Brand New Day: 1999/01

The revolution is over - Sting on a German tour at the Velodrom...

No one can perfect this world, Sting recently declared: "People who think they can are extremely dangerous." Strontium 90, a quartet from 1976, also wanted to scare this world. Even punk rock was just an attempt to contain the horror and sabotage bands like Genesis. Strontium 90 sounded brilliantly dangerous, and later they became The Police. The end is familiar: Year after year, their bassist and singer stands on stage, singing "Every Breath You Take." And everyone sings along. He perfected pop, not this world. He is and remains a good man.

No, this isn't the usual lament of a weary veteran. It's meant to be a eulogy. Here's to a man who approaches people in a friendly manner, who has his concerts presented by the global market leader in computer retail, who sings "Arise, you lovers of the world!" A star who, in his own way, understood pop as a utopia. Because pop is always so confusing. The signs are reflected on the surface, and it's difficult to interpret them. And his most beautiful soundtracks are so elitist.

With Sting, everything is the other way around. He overloads the songs he sings with music and profound poetry. Then he stands in Berlin's Velodrome, in a sold-out cycling arena, and with his bass, he holds together the best band that can be recruited for tours. The band mixes reggae, rock, and rai, virtuosically straying into jazz. Yet somehow, once again, Sting manages to create the impression that his songs are no more complicated than pieces by Bryan Adams and Phil Collins. For this, too, he is highly revered, and rightly so, because sometimes the masses are smarter than the individual likes to think.

It's his innocently husky falsetto, which becomes thinner and more intimate as the evening progresses. It's the little jokes he plays on himself: the scraping foot and the stammering quote from The Threepenny Opera. And his stage sets are naïve, yet still so opulent that every sheet of fabric that falls to the floor makes the crowd cheer in amazement. For Desert Rose, he lets desert fires blaze out of silk. Moon Over Bourbon Street hangs bulging in the room when Sting sings with Satchmo's voice. Roxanne, the whore, glows in red light, his Englishman vanishes against New York's night time facades.

There has never been such lightness when Sting stepped before his humanity. He had burdened them with the suffering of political prisoners and deforested rainforests. Then he revealed his private life. That he was the milkman's son, who the many children who live in his little castle belong to, that he occasionally flies to India, and that since learning Tantra, his love life has improved.

On this evening, he is neither private nor political, it is just pop in harmless perfection. "I can no longer be a revolutionary at my age," Sting declared back in 2000, and the world has grown old with him, too.

(c) Die Welt by Michael Pilz

Rush for Sting concert in Berlin...

Rock music fans stood in long lines in front of the Velodrom last night. They were waiting for admission to the 6:30 p.m. concert by British pop star Sting. Over 9,000 tickets for the two-hour show sold like hotcakes in advance. The hall in Prenzlauer Berg was almost sold out.

After Hamburg on Wednesday, Berlin is the seventh stop on his German tour. The former policeman has already had to cancel two concerts due to a cold. On a tour across Germany – without a support act – Sting presents his new album, Brand New Day, to his fans.

The 48-year-old musician's album features a touch of ethno-pop, jazzy arrangements, hip-hop and gospel influences, even techno and breakbeat. A top seven-piece band will be playing alongside him at the concerts. Of course – quality has always been Sting's top priority.

(c) Berliner Zeitung

The moon rises over New Orleans...

Lean back and enjoy: Superstar Sting on his 'Brand New Day' tour at the Velodrome. There is strength in calm. This saying applies not only to yoga exercises, but in many cases to music as well. Especially when it comes to an artist who has transformed over the decades from a hot-blooded punk rebel to a top-notch sound engineer. The fans who made the pilgrimage to Sting's sold-out Velodrome expected anything but a wild party. What the British pop star offers is, quite simply, music to enjoy.

The current album 'Brand New Day,' with which the now 48-year-old is currently touring, perhaps lives up to this claim even more than previous works by the former Police frontman. Exceptionally quiet songs characterize this record, which, despite complex compositions and stylistic surprises, offers many catchy tunes, thus once again successfully walking that fine line that secures a wide audience for the former English teacher from Newcastle.

Sting has long since stopped despairing of this world. His lyrics convey much more the private perspective of a mature man who is quite content with himself and his surroundings. Let's make good music seems to be the only message these days. Or: Anyone who listens to Sting has good taste. The stage design in the concert is supposed to match the sophisticated level of the music, but unfortunately, this is far less successful. The sets look a bit as if they were designed by the curtain company with the gold edging in collaboration with a Swedish furniture store. Never mind: From the first song, "Thousand Years," the opener of the new CD, the acoustic appeal dominates.

Sting continues to adhere to the strategy of presenting the new material as faithfully as possible to the studio during live performances, while giving hits from back then a completely new musical look. This is an ideal recipe for creating a tense, dramatic atmosphere for the evening despite the overall relaxed atmosphere. Especially when you can rely on such accomplished musicians as the introverted but extremely effective trumpeter Chris Botti, the sometimes rocking, sometimes infinitely gentle guitarist Dominic Miller, or drummer Manu Katché, who also raps in French.

Although Cheb Mami, the Algerian rai star, cannot be there live, the eight-person band brings the song 'Desert Rose', with its excursions into the Orient, to life at least as atmospherically as on the record, and 'Fill Her Up', with its country and gospel influences, also comes across well.

Not only the accompanying musicians, who repeatedly shine with jazzy solo passages, but also the master himself, sometimes on bass, sometimes on guitar, is in fine form. Although the inclement February weather clearly hasn't spared his throat. That he sings 'Bourbon Street' in the style of Louis Armstrong, however, is intentional. This classic has never sounded so jazzy, and the moon truly rises over New Orleans here.

The old songs in general: so cleverly rearranged, 'Englishman in New York', 'Set Them Free', and 'Roxanne' sound like new compositions without sacrificing their recognizability. And the fact that the fans are occasionally allowed to sing along saves the evening from impending lethargy. As the old Police hit 'Message In A Bottle' and 'Fragile' sound emotionally accompanied by guitars at the end, all you can see in the audience are shining eyes.

(c) Berliner Morgenpost by Uwe Sauerwein