Brand New Day: 1999/01

Sting closes his tour of Spain with a full house in Santiago...

The magic potion that elevated Sting to the Olympus of music worked again yesterday in Santiago. The singer filled the Multiusos de Sar, where nine thousand people applauded his art. The hour and a half show began with the calm bars of his latest record, Brand New Day, and finished with the fury of the classic tunes. Before, the musician of Asian-Britannic origin, Nitin Sawhney, had the job of warming up the people who had travelled to Compostela to see this king of pop live.

Sting had arrived at the venue directly from the Lavacolla airport. While the British musician and his band tuned voice and guitars, the cooked looked for the exact place for a dinner to feed the whole troupe.

The menu was unknown, although it is certain there were no beans. Proof of this is that, during the afternoon, the person in charge of feeding the band and staff threw out some tins of baked beans. This happened on the way from Asturias in the back of the stage assembly entourage. But outside, there was Alicia, who arrived early at the Multiusos de Sar, about five in the afternoon. She came from Asturias just to see her idol. She already has two autographs of his and even once got a photo of herself with him in an airport. But yesterday, Alicia was out of luck. She followed the singer throughout the afternoon, but Sting did not appear to be in the right mood to see his fans. Alicia nearly lost faith, but the concert compensated for the disappointment. Above all, when the Brit sang 'Roxanne'. It was then that the stalls really vibrated. It even seems that he managed to improve the deficient sound of the Multiusos de Sar that on other occasions has been on the point of ruining concerts that have taken place here.

Nevertheless, you had to wait till late in the afternoon for the followers of the musician to stop being visible in the vicinity of the concert site. The cars started to arrive, in dribs and drabs, from eight o'clock and at ten you could no longer park in Sar. At the end, the public left satisfied. Some even contradicted the critics, and assured that, although his style has varied, this Englishman who took The Police to the pinnacle of success continues to be one of the best pop singers.

Compostela was once again the end of the road, and Sting finished in Santiago the Spanish concert tour, that he started in Bilbao.

(c) La Voz de Galicia by María Cedron/ranslated by Abigail Dowling and Annamaria Dall'anese