Sting thrills 9,000 fans in front of a sold-out crowd...

Bonn. After illness and cancellations due to the pandemic, the British musician's concert at Bonn's KunstRasen (artificial grass) finally took place. Wearing a yellow leather jacket, Sting brought old and new songs to the stage.

Does feel-good music help against the coronavirus? Probably not – from a virological perspective. But it can drive away the dark, evil spirits. In this sense, it was clever that Sting left the coronavirus album "The Bridge," his 14th studio album, recorded in the summer of 2020 at his vineyard in Tuscany and released in 2021, in his backpack for his Bonn performance. Instead, he started with the Police hit "Message in a Bottle" and "Englishman in New York," and then followed it up with the Police song "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic." Simple and brilliant. The perfect stuff to get the Bonn crowd going at the KunstRasen. Around 9,000 people turned up at the sold-out KunstRasen and celebrated Sting, who returned the favour with a brilliant concert.

They've had to wait long enough. A viral throat infection threw the now 70-year-old off track in 2019. Performances in Bonn, Ghent, and Munich were cancelled at short notice. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, rescheduled concerts were a distant prospect. Now he's here, on his US and European tour "My Songs," conceived three years ago and expanded to include the three new tracks from "The Bridge." On Saturday, he was in Weert, Netherlands, and on Tuesday, in Saint-Malo, Brittany. Sting is still on the road until November, with around 80 concerts on the tour schedule.

On the artificial turf, the mood is full after just a few bars; everyone sings along. The entire turf is a heaving mass. Sting, tanned in a yellow leather jacket and striped T-shirt, ushers in the 1980s with "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free," after the Police overture, pacing back and forth at the edge of the stage like a predator.

Then come the tracks from the new album. Sting whistles the intro to "If It's Love," a smart, easy-flowing pop song, given depth by Shane Sager's brilliant harmonica solo. The rocking "Rushing Water" is a simple number that tempts Sting, the poet, to daredevil poetry – when "couch" rhymes with "ouch" ("I'll see my shrink on an analyst couch / Hit me with a hammer and I'll say, ouch"). "The Bridge" didn't fare so well with critics. Bonn is a bit of an outsider at first. But soon the ice is broken here too. Sting has his audience in his sights, acts as the entertainer, everyone joins in, clapping. There's even a joke with the little golden Beethoven on stage.

After the bridge block, Sting is back in the 90s groove. The Brit celebrates "Fields of Gold" almost solo, with a guitar solo by Rufus Miller. "Brand New Day" has the feel of a spontaneous jam session with a brilliant harmonica solo. The cuddly and yearning number "Shape of My Heart" is accompanied by Dominic Miller on acoustic guitar, while Sting's voice is grounded in glorious soul vocals. "Wrapped Around Your Finger" lives up to his reggae roots. Sting stretches the bars like bubble gum, creating tension, and follows with "Walking on the Moon" and "So Lonely," complete with a Bob Marley insert. "Desert Rose" and "Every Breath You Take" follow. The artificial turf is in a frenzy.

These indestructible Police songs from the late 1970s and early 1980s, with their distinctive, danceable blend of reggae, punk, and ska elements, simply work. To ensure that these musical gems, some of which are 40 years old, don't acquire a patina and The Police don't end up being used as entertainment in a retirement home, precautions have been taken. They're arranged, musically enhanced, and re-instrumented. Sting himself is at the forefront, breathing new life into the evergreens. With fantastic fellow musicians like guitarist Dominic Miller, at Sting's side for 32 years, as he says in concert, "my right hand," Miller's son Rufus, and Joe Sumner, son of Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, Sting's real name, it all works.

The KunstRasen was enraptured and overjoyed. Sting also treated the crowd to a very original, extended version of "Roxanne" and sent the Bonn crowd to bed with a solo performance of "Fragile."

(c) General-Anzeiger by Thomas Kliemann