Summoner's Tales: 1993/95

Getting the shivers with Sting - Sting, Royal Albert Hall (rescheduled because he had laryngitis)...

Sting is not a person I would pay to see, but as a friend won the tickets from Capital Radio I thought I might as well go along.

I was expecting it to be a tad boring, sort of CD music for thirty somethings, to play at murder dinner parties.

My friend Phil (a Hendrix / Metallica / GnR fan) called it his "first civilised concert", which summed it up perfectly.

Sting has a truly excellent voice strong, clear and with a hint of a rasp which sends shivers down the spine.

He played a mixed bag. The Beatles covers, 'Penny Lane' and 'A Day In The Life', were brilliant. Even better were The Police tunes 'Roxanne', 'Every Little Thing She Does', 'Every Breath You Take' and 'King Of Pain' - which sent the crowd mad.

He is an accomplished musician, well supported by the drummer and keyboardist, with a bit of help from Larry Adler - one of the all-time great harmonica players, who said he wanted to adopt Sting.

Sting looked pretty dashing in his frilly shirt and black strides, although from the third storey you could see he is starting to get a bit bald. He changed into a lime green waistcoat for his spontaneous (not) encores.

The sound in the Albert is great - could anyone tell me what the mushroom like blobs on the ceiling are for?

(c) Uxbridge & West Drayton Gazette