Sting and Shaggy for four nights only, sounds like the promotion for an event at your working man’s club. However, for four nights only Sting and Shaggy entered into an unlikely collaboration at intimate venues in the UK in London, Birmingham, Newcastle and Manchester. The pairing at first does indeed seem to be an odd one; Sting, an 18-time Grammy-award-winning music icon, Shaggy has won one, this year in collaboration with Sting. Sting writes about deeply political subjects ('Russians', 'Invisible Sun', 'They Dance Alone'), he’s also written a musical about the closure of the ship yards in the North East and famously writes about the complexities of a relationship separation ('Every Breath You Take'). In comparison Shaggy is famed for 'Oh Carolina', 'Boombastic' and 'It Wasn’t Me' (a song where one man asks his friend what to do after his girlfriend caught him having sex with another woman, the clear answer is say “it wasn’t me”). So, what does bring these two together? Perhaps the answer is simple, the spirit of Reggae music. Clearly these are the roots for Shaggy and in their early years, The Police were referred to as a white Reggae band.
Whatever the whys and wherefores, an expectant crowd packed the Apollo. Lights down, the pair were met warmly with cheers as they opened the set with '44/876' and 'Morning Is Coming' (songs from their Grammy award winning album). This set the tone for the night as both the performers and the crowd enjoyed every moment of these numbers. We moved smoothly into 'Englishman In New York' with Shaggy taking the second verse and the lyrics becoming ‘Jamaican In New York’. I have seen some very harsh reviews about this concert with both the concept and this and lyric changes, being called cringe worthy. For me it showed that we were here to have a good time and serious though Sting can be, tonight was about having fun. We were treated in all to over two hours of music, the quality of all the performances was excellent. The set list moved smoothly between Sting's repertoire, the new album and a few of Shaggy’s hits thrown in for good measure. There were some sublime cross-over moments such as Shaggy singing in 'If You Love Someone Set Them Free' and Sting singing Shaggy’s song 'Angel'. There was of course some political elements, this is a Sting concert, Shaggy asking for unity in religion, colour, and sex, and going on to ask about respect between nations, but this was done in a way not to affect the mood of the evening. There were a few little unexpected moments. For example, Shaggy appearing in a judge's costume with Sting as a defendant for 'Crooked Tree', I am still pondering why? The mash up of 'Roxanne' and 'Boombastic' will live long in the memory, though perhaps not for all the right reasons.
The stage design was reminiscent of the early Police concerts, no screens, no obvious theme but instead, lots of lights, lots of colour and outstanding in their effectiveness. Sometimes less is more.
Sting was on top note all the way through the night. He is 68 this year but physically and more importantly, vocally sounded like he did 30 years ago. Shaggy is, well, Shaggy! He was a great crowd-pleaser, lots of hip gyration, especially in “It Wasn’t Me” and he orchestrated the "e -o" parts of the Police hits to perfection. He took pictures and videos of the audience with his own phone and generally stayed out of the way for the majority of Sting's songs. So, if this really was about Sting, why are these two performing together? I think it starts with a love of reggae and finishes with ensuring that the audience had a great night. Let’s be honest if Sting asked you to tour, who wouldn’t say yes? And if the plan is just to have a joyous time even more reason to grab the opportunity with both hands. Often Sting finishes his concerts with the haunting 'Fragile' (a real favourite of mine) not tonight, for the second and final encore the chosen song was the very upbeat Police hit 'Next To You'. Allowing the audience one last chance to dance like no-one was watching and, I suspect looking at the average age of the audience, reaching for the Deep Heat tomorrow, but who cares, a great time was had by all.
Reviewer - Jen O'Beirne
on - 25/5/19
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