indifference to famine in the 1980s.)

Jubilant has said in interviews that the recent tour with the Police was good, but he doesn't want to repeat it. "It's like going back to the woman you left behind. With all the good and bad that you can think of. And that's just not possible anymore," explained the sixteen-time Grammy winner.

It's a nice paradox that it was this ex-wife who provided him with a brilliant acoustic finale in the form of 'Message In A Bottle' after encores, during which people ran down the stairs and started dancing right under the stage.

No miracles were expected at Vyšehrad. The fans came for exactly what Sting served them. Some may have missed the song 'Englishman In New York', others missed 'Roxanne', and others were drawn to some of Peter Tickell's violin solos.

A thousand people, a thousand tastes, so to speak. When Sting played 'Fields of Gold,' one of my colleagues whispered in my ear that songs like that used to get him into trouble on the ski slope in his freshman year. Whether he was flexing his shoulders or just teasing me when he saw me swaying to the beat, I'll probably never know. But I noticed that there were three thousand of us on the ski slope, and everyone would have humbly done a "sneak peek" if "Cabadaj with a bass" had been blaring at them.

(c) iDNES by Jana Záhorková

Chamber Sting in Prague thrilled...

It would be foolish to expect the sixty-year-old Sting to completely change the concept of his work after a twenty-five-year career. The days when he surprised with smooth ballads, using ethnic music motifs or collaborating with jazzmen are long gone. Nevertheless, Saturday's concert in Prague's Palace of Culture was exceptional.

In the chamber show, Sting lived up to the name of the Back To Bass tour, did not put down the bass guitar for a moment and offered songs in much more stripped-down arrangements without keyboards and wind, with only two guitars. Only two violins occasionally softened the sound with lingering tones, but even so, the sound was much closer to the Police group, in which Sting started and from whose repertoire he drew during the evening. As the second song, he included their big hit Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.

The more restrained arrangements revealed Sting's rock side, especially evident in Demolition Man, but also allowed him to better show how good a bass player he is.

The highlights of the evening included the moments when Sting embarked on a musical duet with some of his bandmates. The duet with violinist Peter Tickell in Love Is Stronger Than Justice, which is inspired by the story of the Magnificent Seven, which Sting did not fail to mention in the introduction, was particularly outstanding. And since the film is about Mexican bandits, there was also a bit of Latin American music.

There was also a singing duet with Jo Lawry, who showed the power of her voice especially in Hounds Of Winter, which was reminiscent of the famous vocal solo in Pink Floyd's soul song Great Gig In The Sky. Sting's answers to guitarist Dominic Miller, with whom he has been playing for twenty-two years, and his son Rufus, who was definitely not to be trifled with, were a treat. The driving force was the excellent drummer Vinnie Colaiuta.

Since the concert was a chamber concert, Sting could easily communicate with the audience, and he did so often in the second half of the evening. For many of the songs, he revealed how they came about. Fields Of Gold stated that he lives in a house near Stonehenge, although it is more of a castle than a house. When it is summer before harvest, the surroundings are completely golden. Sacred Love stated that there are two topics that interest him the most, one is natural sex and the other is surprising religion. And it is interesting that these two areas are not usually connected, he added.

For Stolen Car, he again told how he composes. That he starts with the music and thinks that the music itself tells the story. For the aforementioned song, he went out with an iPod, from which he played the theme of the song, looking for the words, into his ears.

Sting also got the audience singing, but he did it very soberly. He didn't teach anyone what to sing. He just asked the audience what they would do when they heard Heavy Cloud. And the packed hall answered No Rain.

At the end, Sting deservedly received a standing ovation. He rewarded the audience with several encores, while the introduction to the second one was truly impressive. He played the scorcher Next To You and the guitarist and violinist stood on the edge of the stage and people could literally touch them. At the very end, for the first time in the entire evening, Sting put down the bass guitar and took up the guitar and sang Message In The Bottle himself.

(c) Novinky by Alex Švamberk