Sting will perform in June 2023 in Tenerife and Gran Canaria. The English musician comes in a more austere format than on his previous visit to the Archipelago in 2011, so it will be a unique opportunity to listen to the songs of The Police in their true territory when they were the leaders of white reggae in full new wave at the end of the seventies. Their guitarist, Andy Summers, has also performed on the Islands.
Sting will perform for the second time in Canary Islands next summer just twelve years after the English musician gave his first concert in the Islands in 2011 at the Stadium of Gran Canaria. But unlike that occasion, now the former leader of The Police will offer a live performance at the Adeje Soccer Field in Tenerife and another in La Plaza de la Música in the palms of Gran Canaria on June 3 and 4, respectively. And, unlike that occasion, he will perform with the format of his classical band, since on his previous visit he did so accompanied by the musicians of the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra in the context of a tour he was carrying out around the world about his hits in symphonic format.
Therefore, what really makes these upcoming shows special is that it will be the first opportunity to see the most austere and authentic Sting. It will be that Sting who established himself with his group, The Police, as the leader of the new wave movement in England at the end of the 1970s. Because, although the Englishman has had a notable solo career, his classic songs from the period 1978-1983 continue to be the most brilliant and decisive in his repertoire, as was demonstrated in said show. At this point, it should be remembered that the also famous guitarist of the London band Andy Summers offered another live show on the island, although his time was much more discreet. Specifically, Summers came to the Archipelago to present his album Earth+sky on March 22, 2004, performing at the Auditorium of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. On that occasion, the guitarist did not play a single song from The Police. He limited himself to unleashing his orthodox jazz for the showcasing of him as a soloist. But, whatever the case, for both Sting and Summers, and even for drummer Stewart Copeland, the shadow of his band, The Police, has always been very long. And that is shown by the fact that it has never completely left after its dissolution in 1983.
And I focus on two specific cases. The first was the reunion tour that they gave in 2008 around the world and which ended with the publication of several live albums, especially a magnificent Live in Buenos Aires, perhaps the best concert they have ever recorded. And the second is the unpublished compilation of 2018 entitled Flexible Strategies which, probably, and jointly valued, is Police’s best album. And, yes, I say the best because many of his songs were scattered on the b-sides of his singles, going unnoticed, ironically, by ordinary mortals. It should also be remembered that The Police was the leader of the first musical movement that followed punk, the new wave, when the whole world, but mainly in Great Britain and the United States, returned to the freshness and spontaneity of the sixties. Along with the band of Sting, Summers and Copeland, the contributions to the movement by The Pretenders, Joe Jackson or Elvis Costello, other historical figures who have also performed in the Islands, were also relevant. The new wave branched out into different subdivisions, remaining, to this day, as the most fruitful movement in the history of music. This is how arty bands emerged whose sound and lyrics had an intellectual and corrosive touch like Talking Heads, XTC or Fischer Z. There were the after-punk or predecessors of the gothic or sinister wave like Joy Division, The Cure or Siouxsie and The Banshees. Or there were the groups that laid the foundations for techno-pop (Devo), tropicalismo (Adam and The Ants) or new psychedelia (Soft Boys). The repercussion of this movement was so great that there was also a new wave of the new wave in the nineties that left us such delicious formations as The Libertines, Elastica or Menswear, Shed Seven, The Bluetones or Supergrass.
Remembering the performance that Sting gave on July 13, 2011, it should be noted that the production consisted of 55 musicians from the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra with twelve musicians that he brought, resulting in a total of 68 people on the Gran Canaria Stadium. The local producer, Maldito Rodríguez, worked with the international Live Nation and Sting’s team brought two planes, although a crazy company was in charge of everything that was the infrastructure, video and sound output. The title of that tour, Symphonicity, was a pun on the title of The Police’s latest album, Synchronicities-, and the new guise of the songs. The difficulty that a tour of these characteristics entailed – it would be very expensive and ineffective to travel with an orchestra – was solved by Sting playing with local groups, who rehearsed the scores beforehand. Sting reviewed his greatest hits accompanied by the Philharmonic and alternated songs from his years with The Police with the best known of his solo albums. After 10:00 p.m., with a little more than 30 minutes behind schedule, Sting started at the Gran Canaria stadium with the chords of the policeman Every little thing she does is magic in front of more than 12,00 people. After this start came If I ever lose my faith in you, one of the best-known songs of his solo career.
From his solo discography there was also what was the third song of the night, which also allowed Sting to present himself to the public in Spanish. He explained that it was the first time he had been in Las Palmas and, before launching with the well-known An Englishman in New York, he recognized himself as an “Englishman in Gran Canaria”.
The successes kept coming with one of the magical moments of the night, the song on which The Police founded their career, the story of that prostitute named Roxanne. An acoustic guitar accompaniment was enough to restore the magic of that melody 24 years later. Other well-known tune songs followed, such as Russians or Fields of gold. The night was definitely Sting’s. The English musician kept intact the charisma and overwhelming personality that made him famous. Whether accompanied by just two musicians or with an orchestra of sixty-five, the Englishman exuded the same passion and magnetism as that rock star who surprised the world music scene three decades ago.
The installation, similar to that of an open-air theater, allowed the concert to be heard perfectly from any side of the stadium. Another element worth noting is that the fact that he divided the time into two parts of sixty minutes, with an intermission of 20, allowed the concert to develop in a peaceful way.
And now, in the already imminent 2023, Sting will vindicate those new wave classics, such as the second golden age of Anglo-Saxon music, in which The Police led the group of bands that introduced white reggae, like The Specials. he did it with white ska or Dexys Midnight Runners with white soul.
Above, Sting during the concert he offered in the state of Gran Canaria in July 2011 together with the musicians from his band and those from the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra. On the left, Andy Summers, with the trio format with which he played in the auditorium of the rectory of the University of Las Palmas in 2004. Both musicians have had an interesting solo career delving into jazz from very different concepts. Sting more accessible and Summers something more academic. |
