Sting 3.0

Sting 3.0 at Arena Pula: a superb evening that the audience took lightly...

One of the missed tours that I still regret today is the comeback tour of the legendary The Police in 2007/2008. Somehow, similar luck accompanied me with Sting's performances in Croatia and the surrounding area, we never met, but it seems that this time the experience was worth the wait.

Today, more or less everything is known about Sting, and musically, I am with timeless hits whose signatory is the most interesting statement of his once fiercest opponent with whom he was on a war footing for a long time. Namely, his "police colleague", a musical legend in his own right, Stewart Copeland, in the midst of the battle said something like "I hate him, but I have to admit that he is a musical genius, just don't tell him I said so.", which gives his musical talent special weight.

Sting has also made his home here. In addition to the fact that this year we were able to hear him in Zagreb with the same tour (where he opened the tour), to which he has been returning regularly over the past few years, along with the concert in the Pula Arena nine years ago, there was also supposedly an earlier concert there that I heard about in the audience when I left. But it seems that there are always thirsty ears for him here, and this time he fit in perfectly with the tourist season as well as the overwhelming program of the Zagreb and Pula Arenas.

This time too, Sting did not come alone. Girlband!, three London girls, as they called themselves, consisting of drums, bass, guitar and vocals, cultivate an alternative rock sound with a measured dose of feminism that can be heard in the lyrics. They sincerely thanked him for the opportunity to perform before Sting, mentioned that this was their last performance with him on tour, and praised the ambiance in which they had never performed before. I mostly couldn't catch the names of the songs, but one was "21st Century Suffragette", and the one I liked the most has a vocal performance that irresistibly reminds me of Stevie Nicks. They seemed nice and sincere, looking for interaction that was mostly absent from the audience, so they remained a bit reserved until the last song. They presented themselves well in half an hour and I will definitely look for a song or two, but the Croatian audience, and it seems our tourists too, never bother with the support acts, even when Sting personally chooses them. They miss out on a lot.

Sting showed class again this time. The concert started with one of the biggest hits of "Moonlight Brother" (as it was once sung by a good part of our region when the lyrics could not be checked so easily), or "Message in a Bottle", which immediately delighted the audience, and was followed by selected hits from their solo and The Police careers.

Gordon, Dominic and Chris are a brilliantly played trio, there was no mistake there, and there was none in the songs they performed. Sting, in a great mood and relaxed, constantly commented, made jokes and invited the audience between songs, which gave the performance the impression of a friendly gathering. "Englishman in New York" went well in Pula, but the very announcement of "Fields of Gold" drew a sigh from the entire Arena, "Wrapped Around Your Finger" was performed in a particularly minimalist manner. In the middle of "I Can't Stand Losing You" a part of "Synchronicity II" was inserted, "Desert Rose" especially moved the audience, and "Every Breath You Take" led us to a short break, after which the well-known "Roxanne" delighted the audience, especially in this performance with a lot of improvisation.

The special feature of the Pula Amphitheater was best used by the light "Shape of my Heart" and the last "Fragile", with which the light echo seemed like a quiet whisper of the building, with which time seemed to stand still. Performed in a simple way only on an electro-classical guitar with the voice of "Fragile", it left a message that we are actually simple and fragile.
Journalists and photographers

I have to address one issue that is getting worse. For too long, journalists and photographers have been considered a "necessary evil" instead of (promo) partners that round off the entire music and media experience. This is mostly not decided by the organizers, but by the “stars of the evening” themselves. Not to mention the long-standing example of INmusic not approving accreditations, up until the recent disapproval of photo accreditations at the Marilyn Manson concert in Zagreb and last night's shameful photo shoot from the sound and lighting technicians' area, in front of the mixing desk. Taking photos from about thirty meters away cannot produce a decent, let alone creative photo, even with expensive equipment. If the photographer has freedom, you will get the best and most diverse shots, which you can check and approve before publishing anyway. It's a shame that we couldn't even use the golden hour last night because of this.

I can say that I have at least partially corrected an old mistake, we will not go into details about why it is not the same for me to hear The Police and Sting live, but on this occasion I heard most of what I would expect from the "police" because I sincerely doubt that they would play "Truth Hits Everybody" and "Next to You".

We had the opportunity to hear top songs, in a special setting, performed by excellently played musicians, with slightly changed arrangements to make them seem fresher, and there is nothing much to add. Unfortunately, it often seemed to me that the audience was there when Sting was there, as if they took it lightly and were not present enough and enjoyed the performance.

(c) Muzika.hr by Silvije Novosel

Sting once again brought a timeless cross-section of his career to the Croatian audience...

Sting is already a very frequent guest in Croatia - yesterday's concert at the Pula Arena was held just a month after his performance in Zagreb, as part of the STING 3.0 tour, and the packed Arena proved that fans can't get enough of him that easily.

Together with guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas, he brought a cross-section of his timeless hits and took the loyal audience down a musical memory lane that was not hindered even by the extraordinary evening heat.

The trio opened the concert, as in Zagreb, with Message in the Bottle, starting precisely at 9 p.m. During approximately an hour and a half of playing, they performed songs from Sting's solo career such as Fields of Gold, Englishman in New York, Shape of My Heart, Desert Rose and Brand New Day. There are of course also the Police hits: Roxanne, So Lonely, Every Breath You Take, and others.

The songs flowed into each other, in Sting's characteristic relaxed, sliding and gentle manner, and his voice, despite the considerable mileage behind him, still carries the music. The songs also stand the test of time, as well as the test of this format where there are no backing vocals, accompanying visuals and a handful of instruments, but only three experienced, skilled musicians who believe in what they are playing. If the circumstances had been different, this could have been the concert of the summer, but yesterday's performance still lacked something to be placed in our memory with that title.

Sting and his audience love each other, that is already unquestionable, even when the performance does not reach the level that his previous performances on our field may have carried. Maybe it's the fatigue and saturation of the performers, so at times everything seems like a mere rehearsing, with the best will and desire to be different, but even repetitive tours can have their price.

Sting is still present, a charismatic and professional figure, but the general impression was actually lukewarm, at least compared to what their concert (even with this stripped-down line-up) can be. Maybe it's also the sound system, the sound of which was not full and powerful enough, so some songs, especially the livelier and more dynamic ones, sounded empty. In fact, the calmer acoustic pieces sounded best, such as Shape of My Heart and Fragile, while Desert Rose, for example, was unbelievably lifeless.

Such shortcomings ultimately don't have to spoil the concert experience. The songs are still there, as part of a timeless opus that we appreciate and love. And to be part of a moment where we listen to a man who has left such a mark on contemporary music, and who resists saying that it would be enough now, because he enjoys it, is simply beautiful. It is a shame that yesterday's concert did not bring the catharsis and beauty that we all might have wished for, but that probably will not prevent us from continuing to warmly welcome him whenever the opportunity arises.

(c) Artkvart by Franka Blažić

Pula Arena hosts Sting again after nine years: audience ovations for energetic trio and well-known songs...

The repertoire alternated between his greatest solo hits and songs from the Police era, along with some lesser-known and rarely performed songs
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On Saturday night, the arena was full to the last seat. The stands were empty, the ground floor was also filled to capacity, and tickets for the concert had long been sold out and were being sought after everywhere.

An audience of all generations gathered in Pula, and there was only one reason – Sting returned to the Pula Arena for the fourth time after nine years, as part of the "Sting 3.0" tour. The evening opened, at exactly 9 p.m. as announced, with the song "Message in a Bottle".

We're glad to be back here after nine years. I was only 25 years old at the time, Sting joked.

Thousands of fans welcomed the concert on their feet, ready to sing along with Sting to well-known hits that have marked generations. "Englishman in New York" already caused the first big ovations. The audience sang along loudly with Sting, and the atmosphere became more intense from song to song.

The repertoire alternated between his greatest solo hits and songs from the era of The Police, along with some lesser-known and rarely performed songs. However, the concert could not have been without classics such as "Fields of Gold" and "Shape of My Heart", as well as "Desert Rose" and "Every Breath You Take".

He was joined on stage by long-time collaborator and guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas. Without a big band and lavish production, Sting relied primarily on the songs and energy of the three-piece line-up. His voice, recognisable melodies and songs that the audience knows almost by heart remained in the foreground.

The concert was energetic, although it was also possible to hear in the audience that some songs would have benefited from backing vocals to give them a fuller sound. The Arena reacted the loudest to "Roxanne". Sting performed it in a partly jazz version, and it was with this song that he returned for an encore.

After he briefly left the stage, the audience called him back, followed by "Roxanne" and "Fragile", with which he finally said goodbye to the Pula audience after a total of an hour and a half of concert.

The 17-time Grammy winner's performance was the second major concert of this year's Adria Summer Festival, which marked its tenth edition. The festival hosted Black Coffee on Friday, while Sting performed on Saturday night.

Before Sting, the audience was warmed up by Nottingham's Girlband, a dynamic punk band whose pop music draws on influences from the 1950s to the 1990s.

(c) Novi List by Doria Mohorović

Sting 3.0 at the Pula Arena – good, three!

The respected musician and a welcome and often seen guest in Croatia, Sting, performed in the beautiful Arena, a space that will once again be able to see interesting names from the world's pop rock scene this year.

It is (un)thankful to write about Sting's performances in Croatia. I first saw and heard him at the Temple of Vespasian in July 1997, almost thirty years ago. Both then and now, it must be admitted that the songs of the former band The Police, as well as the hits of his long solo career, find their way to the hearts (ears/eyes) of old and new fans of this multiple winner of numerous awards (critics and audiences). About a month and a half ago, he performed at the Zagreb Arena in a slightly longer performance than the one in Pula, performing about twenty of his hits, songs that have their place in the collective consciousness of both his older fans (I remind you, he was born in 1951) and the younger generations (who were born much later, after the years when The Police were storming the charts and playing live).

This time, in the form of a trio (bass, guitar, drums) and in slightly changed arrangements, songs like “Message in the Bottle”, “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” alternated with light songs from the period after the group broke up. I especially liked the measured versions of “Fields of Gold” and “Shape of My Heart”. The sparse or rather reduced instrumentation was at times an advantage or disadvantage, depending on the songs in question. An example of the latter is, for example, “Englishman In New York”, which was performed quite “barely”. Without denying the competence or excellence of the band members, guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas, and even Sting himself, especially as a bassist (he also performed the vocal parts correctly), my personal wish is to see him again with a few more colleagues on stage. The concert with an encore in which a slightly longer version of “Roxanne” and the fragile “Fragile” were performed lasted an hour and a half, which was much shorter than the aforementioned June concert in Zagreb.

Finally, it should be mentioned that the opening act was the Nottingham band Girlband, which was warmly received by the audience in the Arena. The members did a solid job of warming up for the star of the evening on an already warm Pula night.

(c) Muzic Box by Željko Mirković

Less is more – Sting proved it again at the Pula Arena...

Nine years have passed since Sting last stood on this stage. The ninth floor, some would say, because no matter how hard we try to evoke that feeling of “he’s here again”, the truth is that none of us in that audience were the same as they were nine years ago. And yet, as soon as he played “Message in a Bottle”, all of that was somehow lost. It was as if the time between two concerts simply did not exist.

The Arena was sold out, which is not a surprise these days when it comes to big names driving through Istria in the summer.

The concert was part of the Sting 3.0 tour, and it arrived in Pula as the second major performance of this year’s Adria Summer Festival – the day before, on Friday, Black Coffee was there with his DJ booth and a light production that the Arena rarely sees. Sting brought the complete opposite. No dancers, no pyrotechnics. Just him, the bass guitar, and two people next to him.

And that simplicity is what worked the most.

Dominic Miller has been around for – what, thirty-something years? He knows when to stop playing and when to insert a note that changes everything. There is no exaggeration, no solos for the sake of solos. His guitar is there to add color, not to draw attention to himself. Chris Maas on drums keeps things solid, modern – without trying to imitate Stewart Copeland and his specific, intermittent style from the days of The Police. And it's a good thing he doesn't try. It would be a cheap imitation of something that was once special precisely because it belonged to a different time and a different band.

Sting started at exactly nine o'clock in the evening, as announced – a rarity these days, when half the performers are half an hour late “because of the atmosphere”. The first song, “Message in a Bottle”, and the audience is immediately on their feet. Before the second song started, he made a joke – he said that the last time he played in Pula, he was “only twenty-five years old”. The audience laughed, he laughed, and that set the tone for the whole evening. It wasn’t a performance by a “great legend coming to do a job”. It was more like someone inviting friends over to their house for an informal gig, except that “home” happened to be a two-thousand-year-old Roman amphitheatre.

“I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart)” and “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You” followed, then “Englishman in New York” – and that’s when the first real explosion of applause occurred. It’s interesting to see how these songs, despite being decades old, don’t sound like they’re from a museum at all. There’s something edgier, more rock-ish about the arrangements on this tour. Not radically different, but enough to make it seem like Sting and his two collaborators are playing these things because they really feel like playing them, not because they have to.

When it was time for “Fields of Gold,” the entire Arena sighed before the song even started – they only had to hear the first chords to recognize what it was about. And at that very moment, in that ballad, the space began to do its thing. The stone, the night, the acoustics that somehow bend around the voice – all of this together creates a weight that no studio recording can replicate. The same thing happened with “Shape of My Heart” later in the set.

After “Fields of Gold,” he introduced “Never Coming Home,” a song that not everyone in the audience had heard, but which served as a nice little break before the concert returned to more familiar territory.

Around that point, the part of the evening that belonged to The Police began – “Wrapped Around Your Finger,” played in an unexpectedly minimalist, almost modest way. Then “Driven to Tears.” Well, "Can't Stand Losing You", in which a clip of "Synchronicity II" was inserted - a small thing, but it is such small things that make the difference between a concert that is "the same as any other on tour" and one that is remembered.

“Brand New Day” and “So Lonely” kept the tempo going, and then “Desert Rose” literally got the crowd going. Not excessive, not hysterical - rather one would say that the atmosphere was warm, almost family-like. It's as if everyone in that audience knows they're here because they want to be, not because it was supposed to be the "event of the season".

"Every Breath You Take" closed the regular part of the program and turned the whole Arena into one loud chorus. You could literally hear thousands of voices singing what is, by all accounts, the most famous song in the entire catalogue. After that, a short break, darkness, and then - the return.

The audience called for him, and he returned with "Roxanne", but not the version we all know by heart. This time with a lot of jazz elements, with room for improvisation, almost as if he wanted to show that a song almost half a century old still has something to say when shaken up a bit. He closed with “Fragile” – just electro-classical guitar and voice, nothing else. The message of the song, about how fragile we all really are, sounded almost like a confession in that performance, not like a big star performing in front of thousands of people.

An hour and a half after he started, the concert was over. Short, some will say – but it didn’t seem short while it lasted.

Before Sting, the British trio Girlband! from Nottingham played – alternative rock, with a touch of feminism in the lyrics that is not hidden but openly displayed. This was not the first time they had played with Sting; this duo, or rather trio, had already toured with him before, and in Pula, it seems, they also played their last date together on this tour. For half an hour, they tried to establish contact with the audience, which, frankly, was not in the mood for interaction. By the last song, they remained a little reserved, a little distanced – not because of a lack of energy, but because the audience simply did not respond to them.

Part of the audience was really there, completely immersed, singing every word. But the other part – and that part is not small – seemed to be present only with their bodies. They stood, perhaps applauding when necessary, but it did not feel like they were really there, with that music, at that moment. As if it was enough to come because “Sting is in town”, and not because the music really moved them.

This wasn't a concert that relied on spectacle to impress. It didn't need to. When you have songs that have survived fifty years and still sound relevant, when you have a musician who, in his seventh decade, still sings cleanly and plays with precision, you don't need a screen the size of a building to make an impression. Sting proved it – not for the first time, but every time with equal conviction.

(c) Poprock