Miyazaki Let's Go!
I arrived in Tokyo after 12 hours in the air and there joined Sue Bett for a 12 hours train ride on the Bullet Train ... This whole trip was like being in the video 'Police In The East'...
We finally arrived at Miyazaki Saturday 10am. I had left home Thursday 7am, so quite a trip: At this stage we were both wondering why Sting was playing in such a far-away place. Then, on our hotel TV came an advert for the holiday resort where the venue was. Sting was saying ''Miyasaki, let's go'' and being shown leaving his house, guitar in hand, bound for the resort. The music to the advert was a new song called 'Take Me To The Sunshine' - Great stuff!
Next day we bumped into Dominic. He was surprised to see us. Then later I saw Sting in the lobby of the hotel and he shook his head in amazement, then, before heading for the bar he asked me if I'd seen Billy. It really made me feel great, like one of the crew. Later Sting asked me if I was O.K. for tickets for the show and I admitted that we still needed some, so he said that Billy would sort me out. He also commented: ''It's going to be a strange gig this, I hope you've brought your bow tie?'' Uh-oh, I was wearing my shorts as it was so nice, hot and sunny: (One of the best things about following Sting is that it's usually to places in the sun).
It was actually Dominic who 'sorted us out' with tickets. Nice one mate: We were able to hear the sound check at Hotel 4S where the gig was to be - new songs being played: 'When We Dance' and 'Take Me To The Sunshine'.
Well, on to the concert: It was held in the ballroom of the Ocean 4S Hotel as part of the opening party celebrations. In fact, the whole thing was arranged around Sting's show. The crowd turned out to be a mixture of smartly dressed people and regular concert goers. I bumped into Shigeyo, the Japanese girl who always comes to London for Sting's concerts.
The lights went out and the crowd rose to its feet. On came Sting and they all burst into the new song: ''I've been working in the office all year, Got to get away for my sanity's sake...'' Then the chorus: ''Take me to the sunshine, Take me to the sun...''. The crowd joined in with this, obviously they had seen it on their TV a lot already.
After that, straight into 'Faith In You' with a roar of approval from the very enthusiastic crowd. Then followed the usual 'Ten Summoner's Tales' set with Sting singing better than ever, probably the result of not too many gigs prior to this night. The whole concert was filmed for Japanest TV due to be screened 29th December, I was told.
For the first encore Sting sang 'When We Dance' with Dominic joining Sting on vocals - very good: The crowd was spellbound. Then the follow-up 'She's Too Good For Me' during which a few people tried to touch Sting on stage. A quick rousing 'Every Breath...' then 'Fragile.'
In the end the Japanese crowd ran to the stage to try and touch Sting and shake his hand and some of them were in tears. For us it well worth the two days' travel.
Sting went back to the hotel and straight to bed as he was to be up at 5am the next day to start his journey home. I stayed on and visited Kyoto, just like on that 'Police In The East' video. Sue and I really cannot believe that this is our last concert for 1994...
(c) Paul Carter for Sting.com
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