December 2001 - Police - mailman.xmission.com

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIACOMO.....
by Cathy Alauze 17 Dec '01

17 Dec '01

As my own son, Giacomo's birthday is today. I Wish him as many happiness, joy and health as his great father. What a wonderful star make him STING's Son ...! God Bless You All LOVE&STING KTY from FRANCE

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Beacon Theater Concert? Anyone Tape?
by Brian Sheridan 16 Dec '01

16 Dec '01

Hi...the town I live in did not have a radio station that carried Sting's concert at the Beacon Theater? Does anyone have a tape or CD-R of it? I would also be interested in any other recommended private collection recordings of Sting. Please advice. Peace... BrianRSheridan(a)msn.comGet more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com

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Sting on MAD TV
by Sweetmomb＠cs.com 16 Dec '01

16 Dec '01

Last night MAD TV did their announcers-on-the-red-carpet-at-an-awards-show bit, with two of their regulars on the red carpet at the VH1 My Music awards. They did get him to stop and chat. He said that he loves Mary J. Blige and was excited to be doing a duet with her. When one of the comedians, Wil Sasso, presented Sting with a large Christmas ham wrapped in a red bow, he said, "As a vegetarian, I find this offensive. Poor pig! Thank goodness it's wrapped in plastic. Well, in the spirit of the season, I'm going to give this ham to the poor." As the comedians began to praise him for his generosity, he turned to Will Sasso and, thrusting the ham at him, said, "Here." It was pretty cute as these bits go, but now that makes the 50,000th night in a row that Sting's been on TV somewhere. While I can't complain, I'm still puzzled by this sudden wave of appearances. Ah well,so it goes... Have a great week, Holly

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Elton and Sting in LA
by Anne Robinson 16 Dec '01

16 Dec '01

Friday December 14 08:30 PM EST Elton, Sting Light Up L.A. Last year's Silver Lining Benefit, the inaugural event, featured Beck, Aimee Mann and Rufus Wainright, among others, as well as host Robert Downey Jr. (news - web sites) at the elegant Paramour, a sprawling Twenties mansion perched high in the hills of Los Angeles' Silver Lake district. Downey returned this year, and he brought a couple of his high-powered friends as headliners: Sting and Elton John. Perhaps as a result, ticket prices -- $250, $500 and $1000 -- were higher than the previous year, and all 1,750 were sold. VIPs were seated on raised platforms to the left and right of the stage, where they were served a multi-course dinner by star chefs, including Lucque's Suzanne Goin, La Brea Bakery's Nancy Silverton and Border Grill's Mary Sue Milliken; other party goers sat on the lawn in front of the stage and grazed on snacks from celebrated local restaurants Cinnabar, NewsRoom, Vermont and Joseph's Café, and sipped sangiovese and chardonnay from Napa Valley's Phoenix Vineyards. Last year's concert had the feel of an amateur "let's put on a show" event, but this year was strictly professional, with improved sound and lighting. Following a brief, beat-intensive set by Bostich of the Nortec Collective, Elton John sat down at the Yamaha grand piano on the outdoor stage and launched directly into "Your Song." His voice deep and rich, John also played powerfully, and used the MIDI'd keyboard to add occasional string tones for a lusher sound. "I'm here because this is such a great event and a great cause," said Elton, who had performed at an AIDS (news - web sites) benefit at the Universal Amphitheater the night before. Alternating old and new material, John ranged from crowd favorites "Rocket Man" and "Tiny Dancer" to "Ballad of the Boy in the Red Shoes," which he introduced as "a song about a boy dying of AIDS." For "I Want Love," John called out Downey, who traded verses in a weak but serviceable voice with the piano man, and then kissed him on the cheek at the song's conclusion. "American Triangle," a new song about the murder of Matthew Shepard, featuring the chorus "It's a cold wind blowing/Wyoming," was followed by an energetic "Bennie & the Jets." The crowd screamed from the first angular chords, and sang along as John pounded out the tune, stretching out with a two-fisted, jazzy interlude. "It's a wonderful honor -- and the mother of all challenges to follow Elton John," said Sting as he sat on a stool with his acoustic guitar. Despite a large band featuring three backing vocalists and a pair of keyboardists, Sting kicked off his set with "Until," a new song from the Meg Ryan film Kate & Leopold, backed only by his guitar. As with John's solo set, it lent an intimate feeling to the performance, as if he were playing in someone's living room. "We're wingin' it up here -- what do you want to do?" Sting asked his band as he traded the guitar for a battered Fender bass. They ignored the printed set list at their feet and launched into "All This Time," enlivened by an incredibly energetic percussionist smashing together two tambourines and generally banging the hell out of an exotic arsenal of instruments. Looking to one of the VIP sections, Sting called out to his wife. "Trudy, darling, where are you? Ah," he said, scanning the tables, "I can see the diamonds from here." Pulling off his sweater on this very chilly night, Sting revealed his well-muscled arms. As John had before, Sting played a set heavy on favorites, from a frenzied "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" to a spirited, high-energy "Roxanne" pumped up with Latin-style percussion and thumb-slapping bass playing. "This is very good stripping music," Sting laughed as he began to sing "Bourbon Street." One woman at the front took him at his word, pulling open her jacket to flash the singer and the band. (He later signed the left cup of her bra behind the stage.) "If anybody saw the Osama Bin Laden video today," Sting called out, "nobody could be under any illusion that the guy is anything but an unctuous, fucking prick. Fuck him!" To cheers, Sting then led the swaying crowd in a sing- and dance-along version of "Englishman in New York." Downey, having switched his suit jacket for a fur-lined denim coat, was brought back out to add his voice to "Every Breath You Take." "Last year I got in to some complicated legal problems and got a lawyer," Sting joked, referring to his appearance with Downey on Ally McBeal (news - Y! TV). Following the sets by the two headliners, Downey was presented a plaque by the local councilman and staff members of the Sunset Free Clinic. Last year's show raised nearly $500,000, and this event seemed likely to have brought in even more. "Elton and Sting were just the warmup bands," Downey joked near the end of the evening. "You're going to enjoy what you hear. I thought she was so great that we had a kid together," he said, introducing Deborah Falconer, who played a pleasant, if undistinguished set of guitar rock. Most of the crowd, though, had already begun to head home, as nothing could possibly follow Sting and Elton John in such an intimate setting.

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vegas newspaper review ;(
by Michele Petri 16 Dec '01

16 Dec '01

Sunday, December 16, 2001 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Opening act outshines headliner at Aladdin concert Wainwright enthralling, Sting passionless, but you'd never know it from audience's reaction By DOUG ELFMAN REVIEW-JOURNAL There is not always justice in the world. Friday night, Rufus Wainwright performed a beautiful set of his smart and creative songs as the opening act for Sting. But when he said he had only one more song left to sing, a large contingent of Sting fans cheered for his departure. "Thank you, you've been a great audience," he said, anyway. Maybe he was thanking his appreciative fans who shelled out up to $150 to see him, or the kinder Sting fans who seemed to be won over, as opposed to the cackling future fogy talking on her cell phone in my row. Fortunately, the rude people with bad taste didn't matter in the big scheme of things, since art was its own reward, and we were treated to Wainwright's art. The 28-year-old stringy brunette is a classically trained musician who inherited tuneful genes from his parents, the big-name folkies Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, and who then developed his talents in music school and in the years afterward. He is no folkie like his mom and dad, although his songs have a storytelling soul of folk, minus folk's repetitive-chorus nature. At the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts, Wainwright sang mostly from his new, second album, "Poses," vocalizing almost nonstop, using his voice as a confident instrument, as in opera and Broadway, but with an echo through the microphone that made his lyrics sound like secret thoughts escaping from his bedtime contemplations. He had no band. He played songs alternately on piano and acoustic guitar, hopscotching over a variety of melodies that were likely influenced by his taste in pop, Broadway, singer-songwriting, opera and blues. My favorite was "Complainte de la Butte," an English-language and French-language pop aria from the "Moulin Rouge" soundtrack, that allowed Wainwright (born in the States, raised in Canada) to use many of his vocal styles in one song. He slurred and belted out interesting arpeggios on and off the song's ghostly beat, like a time-signature bandit. He sang earnestly, then playfully, skipping around quick and low half-step notes, then rising up to long, purposefully flat/sharp notes near the top of his sweet octaves. Earlier in the set, when Wainwright was trying to interest latent Sting fans, he alluded to his penchant for singing pop songs with classical structures. "This next song is sort of like a Sting song. There are a lot of chords nobody's ever heard," he cracked. A few songs later, he tried again. "This next song is a Scottish song, which is kind of like Sting, since he's from England. I'm trying to connect with you people. I think I'm doing a pretty good job." A lot of people laughed and applauded. Wainwright was flamboyantly charming. Once, a burly stage hand walked up to him to fix a technical glitch, and Wainwright teased, "This is one of my dancers, my Vegas showgirls." Others in the crowd, primarily well-coifed women for some reason, kept cackling on their phones and saying things behind me, like, "This is a waste of my time." Would they have booed the young brilliance of Nick Drake in 1972? Or the Police in 1980? Or Radiohead in 1997? Or Fiona Apple in 2000? Gawah! They were waiting for the main event, as Sting was billed, naturally, given his amazing oeuvre of great early 1980s songs with the Police, those reggae-rhythmic alternative-rockers, and his banner jazz-pop solo work of the late 1980s. But there's not much to say about Sting's nearly two-hour set. The stage looked pretty in a VH1 way, with purple-ish backdrops and soft lighting glowing around the 50-year-old tantric star/yogi. And the music sounded VH1, with Sting and his nine-piece band performing tame, challengeless, gray revisions of prior glory, as if he'd thrown all his whites, colors and darks in a hot washer for a few days. "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic," that magically happy song from 1981, was rote. "Every Breath You Take" seemed like a faster run-through of the compelling original. The cool edges of "An Englishman in New York" were rounded down to keep anyone from getting hurt. There were rare moments of good, but not great, soft-jazz breakdowns throughout the night. And the last two songs of Sting's encore were excellent, first "Message in a Bottle," with Sting singing solo plaintively while playing bass, then the gorgeous keeper "Fragile," with the whole band in tow, as Sting picked a lucid, emotional guitar line. But I got the impression that Sting has played all these songs so many hundreds, or thousands, of times that he had lost his passion for them and, so, was falling back on big band arrangements that were Vegas-ish crowd pleasers for the Sting-inclined. This theory was bolstered by his introduction of "Roxanne," the beginning of which he sang in a bored double-time or so. He said he's never forgotten to play the classic song at the thousands of concerts he's performed in the past few decades. Whether my theory is right or wrong, his domesticated routine was a crowd pleaser. People clapped to the beat en masse, danced in the aisles, and walked out saying things like, "That was awesome!" I am glad they enjoyed the show. A few of them were my dear friends. But I couldn't help but wish that Sting would take a break after this, his tour's finale, and find the inspiration to robustly live up to his staggering potential again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.

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Las Vegas...
by Rocky Dickerson 15 Dec '01

15 Dec '01

Well, I didn't make it to the show. But let me tell you something I had the time of my life tonight. I was able to meet 16 of the most wonderful people I have had the pleasure to meet. They are our fellow members from the list. The names I have read on postings for years now have faces and smiles attached to them. I can honestly tell all of you that when Sting comes to your town, there is a tremendous pleasure hosting these great people. Imagine talking about little known Sting songs and having people give you intelligent feedback! It is wonderful. Thanks to all of you who were there and for those of you who weren't... you have something else to look forward to! Ã Have an awesome day! Ã Rocky http://members.home.net/rockyd7/rock_steady/ .

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Silver Lake comments
by Rocky Dickerson 14 Dec '01

14 Dec '01

>From CDNOW link= http://www.cdnow.com/cgi-bin/mserver/redirect/leaf=from=sr-447565 Elton John, Robert Downey, Jr. Shine At Silver Lining Benefit Dec 14, 2001, 11:15 am PT The show also starred Sting, Daniel Lanois, Deborah Falconer (Downey's ex-wife), and DJ Bostich of the Nortec Collective. Sting -- accompanied by three singers, a drummer, guitarist, and keyboard player -- performed second, causing 1,500 of the 1,750 attendees to flee before Lanois' set at evening's end. The former Police chief's 45 minutes were highlighted by "Roxanne," "Moon Over Bourbon Street," "All This Time," "Englishman in New York," "Don't Stand So Close to Me" (1986 style), and his reaction to the Osama bin Laden video tape. "No one could be under any illusion that that guy isn't an unctuous prick," Sting said. He opened on an uncharacteristically weak note, with his unfamiliar "Until," from the new Meg Ryan movie Kate & Leopold. The concert was held on a barely raised stage behind a hilltop mansion in L.A.'s artsy Silver Lake district. Called the Paramour, it is a former Catholic girls' school converted into a private residence. The building itself was sealed off to all but V.I.P. guests. "So they said come and play someone's backyard," Sting said. "It's a hell of a backyard, I'll tell you that. It's almost as big as my backyard." Tickets fetched between $250 and $1500 per, and included an open bar and free buffet. -- Corey Levitan I need to go find my dictionary and look up unctuous Have an awesome day! Ã Rocky http://members.home.net/rockyd7/rock_steady/ .

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Last Exit Tracks Available
by Jason MacNeil 14 Dec '01

14 Dec '01

Hi folks, Hope everyone is well. Markus Hildenhagen has kindly provided me with 5 Last Exit MP3s which I've made available at the following URL: http://64.5.255.105/lastexit/ Enjoy! Jason MacNeil

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Re: Sting on Leno
by Teri Kronberg 14 Dec '01

14 Dec '01

-- "Fred Berthelot" <fredberthelot(a)msn.com> writes: On Fri, 14 Dec 2001 00:56:15 >He then sang his new song "Until" on acoustic >guitar. It seems like a hard song to sing--he >had a bit of a tough time with it. Yeah, but I really loved how he got into song as he went on--like he was forgeting everything else around him. I noticed that Russell Crow was watching him so intently too. Okay, I have to say it...Sting has a lovely chest. That's all I could look at as he was singing If You Love Somebody. ;) Teri ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.

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Re: [Police] Re: Sting on Leno
by MLManoni＠aol.com 14 Dec '01

14 Dec '01

But of course, you do know that Russell Crow fronts his own band, so apparently is a musician in his own right (I say apparently because I haven't heard them perform). What a treat to see the two of them on one show -- I think Russell is such a talented actor, and quite nice to look at! (Sorry, guys.) And they were all in such a great mood! I thoroughly enjoy watching Sting when he is obviously having a good time -- anyone notice him throw the tambourine on the floor when he finished the song? Just a nice treat before I went to sleep and great subject matter for my dreams, Sting, Russell, me, the possibilities are endless.... Cheers! Michelle Troy, Michigan In a message dated 12/14/2001 10:10:15 AM Eastern Standard Time, burgaus(a)juno.com writes: > > -- "Fred Berthelot" <fredberthelot(a)msn.com> writes: > On Fri, 14 Dec 2001 00:56:15 > >He then sang his new song "Until" on acoustic > >guitar. It seems like a hard song to sing--he > >had a bit of a tough time with it. > > Yeah, but I really loved how he got into song > as he went on--like he was forgeting everything > else around him. I noticed that Russell Crow > was watching him so intently too. > > Okay, I have to say it...Sting has a lovely > chest. That's all I could look at as he was > singing If You Love Somebody. ;) > > Teri > >

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