Sting at the NDR 2 Plaza Festival: 90 minutes of pure legend...

Around 23,000 fans celebrated on Friday at the NDR 2 Plaza Festival in Hanover, with Sting as the headliner. The 73-year-old presented classics from The Police and his solo career – rousing, confident, and without much ado.

The festival had already begun at 3 p.m., and younger stars like Alice Merton, Michael Schulte, and Bosse created a great atmosphere on the World Expo grounds in surprisingly good weather. Starting at 7:30 p.m., Samu Haber from Finland thrilled the fans at Kronsberg. The former frontman of the band Sunrise Avenue thanked around 18,000 fans and set the stage for the evening's headliner: Sting from Newcastle and "Commander of the British Empire" took the stage promptly at 9:30 a.m. and immediately received loud applause with the opening track "Message In A Bottle."

Over the course of the next 90 minutes, almost all of the hits from his former band, "The Police," would follow. These songs from the late 1970s sound only slightly different today. The current trio, featuring virtuoso guitarist Dominic Miller and powerful drummer Chris Maas, also leaves nothing to be desired with classics like "Walking On The Moon" and "So Lonely."

Only about half of the repertoire consists of songs that Sting wrote during his solo career after the breakup of The Police: "Englishman in New York" and "Desert Rose" were among the audience favorites that evening. Three dancing women in their sixties summed it up: If anyone wasn't satisfied with this selection of songs, "they're complaining at a very high level!" This trio certainly didn't regret having made the long journey from Rügen.

The fans obviously didn't mind that Sting isn't a man of many words: Even on this first night of his European tour, he didn't speak much to his audience. The now 23,000 people happily complied with the repeated requests to sing along loudly with the obligatory "Hieyo, hiyeyoho," especially since the musician, dressed entirely in black, came across as extremely likeable. The sound, too, sounded much better among the glass-walled exhibition halls than some had feared.

The apparent ease with which Sting played his bass while repeatedly switching sides on the big stage and singing into his headset microphone was truly astonishing. He can rely on the impact of enduring hits like "Fields of Gold" and "Every Breath You Take." Even a brief rain shower didn't dampen the mood. And when Sting played the contemplative encore "Fragile" over acoustic guitar, the chorus was just right: "On and on the rain will fall like tears from the stars..."

(c) NDR by Uli Kniep