I've just come back from the last three European shows in Orléans, Vienne and Nîmes, and I am a wee bit tired. Andrea, Deborah and I had the honor of travelling with Jeremy. The shows were great - Orléans felt a bit tedious for the band, but Vienne and Nîmes were two of the best shows I've seen (Nîmes had a few excellent surprises.)
I will post a full review of our cheeky adventures tomorrow as I need to get some sleep, otherwise I will go mental. And by the time I'll have recuperated, it will start all over again with the Today show, Camden, PNC, Jones Beach, Buffalo... Central Park... We're so spoiled!
Just back from my trip with 2 shows in Vienne and Nimes in France...
Well... Just: WAOW!!! Everything was just so fine!!!
I finally met my fellow chat mate Jeremy, then Fred, Deborah, Andrea, Lydia from italy... Benjamin from Paris, Jerome, cristophe... They were so people inthere!!! It was nice to meet you all, now I can put a face on the names, it's a nice feeling...
A nice thing that help to make the week end unforgettable is that Sting and the band gave two really excellent shows... Both in great roman open theatre...
Cheb Mami opened for both shows... Nice show, Jer liked it better than me it seems!!!
No news in the setlist of course, but we had a highlight in Nimes, which was the last european show before the states. During Roxanne Sting just sang the words of I can't stand losing you... Smiling each time he had: I can't stand losing you... ALL the people in front were nuts!!! Sting at the sort of smile: you want some more no???, ok then: I can't stand losing yoooouu...
They also rearranged Brand New Day... The guitar riff is completly different, kind of bossa nova... really nice...
Also to had that Nasser, the darbouka player stayed on stage from Bring On the Night in Nimes... He's such a blast, and a great guy it seems...
Just before the first encore he came back saying: England: 1, Germany: 0
So he's concerned by England's result in the Euro 2000 championship...All the people on stage and in the arena were such in great mood in Nimes...
After five BND shows, Nimes is the highlight for me... I never saw Sting having so much fun on stage...
After the show we had a drink all together, then Fred and Andrea (with noisy suitcase!!!) had to take their train for Paris then Flight to the states...
Bye bye... Enjoy the Today show and the New Jersey show lucky fellows!!!
Hope we'll all meet again soon even if I won't be able to make it to central park this september!!!
So now, all you people in the US, be careful, Europe is sending you back Sting and his band better that they ever been... Be prepared to great shock!!!
I already posted a full review with details and all and all, but it seems that the mail got lost.
Unfortunnatly I don't have the courage to make another long post as I already did...
I'll just say that:
WAOW!!! Great to meet you Jeremy, Fred, Debs, Andrea, Benjamin, Lydia, Marco and many more....
I only went to Vienne and Nimes shows but as Fred already said, it seems that the Orleans was week, so no regrets as Vienne and Nimes were two excellent shows... I mean incredible shows!!!
As Fred says, we had some surprises in Nimes but as he wants to make a full review I won't ruin his suspense!!! Come on Fred, make them nuts!!!
Hope you had a nice trip in france...
Romans build this place... Yeah... Nimes was really an excellent gig, lots of fun, If only I could make it to central park... Unfortunnatly, so far away from me!!!
I had a great time and hopes the band will make another set of shows later in the tour in france, maybe one more Paris date???
See you all sooner or later...
Ok, so before the Today Shows comes along and I can't keep track of which shows I've seen, I thought I'd take the time to write a complete review of the the last three European shows in France.
It was nice to see some familiar faces again when Andrea and I arrived in Paris. We met Jeremy and Benjamin (thanks for picking us up Ben!) and Deborah. It was starting to feel like our last trip to France, minus the Mad English and LBB! We had lunch the following day with a friend of mine who's been to many concerts and who was going to Vienne and Nîmes also. Oddly enough, he recognized Jeremy and Deborah! (I wonder why?!...)
We got to Orléans at 4:30 and there were four people there. They considered themselves hard-core fans since they had come from every corner of France. Their pride was crushed when they learned that we came from New York! We met up with Estelle, Jérôme, Christophe and Eric from the French fan club. They had just seen Sting at an autograph session in Paris. They asked him if he could play Ghost Story, but he said he didn't remember the words. They asked him if he would do Message In a Bottle, and he said "We'll see..."
The concert in Orléans was good, but nothing spectacular. It felt like the show was on autopilot. The tour is obviously taking its toll on the band, and Sting was the only one not showing signs of fatigue. It was nice to hear how the arrangements have evolved since January. Roxanne and Faith have changed dramatically, as well as All This Time and Tomorrow We'll See... Change is good, especially when the setlist remains the same. It seems the band and crew interact a lot whenever Sting has his back to them (which is most of the time!) Jason and Kipper have this sit-stand routine they do during Brand New Day, Kipper and the crew toss Kipper's scratch board back and forth behind the stage during Moon Over Bourbon Street, and the crew makes a hand gesture during the "do-do-dos" in Perfect Love. So not much to say about this concert - it was good, but not excellent. And Sting didn't play Message...
The next show was sure to be different though. The venue was an old open-air amphitheater built on the side of a mountain. It had a very intimate feel (2,000 seats) We contemplated staying there the whole day to see them set up (we got there at 7:00 am when the crew started putting up the scaffolding) but decided to rest, as we had been on the road for 5 hours, and wee little Jeremy was sleeping in the car... But odd impulses can come over you when you lack sleep and are overdosed on Sting...
Oddly enough, even though people showed up early, we ended up easily in the front row, dead center, about 1 meter from the stage. The front section was full of freaks: Jeremy, Deborah, Andrea, Lydia & Marco from Italy, Alain and Pierre from Barcelona, Martin and Fabien (it was nice to finally meet you both) and a few others I might have forgotten...
Somehow, Andrea and I ended up backstage before the show (I know, we're terrible people!) We were told Sting was watching the soccer game, but a few minutes later, his Stingness came out of his trailer and we took pictures. It happened pretty fast, and he disappeared in the blink of an eye... We then went back in the pit with the commoners, and Cheb opened the show. This was the best opening show I've seen Cheb do. His band is really tight and very energetic. They got the whole crowd hyped up.
The intro to A Thousand Years takes a wee bit longer now, since it takes a bit of time for Kipper to get to his seat with his crutches (they moved him close to the backup singer btw.) As soon as A Thousand Years was over, it felt like this show was going to be much different from Orléans. The whole band seemed happy to be there, and were looking up in awe at the amphitheater and the church at the top of the mountain. There was a lot more interaction from Sting (how could he ignore "BELLISSIMO!!!") During Englishman In New York, all of us freaks would go up on the "say" in "Be yourself, no matter what they say" (like he does before "O-o, I'm an alien...") to throw him off a bit. He looked down at us with a smirk on his face as if to say "You guys have been to WAY too many show!" The band had a good laugh when we all did that hand signal during Perfect Love that we saw the crew doing the night before! There were a couple of surprises also, like a brand new Brand New Day! Dom played chords rather than the familiar riff. And Sting kept going higher and higher on the "O" in "Roxanne-O", and the audience followed suite. He was impressed and said "Pas mal!" (Not bad) It was nice to see Cheb Mami and "Monsieur Abdel Nasser" back on for Desert Rose. The only let-down was no Message In a Bottle, but otherwise, the show was unbelievable. Great venue, great crowd, great people in the front row, lots of energy from the band... It might be the best show I've seen so far.
I don't want to turn into the guy that all would envy, but Andrea and I ended up backstage again (I know, we suck!) We took pictures with Cheb Mami who was more than happy to do so. It's amazing how a wee little pygmy like that can have such a voice! We then met Chris and Dominic. Dom wasn't talkative at all (I'm sure he was tired) but Chris was great. We talked for a while. He asked us how many shows we had seen, what time we were going to the Today Show... He says they're taking a long break from the tour in November. I asked him if the band was tired at this point, and he said he was exhausted. Oddly enough, I enjoyed our short conversation with Chris more than I enjoyed our lightning-fast photo session with Sting earlier. The night wrapped up with disgusting shish kebabs (the moules et frittes were sadly missed LBB!)
We almost didn't make it to Nîmes the next morning... I spent the entire morning running around town looking for my roll of film, which I couldn't find. I LOST THE PICTURES OF ME AND STING!!! Then, our car was surrounded by mountains of fruit, as the weekly market had engulfed our parking spot. We bought as much fruit as we could from the vendor so that they would leave faster, and we even helped them haul the empty boxes onto the truck to speed up the process!
The venue in Nîmes was breath-taking as well. For those of you who don't know the bull-fighting arena of Nîmes, picture the Coliseum, only smaller. We had the same crowd from Vienne plus the French fan club who were in Orléans. Cheb's set was absolutely mental! The energy was unbelievable, especially Nasser, the derbouka player, who got the whole crowd clapping faster and faster and unbelievably loud to his drum solo. A great way to warm the audience up.
The show in Nîmes didn't have the intimacy that Vienne did, but it had a lot more surprises. Sting wasn't as rehearsed, and it felt like the band was given more freedom for this last show. We got the whole crowd to do the hand signal during Perfect Love, which the band got a kick out of. The major highlight from this show was definitely Roxanne. Sting sang the line "I can't stand losing you" in the middle. The crowd instantly went nuts! He looked down with a smirk on his face as if to say "You want some mo'?" I never thought he'd turn it into a big deal, but he kept singing "I can't stand losing you-oo-ooo" It was so nice to hear something radically different. He also had the crowd whispering "Roxanne-o" which was great. Another surprise was Bring On The Night: while Cheb left after Desert Rose, Nasser stayed to play derbouka. Change is good. If it ain't broke, FIX IT!
When Sting came back for the first encore, he said "Angleterre: 1, Allemagne: 0" (England 1, Germany 0) The crowd cheered and the band laughed hysterically as they kicked into Faith! No Message again that night (I can't understand why he wouldn't do it...) but a great show with lots of energy, and different enough to really stand out.
We had a chance to get a couple of drinks with all the other freaks (thanks Benjamin for whatever that Pastis thing was!) Unfortunately we had to leave early, as did Lydia who was so sad it was all over (I'll yell "Bellissimo" at Sting for you during the US shows!) Thanks Martin, Fabien and Benjamin for walking (running?!) us back to the train station. Thanks Deborah for being good company, and a big thank you to Jeremy for driving around France, and not wearing your contacts in Nîmes! LBB, you were sadly missed. LFB and LJB hope you can make it to Central Park...
I apologize if some of this just doesn't make sense. I didn't really think it through before writing, and I'm still trying to get over my jet lag.
Thanks for coming, thanks for reading, God bless, we'll see you again. Next gig: Today Show!
Once again, I find myself having the pleasure of reporting to you the latest saga of concert reviews, silly nights out, utter lunacy and a general overview of what it is like to go on these mini Sting tour adventures. While I hope that this will be read with a smile, I am perfectly aware that there are a number of you with a strong desire to complain about everything that isn't 103% Sting or Police content, so for those in that category......... I leave you an anagram to sort. Please put these words in the correct order.
LIFE - A - GET
or if that is too difficult then try this one
OFF - PISS
Wednesday March 14th 2000
It is 6am on a cold morning in Paris, I have just awoken to the awful sounds of a alarm clock squawking in my ear, followed up with the sounds of Benjamin telling me "Jeremy, Jeremy....time to get up..... time to go to the airport". After many failed attempts to go back to sleep, I find myself on the motorway out of Paris heading for the airport to meet the merry bunch with which I have the pleasure of doing the latest leg of the Sting tour with. Fred, Andrea and Debs all arrived more or less on time and I ...well....er...didn't.
After various delays, disorganization etc, we picked up our rental car and headed for Paris. We spent the day collecting parking tickets and looking for one of those silly little tape things with a wire hanging off them that enable you to play cd's in your car when you don't have a car cd player.... after numerous visits to Darty we eventually accomplished the mission, and went off to meet Nasser for lunch.
For those of you who don't know, Nasser (aka Wee mini Cheb aka Walrus) is the Darbouka player that plays in the Cheb Mami band and often plays with Sting on After the rain and Desert Rose. The afternoon was spent with us basically trying to not eat red meat, eating aphrodisiac cakes, drinking water that was supposed to taste like it had orange something or other in it ....but really didn't, and failing to stop Nasser paying the bill everywhere we went. The night was spent going shopping in Paris for cd's and eating glow in the dark radioactive Fluorescent green Tabouli. I have no explanation for why I am mentioning this stuff at all.
Thursday March 15th 2000
Today is the third last concert of the European leg of the tour. We set off about 2 for the short ( 2 hour) drive to Orleans. The drive was really just a continuation of the Fred and Andrea vocal duet that originated in earlier in the tour in Lille (Jan 7th). Singing all the way.... we arrived around 4 and made our play for the front of the line. For those of you who don't know our young Andrea, she suffers from a rare disease called mustgetfrontrowitis. The main symptom is an overwhelming desire to think up all the things that can go wrong that will prevent her from being in the front row. Well anyways, after a generally uneventful afternoon of Deborah and Andrea peeing in the bushes and us being locked up like cattle, we were eventually let loose from the turnstiles and set free for the sprint to the front of the stage. For those of you who have not ever done this, there is a strange thing that always happens. They open the gates, and all the people calmly walk towards the entrance.....everybody knows that each other wants to get to the front, yet there seems to be a fear of looking stupid that prevents most people from instantly sprinting......it is not that unsimilar to what cyclists do in the Tour De France. Fred and I were the first two people through the gate...and while the young Fred walked with an almost royal like dignity..... I said "$&#$" it and ran my socks off...
Well as usual Andrea's fears were wasted and she found herself along side Deborah, Me, Fred, and Marie Paul in the middle of the front row.
The band is the same as always with the exception of the new backup singer. I have to be honest and say that he doesn't fit the part at all. Looks like he would be more comfortable in Oasis or something...hands in pockets.... microphone switched off sort of thing. There is an alarming amount of singing coming from backup tapes as opposed to from singers mouths in the set at the moment. This is not opinion, it is fact that I can prove beyond any shadow of a doubt. Not that it is tough to prove when you can clearly hear women singing the backups and yet there are no women singers on the stage. There is also a lot of Sting back up vocals on the tapes also, featuring heavily on many tracks including 1000 years. Andrea and Debs kept talking about the fact that Jason was not wearing any socks...but they did make me promise that I wouldn't put that in the reviews...... mums the word.
The show was very flat, the band seemed exhausted, and really felt like they were just going through the motions, I wont add too much info about the songs in tonight's review as they were all a little flat. When the main tech people finish setting up the gear now, they have a little silly handshake thing that they do now...so about 10 min before the opening rumble of 1000 years have a look if you want to....
Setlist
encore
encore
Goodnight Orleans, god bless and we'll see you again.
After being more or less hounded out of the Chinese restaurant after the show, we started our long drive to Vienne for the 2nd show. As the drive was about 5-6 hours, we decided not to get a hotel and just drive through the night. Rumours abound about me hallucinating giant Pand bears throwing biscuits and Gas Station bakeries, but I think the others just suffered from lack of sleep as I didn't know what they are all on about. We almost bought a Sting Karaoke tape at a gas station in the middle of the night, but managed to hold back the temptation. We arrived in Vienne about 6.30 am and tried to check into out hotel and go to sleep....
NEVER IN MY 30 YEARS OF OWNING THIS HOTEL HAVE I EVER HAD THIS HAPPEN TO ME........ENGLISH PIGS !!!! (even though none of us are English)
I missed all of the above as I was fast asleep in the car..... I did however wake up in a foul mood in the car and took it out on everyone though.
Spent the late afternoon hanging out with Martin V, and did the usual pre gig sprint to the front of the stage...to be greeted to the sounds of Lydia....screaming jjjjeremy....jjjjjeremy. Andrea like yesterday was ill again, Spent most of the pre show talking with Martin, Lydia, Guido, Fabian and his lovely bride. The Amphitheatre here is beautiful.
Friday June 16th 2000 Vienne
encore
encore
After the show, we locked Debs and Andrea in the hotel lobby for a while and then we (Debs, Me, Fred, Andrea, Alain and his two friends) attempted to find a meal, but found that all we could have was either a Kebab, another Kebab or a kebab. After a few drinks and er.... kebabs... we went back to the hotel for some well deserved sleep.
Saturday June 17th Vienne
We awoke to find that the town of Vienne had decided to "erect" its local market around our car, therefore we had to wait until it closed at 1.30 before we could hit the road for Nimes.
Eventually hit the road around 1.45 for the 2.5 hour drive to Nimes. The Arena in Nimes is stunning also, "Erected" by the Romans in the first century... really amazing.
Spent the afternoon sorting the hotel, and then waiting in the line to make sure we were again at the front. Andrea once again decided to panic and worry about the fact that there was 2 people in front of her in the line.... we all took turns slapping her (Just like in the airplane movie).
Sure enough, we were all in the front row again as usual (Martin, Fabian, Estelle, Debs, Fred, Andrea, Me, Lydia, Marie Paul, Guido,Christophe, Jerome) and Benjamin who was angry with us all for not picking him up.... sorry for that, once again the road crew did the silly handshake thing, and then the show began....
Rumble rumble, the stage is a mess ....rumble rumble... er...yea.
encore
encore
While the setlist hasn't really changed since the opening night of the European tour in Lille (Jan 7th), it is amazing to see the progression that the songs have made during that time. If you listen to the cd's of both the Lille show and then the Nimes show, it is amazing to hear the differemce in the performances.
Had a backstage pass tonight, so Fred, Andrea and I went back for a very short while and then I was deeply honoured to accompany Fred's entourage to one of the local restaurants for some Vodka and Orange and various other concoctions.......after a while we all went our separate ways and it was over. (How can you tell that I have lost interest in typing this ?)
Was very nice to once again spend time with Fred and Andrea, and to finally meet my good friend Martin in person. Great to see Benjamin again (also very nice of him to put Deborah and I up in his home outside Nimes..... what a wonderful host he was, loads of vodka, beautiful food and great beaches. Thanks also to the Romans for "erecting" all these great places for us to see concerts...and what is all this talk of erections anyway ?
Great to spend loads of time with Deborah again, hope you got home safely today and will probably talk to you tonight.......
Karel you would have loved this trip, and I was sad not to have you there, Ross, Bill and Paul and Andy were missed also...
Next for me is Denver on the 25th July..... then some shows around Houston....... then Fred, Alain, Deborah and I are going to Tokyo........ do any of us work for a living ?
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