Sting 3.0

Latitude review — a sophisticated, sedate shindig...

With acts ranging from Billy Bragg to Sting, the opening day of the Suffolk festival was the perfect tonic for lovers of a gentle, three-day camp-out.

“It’s good to see so many softies here,” said Billy Bragg, gazing out across a Suffolk field with more than the average density of camping chairs and picnic blankets. With its lakeside stages and literary discussions, its gourmet food courts and art-dappled forest, Latitude has a well-earned reputation as one of the summer’s most sophisticated weekends, and rarely has a festival line-up offered itself so politely to the lover of the gentler three-day camp-out. Some Mika with your Snow Patrol? An easy Sunday amble from Elbow to Air? This was a shindig right up your bridle path.

Bragg had read the vale and delivered an hour of lilting country folk balladry, albeit “still annoyingly political”. A stripped-down Sexuality was repurposed as a trans-solidarity anthem and Levi Stubbs Tears as a condemnation of the identity war’s common enemy, “male violence”. Later, Maribou State laid out a continental breakfast of sonic pleasantries: tropical pop, graceful strings, hypnagogic grooves and bongotronic freak-outs held together by the almost operatic R&B vocals of Talulah Ruby.

So sedate was the occasion, in fact, that the comedy tent headliner Greg Davies detailing his distressing prostate issues was among the most punk parts of day one; even in the Second Stage tent, where the Dublin band Sprints howled through visceral post-punk rampages and one chap wandered about in a jacket made from dolls’ heads, Feeder tipped their arena grunge cap to the night’s headliner with a faithful sliver of Walking On the Moon.

Basement Jaxx stole the day by hosting an intergalactic disco-rave party from a spaceship bridge in a hole in their stage ramp, surrounded by space Valkyries, green-goggled soul queens and gigantic alien triffids. From the sci-fi funk larks of Romeo to a final gorilla invasion resembling a rave up on the Planet of the Apes — this was a blanket-trampling hoot.

Sting’s headline set, meanwhile, had the feel of a pop-reggae Ted Talk. Miked up so that he could roam the stage, his increasingly theatrical vocals had a flat, undynamic feel, sucking the sparkle from Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic and the air from Walking On the Moon. That said, he didn’t scrimp on hits. Message In a Bottle, If I Ever Lose My Faith In You, An Englishman In New York and Fields of Gold (“about my house … well, more of a castle really”) were early arrivals, often loosened up with extraneous reggae workouts or mecha-drum interludes.

And plenty of Police tracks kept the night buoyant: a shoegazey Can’t Stand Losing You, a field-lifting So Lonely and a restrained Wrapped Around Your Finger recast as a stalkerish sister-piece to Every Breath You Take, which was still received - bafflingly - as a smoochy lover’s anthem. By a fun, if funkily distended Roxanne Sting had done enough to be crowned king of the softies.

(c) The Times by Mark Beaumont

Sting plays all the hits at Latitude Festival…

The singer delivered a crowd pleasing headline set at Henham Park.

More than most of his contemporaries, Sting has a remarkable ability to bend time. The singer and former frontman of the Police is 73 years old – a fact not lost on anyone in Henham Park, not because he looks it, but because he’s in better shape than any of us. It’s not just the startlingly lean and assured figure he cuts onstage with his electric guitar that makes the years melt away, but the cross-generational impact of the music. This is best exemplified by an image that repeats itself over and over throughout the crowd gathered before the Obelisk Stage: an adult with a small child in ear protectors perched on their shoulder, both of them belting the lyrics to ‘Englishman in New York.’

It’s certainly true that plenty of these parents could have been training their children on Sting albums for the most couple of months. The point still stands – the gasps of delight when small ears recognise the opening bars are not performative. Onstage, Sting wiggles his hips as he gets the crowd to echo back to him the lyrics “Be yourself, no matter what they say.” He’s not the world’s coolest granddad. He’s just cool. 

It’s a set packed with crowd pleasers, and there’s plenty to choose from throughout Sting’s fifty year career. Opening with ‘Message In A Bottle’, he shows off a voice still just as clear and powerful, the song’s chorus more urgent than ever. ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic’ has the crowd bouncing. He speaks fondly of the golden fields of barley that surround his home before launching into the hit that they inspired. The mood in the field is reverent. As impressive as it all is, Sting retains a pleasant unpretentiousness. He chats minimally to the crowd, there to play music far more than he is to act like the star of the show. He introduces his band members like he’s introducing one set of mates to another. He makes sure we take time to applaud for the BSL interpreter. There’s a general good feeling in the air, and Sting is very much the curator of it. 

As the set wraps up and hits ‘Every Breath You Take’ and ‘Roxanne’ float over the field, many of Latitudes tiniest ravers are up long past their bedtimes and still dancing. With the performance he’s just delivered, it doesn’t feel unrealistic to say that when those little ones return to Latitude as teenagers in ten years, Sting could still give them one hell of a headline show.

(c)Ticketmaster Discover by Caitlin Devlin

'I saw Sting headline Latitude Festival - he brought every single generation together'...

"He was not only enjoyed by the older audience but was able to bring together families for the ideal end of the first full day of the festival"

I knew Latitude Festival was more family friendly than events like Reading and Leeds Festival but it is sometimes easy to forget how music can bring together different generations. Whether it was what your parents would play when you were growing up or you discovered it yourself, music from decades ago can still be enjoyed by a whole range of people.

Sting headlining Latitude Festival proved exactly that. By the time the former The Police frontman took to the Obelisk stage, he had managed to amass a huge crowd that was spilling out of the area. The ages of those attending ranged from young children to older adults you might typically see at a Sting concert.

Being five foot and two inches tall, I knew I wouldn't be able to get a great view in the pit so I decided to grab a seat on one of the useful tiered stands at the back of the stage. Even though Sting may have looked like an ant from where I was, it allowed me to watch the entire crowd come together.

The singer's set started with the popular track 'Message in a Bottle' that got everyone up and dancing by the time it had ended with the up beat songs continuing for the first half of the show. Sting tested the crowd's singing abilities with 'Englishman in New York' by getting everyone to sing the "woah ohs" throughout out, which primary school singing assemblies had perfectly prepared us for.

The Police track 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic' kept the high energy going with its preppy instrumentals. It was particularly nice to see a young boy who had come with his family dancing and filming the song, as he was clearly a Sting super fan.

There were a few more tender moments during the setlist with slower tracks such as 'Fields of Gold' and 'Shape Of My Heart' being sprinkled in. The moments of rest never lasted too long though with other beloved songs by the Police placed in between including 'Can't Stand Losing You' and 'So Lonely'.

Praise also has to be given to Sting's current touring band members, Dominic Miller on guitar and Chris Mass on drums. The pair did a brilliant job at replicating Sting's sound along with the Police tracks that many members of the audience most likely hold dearly.

At the age of 73, you would expect Sting's voice to be showing some signs of deterioration. But the artist seemed like he could continue belting out impressively strong notes for the entire night.

Nearing the end of his set, everyone cheered as the iconic intro to 'Every Breath You Take' started billowing out of the speakers despite the slower energy of the song. This was one of the tracks that I'm sure every person in the crowd knew.

The singer jokingly walked off stage without having played one of the other songs everyone was waiting for. However, he quickly reappeared and pretended not to know what the crowd was begging for before the guitarist struck the first chord of 'Roxanne'.
Sting performing on the Obelisk stage

Sting knew how to mix the crowd-pleaser tracks with slower moments to create a headline act with great pacing to keep the crowd, who had most likely been on their feet all day, completely engaged. He was not only enjoyed by the older audience but was able to bring together families for the ideal end of the first full day of the festival.

(c) The Cambridge News by Amy Britton