Sting, pure joy...

The wait has been long, very long - nearly thirty years - but the 10,000 Sting fans who attended the former Police singer's first concert at the Colmar Wine Fair were richly rewarded last night.

All the conditions were in place for a memorable concert: the audience at the Colmar Wine Fair had been waiting for decades to embrace Sting, the British pop-rock icon. Last night, that long-awaited moment finally arrived.

It was the last French date of the "57th & 9th" tour, named after his twelfth solo album, very rocky, direct, and spontaneous, recorded in 2016 over a few weeks in a New York studio and organized around a simple guitar-bass-drums trio.

 
A return to basics, then, after the very jazzy "The Last Ship."

After a six-track opening set featuring guitar and vocals provided by Joe Sumner, the British singer's own son, Sting appeared in jeans and a tight-fitting black T-shirt to kick off with a song from his former band The Police, "Synchronicity II."

It quickly became clear that The Police's audience was massively present in the room, those who had experienced their first emotions to the notes of "Spirits in the Material World," "Message in a Bottle," "Walking on the Moon," "So Lonely," "Roxanne," and "Every Breath You Take."

A magical evening, studded with pure diamonds, during which the audience was visibly dazzled to vibrate in unison with the bassist and singer who had rocked and enlivened so many key moments in their lives.

On Sting's solo track "Englishman in New York", the crowd at the shell finds itself in the spotlight to sing along with him who, ever the gentleman - he's not a Lord for nothing! - steps aside to offer the sound space to his audience.
 

Accompanied by an accordionist, guitarists Dominic and Rufus Miller, a bass guitar, and two backing vocalists, including his son Joe, the man who wrote some of the most beautiful pieces of world rock, he performed one hit after another, producing the first great emotional moments with "Mad About You," then the magnificent ballad "Shape of My Heart."

When his son joined him at the microphone to sing along to this iconic track, the audience was captivated by such tender complicity.

Smiling and relaxed, as classy as ever, Sting exuded an intense humanity.

A brief moment of hesitation when Joe Sumner sang the opening notes of David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes"... where has Sting gone? Everything's fine, here he is, back for a passing of the torch.

Sting's music has this gift of making certain moments eternal.

(c)  DNA