Brand New Day: 1999/01

Gordon Sumner, aka Sting, turns 50 in October, and he's not getting any less popular with the years.

At Norwegian Wood, Sting closed out the entire festival - and the audience loved every second of it.

In many circles, it's musically politically incorrect to have Sting during the day, but you didn't find many of them at Frognerbadet on Sunday night.

Moreover, it's an undeniable fact that the man has a colossal catalogue with many good songs to pour from.

And when the chemistry between artist and audience is right, memorable concerts often result.

At Norwegian Wood, you simply couldn't go wrong. Sting sang hits like 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free', 'Moon Over Bourbon Street', 'Roxanne', and 'Message In A Bottle'. Sting chatted easily with the 6,000 delighted fans who were having a great time in the natural amphitheatre down towards the stage, where the man was surrounded by a super team of musicians who ensured pure euphoria from the first to the last second.

The former Police bassist has delivered smoother and stronger concerts in Oslo before. Some songs were definitely dragged out in the longest part and were simply boring, but Sting was certainly forgiven for that.

An artist who has sold 100 million albums over a recording career of 23 years and had countless top hits, doesn't really need to prove anything, but the real magic only came in exceptional cases - even if there was otherwise not much to fault at the concert.

(c) Verdens Gang by Espen A. Hansen

Cosy rock...

Sting has gone from being a musical innovator and leading star, to becoming a koserock attraction at park concerts. Yesterday's concert in Frognerbadet showed an artist who is completely on the verge of quitting good company.

By all means, Sting is in good company in the sense that he was greeted with warm applause from a gathered Frognerbad audience as soon as he entered the stage last night. And his participation in a TV commercial for a car brand has ensured that his latest album, Brand New Day, is still on Billboard's album chart in the US after almost 90 weeks.

But Sting's reputation as an intelligent superstar is about to unravel completely. The concert in the bathroom showed an artist who has become the very symbol of contented and harmless dad rock.

Sting is widely known as an eminent musician. And he has a well-playing team with whom he travels on his seemingly eternal Brand New Day tour. But it sounds so nice and polished that you can get completely sick. And there are some happy vibrations about the 2001 version of Sting that are terribly unnerving. Sting's complex roots have been replaced by a tagless and trivial mix of gla' gospel, light jazz and gentle pop.

It's cosy, almost cuddly, as Sting stands smiling and rocking his bass like a fatherly leader at the Pentecostals' summer concert. Drummer Manu Katche comes out to rap on a song, but it still sounds like the kind of music you might hear at Smuget on a Tuesday.

Sting still sings unabashedly well. His warm and emotional voice can give even mediocre 90s records a certain soul. It should also be said that it was a much looser and more jamming version of the man's band that presented itself in the bathroom yesterday than during last year's Spektrum edition. It led to nice and sometimes quite inspired versions of Moon Over Bourbon Street, Roxanne and Brand New Day.

It was enough to make for a, er, enjoyable concert, but not enough to shake up the fact that Sting has become an unimaginative star living on the same old pile of hits. In that sense, he fit in nicely at this year's Norwegian Wood festival, a festival characterized by unambitious booking and a completely unexciting program.

If the festival still wants to be counted, it needs to tighten up considerably for next year.

(c) Dagbladet by Håkon Moslet

Flirting Sting...

With his world-renowned charm Sting flirtingly ended this years Norwegian Wood-festival in Frognerbadet.

Hey Oslo, how are you doing, the superstar asked the audience. He got roaring cheers in return from the approximately 6.000 who had gathered together Sunday night.

Among them were the Eken family from Oslo. Dad Erik (33) is an employee at Sony Music and defines himself as an old Police-fan. I've seen him once before, in the USA in 1986. It looks to be just as great today ha told NTB after Sting had barely started.

With him on the festival was his wife Stephanie and their daughters Celine (5) and Isabelle (3). The family got to hear a lot of old classics from Stings almost 25 year long carrier as a pop artist, but also songs from his latest release 'Brand New Day'.

Over 11.000 people have been inside the gates in this years edition of Norwegian Wood, which is the tenth one.

We are very pleased with the attendance. It's been more then we expected, says one of the three arrangers, Sten Randers Fredriksen, to NTB. He also brags about the weather, and hints about how the festival is protected by higher beings.

We've had what we call typical Norwegian Wood weather. Dark clouds all around, but blue sky above the festival-area. It's like this each year. Someone claimed there was a hailstorm over the monolith today, but we got away from the rain, he smiles.

(c) Dagbladet / Translated by Carl Gjerdrum

Festival with Sting in Norwegian Wood...

Challenging, playful and catchy Sting entered Frognerbadet last night. The well known line of songs and the energy Sting gave were also a result of the spirit of the festival.

Just before nine o'clock last night the clouds over Frognerbadet parted ways and Sting walked determined on the stage to the opening tones of 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free'. And the audience responded by showing who they had really come to see this second day of this years Norwegian Wood-festival.

If Saturday was the ''young'' rock'n'roll day with Madrugada and Hakan Hellstrom, Sunday with Little Feat and Sting, was destined to become a more grown-up affaire. These are artists who, in a much larger sense then younger bands, draw the conscious festival participant, and they didn't let ''badet'' down yesterday either. 6.000 people defied the threats of rain for a polite dose of outdoor culture.

The temperature was a little more dressed this day, the ambience was drowsy, and the folding chairs were sinking further and further in to the ground under the weight of grown and golden plastic cups. In this way, to the music of both Swedish rockers, Norwegian Crowtown and intense British melancholies, the evening crept toward the artist everyone seemed to be waiting for: Sting.

Sting, or soon-to-be 50-year-old Gordon Sumner, is one of popular-musics biggest profiles. That a greatest hits collection with Sting and his old band The Police again are high in the charts shows some of the timelessness of Stings material throughout his carrier. In spite of some under the wind albums the last couple of years last years pop-oriented 'Brand New Day' showed he still has his sense of quality in tact. But the same sense of quality has also made him predictable and boringly clever when it comes to concerts, as he was in Oslo Spektrum a while back. Last night, though, it was a different Sting we got to see; a more audience-flirting and direct artist playing through a repertoire where jazz, hip hop and urban soul are only a few of the elements spicing up his adult and melodious art-pop.

This makes Sting an artist who can be as much polished and boring as confusing in recognising genres. But the way he conquered Frognerbadet proved that this formula can also be challenging, playful and catchy. The well-known line of songs and the energy Sting gave were also a result of the spirit of the festival. In return the main attraction got a receptive audience and an enthusiastic crowd, at least the first half of the concert that we managed to see before this edition of Dagsavisens deadline went out.

(c) Dagsavisen by Mode Steinkjerk/translated by Carl Gjerdrum