Blue Turtles: 1985/86

Home with all that jazz - Sting returns to set Tyneside buzzing...

No wonder Sting wanted to announce last night: ''I've got some good news''.

This victorious home gig was the ideal setting to tell fans: ''I've just had a phone call from Los Angeles to tell me 'The Dream Of The Blue Turtles' has been nominated for six Grammy awards - I'm only telling you this because I want to read it in the Evening Chronicle.''

The concert itself was more than ample justification for those nominations for what are, in effect, the music industry's Oscars.

Wallsend-born Sting's apprehensions about returning to Tyneside for his first solo performance was quickly swept aside by a wave of warm, enthusiastic acclaim.

It was a case of hail the conquering hero and he responded in triumphant style, with barely a dull moment throughout his two hours and twenty minutes on stage.

Having shaken off the shackles of Police - whether that's permanent or temporary, no one knows - Sting has flourished as composer and performer. And it has taken him more into the realms of his old love, jazz.

Most of the audience probably went further down the road of jazz last night than they had ever gone. Certainly, I appreciated more of this musical form than I have since the heyday of keyboards maestros Jimmy Smith and Brother Jack McDuff many years ago.

Much of the explanation for this is Sting's shrewd choice of fellow musicians for both this tour and the album: saxophonist Branford Marsalis, keyboards player Kenny Kirkland, bassist Darryl Jones, drummer Omar Hakim and back-up singers Janice Pendarvis and Dolette McDonald.

Combined with his guitar playing, they allowed him to explore further and develop songs like 'Children's Crusade', 'Love is the Seventh Wave', 'We Work the Black Seam', 'Moon Over Bourbon Street', 'Fortress Around Your Heart', and 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free'. 

Not that he was averse to returning to the Police beat. notably on his simple reworking of 'Roxanne', with Branford's saxophone answering Sting's vocals; the classic 'Every Breath You Take'; and the singalong solo version of 'Message in a Bottle'.

And it was a real family occasion for Sting Not only were there many relatives in the audience, but his little daughter was brought on stage as he closed the shoe with that earnest plea for peace, his latest single Russians.

(c) The Evening Chronicle by Peter Kinghorn

Musical Midas...

Sting has something of the Midas touch.

In the late '70s, as punk flailed, he introduced to the charts a brand of reggae pop that - though it would be much imitated - was fresh if not unique.

That formula ran a little stale, who knows why, during the later period of his band, The Police.

But what he has achieved in his inaccurately entitled solo career is potentially more challenging than that music.

If the songs he wrote for his 'Blue Turtles' LP, with its six Grammy nominations, were good but not great, the Wallsend singer's Midas touch came in coaxing a band of jazz musicians into the rock forum.

That band appeared at the City Hall last night. It was the finest collection of musicians that the hall will welcome, I guess, for several years to come.

Sting himself, from the moment he walked on stage, appeared utterly relaxed.

Strumming a rhythm guitar for most of the performance, he launched his high pitched, slightly sandy vocals into the audience with confidence - occasionally a little down in the mix but most often strongly and clearly.

The band of black musicians he has brought together for his solo album sounded good on vinyl - on stage they were a revelation.

The family of Marsalis may be best known for trumpet prodigy Wynton, but Branford Marsalis, on saxophone, showed last night that rock musicians who grab that instrument are miles behind him.

Using soprano sax to delightful effect, particularly in 'Moon Over Bourbon Street', he showed an intuitive jazz feel of huge proportions that was a joy - and a rarity - in what is normally a rock hall.

With Omar Hakim on drums showing a rock audience that feel is a word that can be applied to percussion, Kenny Kirkland on keyboards and Darryl Jones on bass and a brace of subtle black singers, the performance was a musical banquet.

It was summed up by a version of a Last Exit song - the band Sting played in at the Gosforth Park and Newcastle Cooperage years ago - called 'I Burn For You'.

A fine number, it was transformed into a thrilling experience by extraordinary drums and bass solos.

Other highlights were a medley of 'One World Is Enough' and 'Love Is The Seventh Wave', a looser, more relaxed version of 'Bring On The Night' and a stunning rendition with acoustic guitar and sax on 'Roxanne'.

If Sting's vocals and enthusiasm held it all together, his real skill is not as a musician or even a songwriter.

His genius lies in unleashing new musical ideas. So far, with his clutch of jazz players, he has worked half a miracle.

(c) Newcastle Journal by Phil Murphy

Sting's granny and Grammy...

Sting returned home to the North-East in triumph last night to the kind of special welcome reserved for local heroes.

After a quiet chat with his granny backstage. the superstar gave a rousing performance before a noisy, sell-out crowd at Newcastle City Hall.

The 34-year-old son of a Wallsend milkman had confessed that the prospect of playing in front of his home fans after a four year break had him on edge.

But there was no sign of nerves as he opened with the full blooded 'Shadows in the Rain' from 'Dream of the Blue Turtles'.

As he went straight into the raunchy 'Driven To Tears', the City Hall crowd were already on their feet.

They stayed there for most of the night, even when the tempo slowed for 'Consider Me Gone' and its gentler mood.

His haunting voice never faltered: inspiring in the memorable 'Fortress Around Your Heart'; soothing during 'Moon Over Bourbon Street'.

Sting, on his first national tour since giving the Police the slip, was backed by a highly talented four-piece group and two girl singers.

He took a step back into his past on Tyneside resurrecting a song called 'I Burn For You', which he used to sing at the Gosforth Hotel in a local band called Last Exit.

But a jazzed up version of 'Bring On The Night' and later 'Roxanne' were reminders of more illustrious days with the Police.

Later he announced that phone call from Los Angeles told him the album, 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles', has been nominated for six Grammy awards.

(c) The Northern Echo by Peter Barron

Fuse-blowing performance by local hero...

Superstar Sting returned to his native North-East last week for two sell-out solo concerts. The second had to be dramatically cancelled at the last minute following a backstage explosion.

The local boy who made good came back to his roots with a band and a sound that has achieved critical, if not massive commercial, success.

After taking "The Dream of the Blue Turtles" tour all over the world, Sting finally brought it home to Britain, where it took Newcastle City Hall by storm in a dazzling 24-hour performance.

All the material from the singer's first solo album was featured as well as re-worked, almost jazz-funk, versions of Police classics. Indeed, on these numbers the band really seemed to come together and made the jamming in the middle look almost spontaneous.

This was particularly true of the opening song, 'Shadows in the Rain', and 'When the World is Running Down', which featured a rather snappy dance routine and a rap from sax-man Branford Marsalis.

Sting himself, free from his Police colleagues, seemed to be enjoying every minute as he led the band through 'If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free', 'Fortress Around Your Heart' and 'Bring on the Night' before leaving the stage to thunderous applause.

Encores featured current single 'Russians', an acoustic version of 'Roxanne', 'Every Breath You Take' and 'Message in a Bottle' which left the crowd singing "Sending out an S.O.S." while the band took their final bows.

(c) Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail