October 2, 1991
Hollywood Bowl - Pasadena, California, United States
Scott and I just got back from Los Angeles. We went to the birthday show and it was phenomenally good - great! We had box seats (good), but they were off to the side (bad). For those not familiar with the Bowl, the box seats are situated in front of the regular reserved seats. But, don't get gnarly; we paid beaucoup bucks for the opportunity. One rather disgusting thing was that the box seating area was filled with industry types who weren't really into the music. It, of course, was Hollywood so I think being seen at the show was paramount. Very Hollywood. In fact, on the following night while rallying the audience into singing along, Sting made a comment about how the birthday show was filled with celebrities and how they couldn't sing for s--t!
Sting played some great bass that night. He wore the same yellow vest on both nights. Vinx was the opening act and not Animal Logic. The guys that came out for the finale along with Vinx and Andy Summers were Special Beat, a British group which opened for Sting during a portion of the tour. His voice was mostly recovered, but it had worsened considerably for the following night's show. Early on in the birthday show, Sting said something that I believe was edited out of the PPV: He said that he wished that his mom and dad could've been there. Kind of sad. At the end of the show when Sting was out for his final bow, a heavy shower of confetti fell over the stage and the fireworks went off all around the stage shell.
On the following night when I asked them, Vinnie and Dominic said that the ending was a genuine surprise. Hence, Sting probably didn't know what was coming either. When we spoke to Vinnie, he had a copy of what he said was a remix of Mad About You that he and Dominic had produced. It must be the remix used in the PPV introduction. He said that he and Dominic spent three days working on it before the tour started. In addition, he had just received his copy, so that probably means the retail stores can't be too far behind. Andy looks a little distant on stage, and I was told that we was in a bad mood backstage too prior to going on. For those of you who caught the first leg of the tour in early spring, you'll find that Sting has changed a lot of things. One thing is the transition between Wild Wild Sea and Soul Cages. I mean, there isn't one: They are now played as two discrete songs. The earlier version was logical and much more interesting. My impression is that Sting was too conscious of running overtime since his PPV time slot was 8-10 PM, and so he hurried through some of the songs and didn't talk as much to the audience as he has in the past and as he did on the following night. The sound wasn't mixed very well for PPV. We're disappointed about that since the show was broadcast in stereo. The PPV program is kind of sterile, I think, because they show so little of the faces in the audience (unlike Synchronicity video). Instead, you get a lot of the backs of people's heads. But, who cares? The band was excellent. Oh yeah, and David Sancious said that he'll be touring with Peter Gabriel early next year.
Not that I care a lot about reviews and critics, but some of you may like to know that the LA Times couldn't have given the birthday show a better review. I'll send the text in its entirety in a different post.
In the meantime, here is the songlist (same for both nights):
- All This Time
- Jeremiah Blues, Part I
- Mad About You
- Driven To Tears
- Ain't No Sunshine
- Why Should I Cry For You? / Be Still My Beating Heart
- Roxanne
- Bring On The Night / When The World Is Running Down...
- King of Pain
- Fortress Around Your Heart
- The Wild Wild Sea
- The Soul Cages
- Purple Haze
- If You Love Somebody Set Them Free / We'll Be Together
- Walking on the Moon
- Every Breath You Take
- Message In A Bottle
- Fragile
We have great seats for tonight's (Saturday) show at Shoreline Amphitheater. Too close for good sound recording (sorry, Joe), so I'm going to try to take pictures instead.
Here's the LA Times review that I promised (October 4, 1991, page F-1). Happy reading!
HEART AND SOUL FROM STING
by Robert Hilburn
Los Angeles Times
Contrary to some radio news accounts, Sting's concert Wednesday night was not cut short because of the demonstration against Gov. Wilson's veto of gay rights legislation in front of the Hollywood Bowl.
The concert just may have seemed abbreviated - at least to anyone who saw Sting's splendid performances at the start of his yearlong "The Soul Cages" tour in February at the Wiltern Theater.
Instead of using the spectacular Bowl setting and a national pay-per-view cable telecast to expand that two-hour Wiltern program, the English singer-songwriter, who was celebrating his 40th birthday, chopped 20 minutes from the Wiltern presentation.
And it was a crucial 20 minutes because much of it came from one of the most absorbing elements of the Wiltern concert: a four-song cylce from Sting's recent "The Soul Cages" album, a somber, ambitious work that grew out of reflections on the death of his father in 1987.
While other, more accessible songs from "Cages," including the wistful, philosophical "All This Time," also deal eloquently with the feelings of loss outlined in the album, the cycle touches on the theme in a more abstract, literary way that defines of boldness of Sting's artistry and scope.
The songs, including "Island of Soul," "Wild Wild Sea," and "When the Angels Fall," dind't add up to easy listening at the Wiltern, and you could sense some fans getting restless during the demanding journey. Yet it was also a wholly compelling musical experience, and Sting's decision to follow the emotionally draining sequence with a liberating version of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" was brilliant.
By eliminating two of the four songs Wednesday, however, Sting both sacrificed the power of the work and reduced the liberating quality of "Purple Haze" so much that the latter was simply a vigorous change of theatrical pace.
The fans at the Bowl, however, shouldn't feel discriminated against. Sting stopped using the four-song cycle shortly after the Wiltern performance, when his tour moved from intimate theaters into arenas. He apparently felt that the cycle might be too difficult for audiences to absorb in the larger setting.
Still, he would have been well advised in returning to Southern California to restore it for the Bowl show, because it was a special night, and you'd like to see an artist of his quality at his most challenging, especially when the performance is being documented in a pay-per-view.
If the Bowl show didn't equal the drama of the Wiltern date, however, it continued to show that Sting is at the forefront of the valuable new wave of veteran artists, including Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Peter Gabriel and Don Henley, who are giving pop a new sophisticated or adult dimension.
Looking dashing a bright yellow vest and black trousers, Sting reached back to his Police days for a half-dozen songs, including "ronsanne" and "Every Breath Yo take." Sting concentrated on material from his solo albums-songs that explore and interrelate social and personal themes about values and obligations.
Despite all these months on the raod, Sting and his three-piece band - David Sancious on keyboards, Dominic Miller on guitar and Vinnie Colaiuta - continue to play the material with the investigatory passion of musicians who enjoy looking for new ripples of emotion and subtlety in the tunes.
Sting, whose tour will continue tonight at the Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa, was joined for the closing numbers by his old Police sidekick Andy Summers, along with some other musicia-friends, including members of Special Beat, giving the evening a warm, joyful edge.
Watching Sting, on bass, and Summers, on guitar, side by side again reminded you of how daring a move it was in 1983 for Sting to leave one of the most successful rock groups ever formed to pursue the artistic freedom offered by a solo career. Yet the excellence of the music itself Wednesday - even with the absence of the "Cages" cycle - made it clear that the move was absolutely correct.
|
It's kind of uncanny to me that this writer wrote all this stuff about the "four-song cycle." I had already heard the "cycle" twice (in Berkeley) when I said to Sting prior to one of the Wiltern shows that I really enjoyed it. Since Sting dropped it from the program shortly afterward, I figured I was the only one who thought so. Since this obviously isn't the case I, too, am sorry that it has been dropped.
I'd say L.A. in October 1991. Scott and I were waiting for Sting near the artist's entrance when a chauffeured BMW came screeching towards us and nearly pinned us to the door. With my heart still thumping from the thought of being dead, Sting emerged from the car. I didn't know Scott was even thinking along these lines, so my jaw dropped in both horror and embarrassment when Scott asked Sting if he would stop for a photo of me with him. What happened after that is all a blur. The next thing I knew Sting arm was around my shoulder. So, what did I do?! Call me an opportunist. I followed his lead and put my arm around his waist!
Later, when I was taking pictures, Sting smiled over at me on numerous occasions. If only he held the poses longer! He was just hanging out and relaxing before show time. A caterer came out with his dinner which was some sort of pasta entree. Sting seemed to pick at his food a bit. When he finally lifted his fork to his mouth, he turned to me and said, "please, not while I'm eating." At that point, some of the backstage security wanted to take my camera away. Would've been a priceless shot, but I wanted to respect his wishes. To make up for it, though, later I got a shot of Sting lying down!
Still later, Sting came over to autograph our ticket stubs. (I was in such a state of disbelief, I forgot I had a whole knapsack full of stuff he could've signed instead.) He stayed with us for a while, but every question I'd ever wanted to ask alluded me. In retrospect, Sting probably thought we were strange because he made himself TOTALLY available and yet we didn't ask him a million fan-type questions or go positively goo-goo. (On the other hand, he probably appreciated our subdued behavior.) To tell you the truth, I can't remember what we talked about other than his voice which was ailing him at the time. Standing in closer range, I did ask him to pose for a few more photos. Though he was very obliging, my epiphany that day was that it's difficult to speak and take good pictures at the same time. Throughout the two hours or so, Sting was surprisingly relaxed, casual, and accessible. An unbelievable day.
You are visitor 
since this page was designed on February 19, 1998.
Index 
The Web's Too Big Without You!
Items For Sale Who
Am I? What's New?
Comments, Suggestions or Problems
Again, thanks for visiting my homepage. I hope you will come back
and visit soon.
For questions, comments or information on this home page, please
send e-mail to blueturtles01@hotmail.com.
This page hosted by 
. Get your own Free Home Page.
Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 , 2001 by blueturtles01@hotmail.com. All rights
reserved.