Sting & Shaggy: The 44/876 Tour

Sting, Shaggy and a concert forged from pure love for music...

Englishman Sting and Jamaican Shaggy teamed up on an album called 44/876 and on Friday brought a show based on their joint album to Prague's Forum Karlín. The two-hour concert offered both current songs and solo hits by both artists and had no weak spots.

So much pure music and humour rarely fits into a two-hour concert. Sting and Shaggy gave vent to their shared love for Jamaica, which resulted in the album 44/876 - the name is derived from the telephone codes of the two artists' native countries.

They are now on tour with their album and Friday's concert at Prague's Forum Karlín proved that when everyone involved is simply having fun, it's hard to find fault with the result. So perhaps just the obligatory sigh that a long space would have been better served by at least a small screen transmitting the events on stage. And from the beginning, the dense sound could have revealed individual instruments more specifically.

Otherwise, the band, composed partly of Sting's and partly of Shaggy's musicians, played like a dream. The same was true of the protagonists. Sting's concerts are always a musical experience, but here the visitors got something extra. Every musician should have their own Shaggy, a restless devil from the box who runs around the stage, purposefully teases the audience and at the right moment even adds a great singing.

Songs from the album 44/876 were played, as well as hits from both - Message in a Bottle or Every Breath You Take from The Police repertoire, Sting's songs Desert Rose, Fields of Gold or Englishman in New York, where this time they also sang about a Jamaican in New York. Shaggy got the audience going with pieces like Angel, Hey Sexy Lady or Boombastic.

The most impressive of the new releases was probably the single Don't Make Me Wait, but actually no song was played in vain. Sting and the band pushed forward with uncompromising force, and Shaggy had the audience on command – hands up, clap, you're the best audience, Prague – without it coming across as awkward or condescending. This was a true college of stage communication.

There was also some humorous banter between the two singers, a theatrical trial with Sting in the song Crooked Tree, and finally it turned out that Sting had been wearing a T-shirt from their joint merchandising under his black jacket the whole time. That's when Shaggy pointed it out, telling visitors not to forget to buy it when they left, and that it was being performed by "affordable supermodel Claudia Stinger".

Sting and Shaggy simply delivered an entertaining and musically flawless show. As a replacement for Sting's joint concert with Paul Simon, which was cancelled three years ago, it was more than good and quite possibly even better.

(c) Idnes by Václav Hnátek