USA: STING PERFORMS NEW AND OLD SONGS TO PROMOTE HIS LATEST ALBUM 'BRAND NEW DAY'

Record ID: 388656

  • Title: USA: STING PERFORMS NEW AND OLD SONGS TO PROMOTE HIS LATEST ALBUM 'BRAND NEW DAY'
  • Date: 1st October 1999
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 26, 1999)(REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) STING AND FELLOWFORMER POLICEMAN STEWART COPELAND BACKSTAGE AT UNIVERSAL AMPITHEATHRE
  • Embargoed: 16th October 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES. VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA2B2CZVRNROTG1YD4Q37LVKF66
  • Story Text: Sting mixed the old and new during a recent performance in Los Angeles, showcasing several songs from his latest album "Brand New Day," with his greatest solo and Police-era hits.
    The former Police frontman showcased a generous selection of songs from his latest album, "Brand New Day," and a sampling of familiar hits during a two-hour performance in Los Angeles this week.
    Sting, Gordon Sumner, kicked off the first of three shows at the Universal Amphitheatre with the newer songs, before satisfying the audience with his crowd pleasers, including "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free," a #3 hit from his first solo album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles (1985).
    The new songs, love stories told from unusual points of view, demonstrate Sting's songwriting flair.
    For Sting, the melding of the music and lyrics came about through a circuitous route."I would spend everyday taking the songs out for long walks through the woods on my headphones, trying to figure out what stories it was telling me."
    "Perfect Love Gone Wrong" is about a dog in love with a cat.The countrified "Fill Her Up" tells a plaintive story about a petrol station attendant dreaming of a big heist and an escape to Las Vegas.The song swells to a gospel-like final chorus before stretching into an extended hoedown.
    A high point in the tour and in the recording of the album is the addition of Algerian singer Cheb Mami for the new song "Desert Rose".
    The two singers' voices - Sting's ragged and soft, Mami's clear and ringing - intertwine while rising and falling.
    "I loved his voice and was very happy when he agreed to sing on my record," said Sting.Cheb Mami, who contributed the French lyrics, said tha after hearing about Sting's concept album about an ideal lover that can't exist "it wasn't difficult to find words because I truly felt the music.
    "From "Tomorrow We'll See," a story of a prostitute, Sting segued into his other hooker song, "Roxanne," from Outlandos d'Amour, the Police's 1979 debut.
    On some of the tougher vocal parts of "Roxanne" and the Police's 1983 chart topper "Every Breath You Take," he sang lower than he did on the original versions.
    Sting's tour opened in mid-October in Las Vegas.
    After wending its way through California and completing its four Los Angeles shows, the troupe will journey across Arizona, Texas and Louisiana to Florida.
    Then it will move north for four shows Nov.16-21 in New York before concluding Nov.24 in Connecticut.
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