Summer: 2015

Sunny Sting solo at Sofiero...

What would Wednesday evening at Sofiero be like? Rain gear or picnic? There were clouds of worry. How appropriate would the song "Heavy cloud no rain" be? But during the afternoon the sun peeked out. With 9,000 in the audience (sold out), this was probably the concert of the summer in Helsingborg. Not a dazzling story, but summer has not been dazzling either.

The European tour only includes two gigs in Sweden (next stop: Storsjöyran in Östersund on Friday).

Gordon Sumner's involvement in various worthy projects is as PK as Lisa Simpson. Humour and self-distance are not his best assets. He is close to a kind of insinuating melancholy. He can sometimes be very Bror Duktig (throw yourself against the wall, Bono!). But he spoke relaxedly between songs and seemed to enjoy his debut in Helsingborg. 

Sting went on earlier than planned because James Walsh's flight had been severely delayed. Well, no one was there for the band. The musicians, who opened before Sting in a t-shirt and bushy hipster beard, made their entrance with "If I ever lose my faith in you". Nearly two hours of 18 platinum songs picked from a more than 35-year Grammy-winning career. Many originated from The Police's five albums. He left out some goodies and used no material from his latest, strongly personal album "The last ship".

It was a varied trip through styles and music fashion. Some, like "Roxanne", are mega classics. The breadth was evident in the oriental-sounding "Desert rose". Sting's soft "Fields of gold" has been called one of his favourite songs by Sir Paul McCartney. Apparently an audience favourite too. He got the crowd to respond "No rain" to his "Heavy cloud". However, it is a dark comedy that the menacing stalker song "Every breath you take" (recently named "song of the 80s" in the UK) is a favourite of many loving couples... 

Guitarist Dominic Miller has been with the band for a long time. David Sancious, keyboards, Vinnie Colaiuta, drums, and the colourful Peter Tickell on violin were also praised often and often – even by the manager. Sting himself is a versatile bassist. He likes to highlight riffs and choruses. The band stands for elegant jazz and funk-inspired pop with room for reggae and other rhythmic figures. The fresh 63-year-old had female backing, but his characteristic high, bright voice had no trouble hitting the notes.

They topped it off with the sing-along delight “Next to you”. Response with applause and cheers. The concert was rounded off nicely with the soft ballad “Fragile”.

Good sound after a rocky start. Nice lighting too, which came into its own during the second hour. But a large screen had lifted the visuals.

(c) Helsingborgs Dagblad by Göran Holmquist

Sting at Sofiero: Like being on Hemnet junkies...

HELSINGBORG. Nothing has changed.

The songs are still like housing advertisements.

Bright, fresh, white – and impersonal.

Listening to Sting live is just like browsing through housing advertisements. The music sounds like the photographs on Hemnet look like. In perfect light, some perfectly placed furniture stands and tries to make apartments or houses look perfect.

And Sting's set list is in a way a blockbuster real estate agent's dream.

Here is the obligatory basil in the kitchen ("Englishman in New York") which, through its color and shape, makes the picture look a little more pleasant.

Here is the equally obligatory bowl of plastic fruit that never rots ("Every breath you take", "Roxanne", "Message in a bottle").

There are several functional IKEA pieces of furniture here that are easy to assemble ("Fields of gold", "Shape of my heart").

There are even the occasional scratch on the floor (the arch-silly "De do do do, de da da da").

The problem is that very few people live in apartments that look like "come and buy me" ads, unless their name is Patrick Bateman and they play the lead role in a novel by Bret Easton Ellis. Sting has a lot of excellent songs, but when he performs them today they become a Teflon pan - nothing sticks.

In addition, the well-trained bassist with the hipster beard insists on presenting his own equivalent of the housing market's most hated phenomenon: bidding. I'm referring, of course, to all the unnecessary solos here.

Of course, the musicians get to take a proper walk with their instruments. Some of them take the ferry to Helsingør, round trip, before they're done. And when even the violin starts to squeak avant-garde, the picnic blankets next to me start tugging at my trouser legs and wondering what's going on. We agree that Sting must have gotten some kind of "feeling".

The bassist manages his music well. There's nothing wrong with his professional skills. But I'll never understand the point of live concerts that have a sound where all the emotion has been photo-retouched away.

(c) Aftonbladet by Markus Larsson