Summer: 2013

Sting's clever hit parade...

On a perfect Sumner's night. I have to surrender completely to Gordon Sumner. I saw the Back To Bass show in February, it was fresh and fine, but keyboardist David Sancious was the icing on the cake this time, plus several times jazzy playroom in the middle of a perfect selection of only good melodies. Sting chose right this evening.

61-year-old Sting enters the stage as if he hasn't changed his clothes since Falconer Salen in February: tight white T-shirt, black leather pants and very close-cropped hair. But the most important thing has changed: the music. Gone is the young guitarist, Rufus Miller, and replaced by Sancious, who has played with Peter Gabriel, John McLaughlin and Santana, among others. The difference can be experienced already in the first minute of "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You". And a good sound engineer has the equipment under control and not least turned up the masterful singer Jo Lawry. Magic from the first song.

Approximately 25,000 spectators get a whipping Police song, "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta kicks and drives the hit to new heights. A few bars into the intro of the next one, the audience sings along – before the first verse. "Englishman In New York" is a gigahit, despite its non-folk rhythm and saxfills originally performed by Branford Marsalis, but this evening played by Sancious on synthesizer. Sting and co. have summer victory in the amusement park already after the third number, and that's what you think with such a well-singing frontman.

"All This Time" is a song that many Danish composers would have been proud to have created, and Sting enjoys it, but it is not a "crowdpleaser", Sting doesn't care, and that should be a good omen for the rest of the two hours in mid-July. Very few superstars can get away with making hits in odd time signatures, Sting can, and the band takes on the beautiful "Seven Days" and lifts it, as it is the most natural thing in the world to play evergreens in 5/4.

"Fields Of Gold" is performed in an almost acoustic version, and then it couldn't be performed more housewife-friendly. But Sting is cunning. His set list constantly alternates between the folk and the bent. Well. Occasionally the odd is disguised as a well-known song, as in "Driven To Tears", for example, but refined in new arrangements. And in this Policekending, violinist Peter Tickell goes crazy and challenges the evening's garden party with a wild and good solo. Sting and co. wants to be wild, but knows the premise of these huge concerts, pop immediately alternates between the less pop, and "Heavy Cloud No Rain" becomes a community song, while David Sancious throws in some bent keyboard magic along the way.

"Message In A Bottle". Can anything more new be cooked out of one of the Police's first hits? Yes, it sounds like it. Because in this version, reggae rock is cleverly conjured into jazz-reggae by Vinnie Colaiuta, another disciple of drum god Billy Cobham, and Colaiuta has by now achieved drum saint status. In "Hounds Of Winter" choir singer Jo Lawry proves that she is one of the best that the bandmaster has ever brought on the long tours, and that she can easily cover several octaves in a virtuoso operatic solo. Lawry is also better than she was six months ago.

And when the former school teacher chooses my favourite Police composition, "Wrapped Around Your Finger" with the subtle lyrics that have the line "I have only come here seeking knowledge – things they would not teach me of in college", I am sold on the Newcastle son, whose late father was a dock worker. The highlight of the evening for me. But also a bit high-brow compared to the 25,000 audience, so forward with the hit "Do Do Do Da Da Da", which is about to tip over, but then Sting starts playing a bass riff in 7/4 time, and David Sancious dribbles a completely black jazz piano solo out of his knuckles, Peter Tickell follows up with bowed violin jazz and Colaiuta ends with an up-up-up bravura solo.

The bandleader Sting knows that that jazz arouses unrest in Danish ears, so he then throws in "Roxanne", and everything is normal and good. Well... not quite. The world hit is played beautifully with new chord variations and also gives room for Sting's convincing vocal playground.

The extra track is another of my favourites, "Desert Rose", but again in a completely transformed version, a lot more Arabic-sounding than on the album "Brand New Day" from 1999, and Sancious and Tickell master their Arabic phrases together. Sting ends the hit with the word: "Sukran" - thank you in Arabic. An expression of format on the part of the Brit, and this is further highlighted by the penultimate song "King Of Pain". Dominic Miller dominates beautifully on guitar. And the finale is of course "Every Breath You Take".

In my last review of the same tour, I asked Sting to play the ball more risky and encouraged Mr. Sumner to challenge the audience. He did so within the special framework of arena concerts, and this time he chose some of his best songs. Sukran sahib Sting.

(c) Gaffa by Morten Buschmann