Nothing Like The Sun: 1987/88

Sting unleashed? Legendary hour - At the Milan Arena, more than 24,000 fans for two concerts of overwhelming music, made even more electrifying by the star's charisma...

The accessible half of the Milan Arena is full: more than 12,000 people on Wednesday evening (and the same number last night) spread out neatly across the grass and the stands, well ahead of the fateful 8:00 PM start time for Sting's concert, the first date of his European tour. Not even the threat of rain kept the fans away, and everything went according to plan.

A dazzling display of lights and a roar from the crowd welcomed the band, featuring a nimble Sting in a white suit. Rhythm and warmth immediately spread with a rapid-fire sequence of songs from his latest album, 'Nothing Like the Sun,' from 'We'll Be Together' to 'Englishman in New York.'

Sting's mix works perfectly: there's a lot of dark music, from reggae to jazz, mixed with cultured references and a desire to let loose while dancing. The differences from the old show are immediately noticeable: there's less introspection, fewer shadows, and more bold colours. Sting's charisma is amplified by two screens at the sides of the stage displaying enlarged images of the show, and he introduces and introduces the songs, speaking near-perfect Italian. "There'll be a break soon," he says, "only ten minutes because the show is so long. We'll dance until nightfall. Is that okay?" Of course, yes, that's fine. And "Bring on the Night," dedicated to Gil Evans, closes the first hour and a half of the show.

When the show resumes, Sting dons a black suit and begins the more political part of his show. The audience raises those two Amnesty International and anti-torture signs and banners even higher. The screens show the mothers and wives of Chilean desaparecidos, those women forced to dance alone, with photos of their men pinned to their chests, in that kind of quadrille called gueca. Sting sings "They Dance Alone" and bends over backwards to ensure that no woman on stage dances alone. He approaches the beautiful backup singer Dolette McDonald, grabs the beautiful Tracy, and then suddenly goes to fetch his wife Trudy Styler from backstage and dances the final notes of the moving gueca with her.

The effect, natural and predictable, is obvious, and the audience's lighters go off. But the most moving moment, accompanied by a general illumination, is a delicate version of "Fragile" that Sting sings, accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar, the same one that seamlessly announces Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing." A moment of fire and flames, of blues and rock, of Jeff Campbell's guitar, which, without being didactic, launches into that torrent of distorted and poetic notes that have forever marked the legend of Hendrix.

The lights go out and for a moment the band disappears. Only for a moment, though, because the familiar strains of "Russians," the first unscheduled encore, fill the air. Then comes "Fortress Around Your Heart," from the album "The Dream of the Blue Turtles," and a new version of "Don't Stand So Close to Me." It's the final outburst into the old Police repertoire, and Sting, amid enthusiastic screams, especially from the women, and despite the chilly Milanese breeze, removes his jacket and remains shirtless.

The lights go out again, but not the stage PA: a sign that more encores are to come. And here they come: Sting sings the romance "Caro mio ben" and then, alone on stage, still shirtless and with his acoustic guitar, he performs the now historic "Message in a Bottle" with considerable audience participation. It's the very last song and the audience is satisfied. It's a young audience that has attended the concert of Sting and his band of refined thirty-somethings. An audience drawn in part by the charisma and sex appeal of a showbiz star and in part by his music without too many genre barriers, a music that thrives on references to the past using the language of the present.

(c) Il Mattino by Riccardo Barbieri (thanks to Valeria Vanella)