Broken Music: 2005/06

Sting in Pori Jazz festival 22.7.2006

The absolutely biggest Jazz festival in Finland, Pori Jazz, had an honor to have Sting performing on his Broken music tour this year. It's kinda funny that BM -tour was originally planned to be much smaller tour with smaller venues than the previous tours, and yet there was around 35,000 people at the concert: it was the biggest gig Sting had ever played in Finland (and also the biggest they had ever had on this jazz festival). The place itself is lovely, a grass field with some trees surrounded by two rivers. There were bands playing all day before Sting, including Dizzy Gillespie Big Band and a Finnish jazz band Five Corners Quintet. Lots and lots of people all day long having their picnics, listening to jazz and enjoying the mood. I even spotted Conan O'Brian over there - no wait, it was the president of Finland Tarja Halonen. After the Five Corners Quintet people started to gather in front of the stage, luckily we managed to get almost in the front row. The clouds that had been hanging over the place disappeared while we were anxiously waiting for the man himself, and the sun shone perfectly.

Finally Dominic came to stage followed by Lyle Workman and Abe Laboriel, Jr. The crowd gone wild when Sting appeared on to stage with a grin and started 'Message in a Bottle'. I was really surprised by few things: first of all I have NEVER seen Sting having such a good time on any Scandinavian gig, it seems he was smiling all the time and he was very relaxed. The second thing that surprised me was the crowd: normally Finns are a little bit quiet and just listen for the songs, this time it seemed the whole place was boiling! Excellent excellent mood! Since it seems nowadays that we fans are gaining some years (just to make it sound nicer.) Along with everyone else in the audience, it's of course quite expected that people like the older songs. 'Synchronicity II' and 'Walking On The Moon' went straight in to peoples minds just like the smoke coming from the chain smoking girl on my right side having already her fifth cigarette since the beginning of the show. Quite annoying, but couldn't make my mood sink.

'If I Ever Lose My Faith In You' was the first of the ''newer'' stuff, following 'Mad About You' which then turned in to 'Englishman In New York' after the first chords. I think that even Sting was little surprised how the crowd sang the ''be yourself, no matter what they say'' part, I've never heard the audience down here sing it so loud! Well, then it was time to settle down a bit, 'Shape Of My Heart' was as beautiful as ever, with a little different ending than usual. I'm really happy they've kept it on the setlist, I prefer it more than 'Fields of Gold' etc. After 'Shape', 'Driven to Tears' drove the audience back to dancing, one of my all time personal favourites, as well as 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic' that followed. I have to give credits to Abe behind the drum kit, absolutely fantastic work with lots of energy! It's really funny to watch him playing, his weird impressions on his face and his hands going around everywhere... Excellent drummer making excellent job!

The next one, 'Why Should I Cry For You' should be a must on the setlist. I've always wondered why Sting didn't play it live on previous tours. In my opinion it's perhaps the best song Sting have made, but have to also admit that it certainly would made the best impression on some small club (like on the Unplugged-gig), but a good addition to the set and it gave a nice feeling. 'Fields Of Gold' kept the relaxed soft mood, few nice ones we danced slowly with my girlfriend.

The Beatles classic 'A Day In The Life' worked nicely, wonderful things you can do with just a four piece band when you have the talent. Even the local newspapers praised it afterwards, especially the ending ''chaos'' of the song. A good song, but of course there would've been quite a lot own stuff they've played on previous BM-tour gigs, like 'Spirits in The Material World' or 'Heavy Cloud No Rain', which unfortunately weren't on the list anymore.

The beginning of 'The Soul Cages' got an excellent reaction, but to be honest I was little disappointed that it changed to 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free', a good song, but the 'Soul Cages' is better. Audience loved it, a very good mood and everyone was dancing and singing. 'Voices Inside My Head' was unfortunately quite much shorter than the version I heard in San Jose last year, Sting asked people to sing, but to be honest they changed it so quickly to 'When The World...' that most of the audience probably didn't even notice 'Voices'. Meanwhile the chain smoker on my side kept smoking and we were really wondering what the heck she was even doing there, at least 90% of the time she was facing right away from the stage talking to some cow, eh... friend. Why bother to come in front of the stage if you really don't even wanna see the show? ''Smoke gets inside my head.'' Lyle played major part of the solos in 'When The World...', jumping and running around, twisting and turning and almost laying on the stage. Sting was laughing at him all the time, just watching him going around - a really funny sight, and excellent solos! Abe was banging his drums with all his powers and energy, somehow it reminded me of the Police.

'Roxanne' is always excellent, especially I like this version they're playing nowadays with parts of 'So Lonely' in between and all that jamming with Sting singing. well, just something. It always seems that Sting still really enjoys playing 'Roxanne', and of course everyone enjoys listening to it! Excellent ending before encore.

'Desert Rose' started the encores, again an excellent version with people singing and dancing, waving their hands after Sting etc. 'Every Breath You Take' was as usual, maybe one of the songs they just have to play, otherwise I wouldn't mind if they would drop it. Well, it's a classic and of course one of the best pop songs ever. After EBYT Sting went of the stage, but the other guys didn't even bother, and after a small break they started 'Next To You', one of the songs I was really expecting, it's so good to see Sting singing this really old punk stuff, still sounding like 1970's. I really love that one! We were afterwards singing it about that chain smoker of my side, ''What can I do?, All I can do is to be next to her.''

'Fragile' was the grande finale, no bad words for that song, one of the most beautiful songs ever written and a great way to end the show. Well, I've just seen and heard it so thousand times as the final song, that I like it better in the middle of the set. The crowd seemed to be more than pleased, and applauded long after the band had gone and even the roadies came to stage.

All in all it was maybe the best gig I've seen in Finland, the audience was absolutely the best I've seen around here. Sting was in excellent mood and his voice was in a perfect condition. As I mentioned before, I've never seen him laughing, smiling and talking so much during the gig down here.

As a perfect ending for the day we finished the remains of the picnic outside the tent where Fiction Plane was performing, We didn't bother to go inside due to high ticket prices and the fact that they had played already for sometime. Actually it didn't matter too much, cause we could even see the band playing! A good gig also, maybe I have to get their cd's finally.

After a long day at the festivals we still had a three hour drive back home, but as usual it was worth every second!

(c) Timo Saajoranta for Sting.com

Sting, who was rocking out, drove his 35,000 spectators crazy...

Greatest hits for the biggest audience

On Saturday, which became increasingly sunny towards evening, the entire Kirjurinluoto island sank a few centimeters.

People poured in in a steady stream throughout the day, until by the time Sting started, even the most persistent hikers had to roll up their blankets and get a feel for the other people who had arrived at Kirjurinluoto.

According to the organizers, Sting's gig, which lasted just over an hour and a half, was seen by about 35,000 pairs of eyes, which beats the previous record of 25,000 spectators.

What was Sting like? At least for those who liked the young Sting from the Police era, they were pure metal. Maybe not quite as magical as the Police, but about as close to it as is possible without drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers.

Sting was able to start under an almost cloudless sky. With the audience being one of the largest on Sting's tour, the artist was happy to start delighting the Finns with the brightest gems of his production.

The first set was a fairly faithful interpretation of the good old 'Message In A Bottle' song. Sting also continued with Police classics. The second set was 'Synchronicity II', the third was 'If I Ever Lose My Faith In You' and the fourth was 'Walking On The Moon'.

The sounds in the arena were again a bit mushy - although not as mushy as at Kanye West's gig - but the band's functionality was not in doubt.

The funny, hard-nosed drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. summed up the spirit of the game: today we're rocking, even though we're at a jazz festival. Just like Elvis Costello at his Kirjuri gig in 2002, Sting was further away from jazz than ever since the early years of his career.

The atmosphere among the audience was tight in many ways. It was pointless even to try to see the stage from anywhere other than the front.

If you caught a glimpse of the big screen, you were satisfied.

And once you had chosen your seat, it was almost impossible to move in any direction.

Still, the audience remained admirably patient. For this, we must thank not only the summer weather and the presenters who handed out behavioral instructions from the stage all day, but also and above all the evening's party, which guaranteed to offer exactly what the large audience was thirsting for.

The string of hits or otherwise classic performances included a whole series of songs over the course of the evening, such as 'Englishman In New York' - yes, that Turkulainen Helsinki - 'Fields Of Gold', 'Every Little Things She Does Is Magic', 'Shape Of My Heart', 'Roxanne' and 'Why Should I Cry For You'.

Of the borrowed songs, Sting did not settle for anything less than the Beatles' finest work, 'A Day In The Life', which was just one of many songs that inspired the masses to sing along.

Sting brilliantly played both Lennon and McCartney's roles. The band also convincingly handled the final cacophony that was an inseparable part of the song without backing tracks.

A rather large Sting jukebox was set up for Kirjuri. Towards the end, the gig became more and more like a spiritual singing event on the Tammerkoski Bridge, in the excitement of which it was almost possible to forget how flexible Sting himself sang.

Guitarists Dominic Miller and Lyle Workman and drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. were also in a lively mood.

(c) Turun Sanomat by Tuomo Karhu