Inner emptiness gives boundless freedom: Journey within: At the Tanzbrunnen in Cologne, Sting plays passionate songs without much passion...

One of the best Sting anecdotes goes like this: The tax office calls Sting and says: "Your tax advisor has transferred 4.5 million pounds from you into his own account—what do you say to that?" And Sting replies: "Really? I didn't even notice."

This story, which circulated in the press a few years ago, is notable not only because Sting was so poor as a young man that he had to burn large parts of his furniture in the fireplace in the winter, but also because he once remarked in an interview that his colleague Paul McCartney would probably write better music if he didn't have so much money in his account. With his penultimate studio albums, 'Mercury Falling' and 'Brand New Day,' the multimillionaire seemed to want to bolster his argument: the music seemed uninspired and the passion sung about seemed too detached. But then came September 11th. The event initially robbed the Englishman of all certainties regarding music and its meaning. Is it possible to still write romantic love songs after September 11th?

"But when you're completely empty," says Sting, "you can start all over again. Such a situation creates enormous artistic freedom." The album 'Sacred Love,' which emerged from the crisis and with which Sting is now touring, indeed once again demonstrates the emotional depth and lyrical power that he had seemed to have lost. At the Cologne concert at the Tanzbrunnen, the band played a clever selection from their last album: among them 'Never Coming Home,' with Dominic Miller's fantastic harmonic riff on guitar; 'This War,' with a pacifist animated video on the giant screens (ironically in the aesthetics of Soviet propaganda); 'Whenever I Say Your Name,' with the rightly acclaimed Joy Rose as duet partner; 'Dead Man's Rope,' with the perfect dramatic chords and Sting's wonderful voice, which seemed to have recovered from laryngitis.

When the band launched into 'If I Ever Lose My Faith in You,' the audience even sang along to the verses, and erupted in cheers when Sting sang the line, "You may say I lost my faith in politicians." But compared to how wildly the fans reportedly reacted to the lyrics at the Washington concert, the reaction in Cologne must be described as "moderate." Sting also gave the audience a treat and served up "Every Breath You Take," and the crowd thanked him, at which point their volume probably reached the level of an approaching flight path. But how often can you play a song and it still sound fresh? The "evergreen" came off the stage with faded edges. At his comeback concert in Las Vegas, Elvis Presley smooched his way through the audience rows like a madman. Sting, the distinguished Englishman, for whom the affection of the audience once also seemed to be an elixir of life, probably had to make an effort to be cordial this time, and blew the hand twice after the last encore. But instead of symbolically blowing kisses to his audience, the hand fell demurely to the ground. In the studio, Sting has been able to reconnect with his great days as a songwriter. This introspective journey has yielded rich artistic rewards for Sting, but his music may have become too intimate for larger stages.

(c) General-Anzeiger by Lewis Gropp

Sting delivers an excellent performance in Cologne...

He's not a man for long speeches. So, at his second concert of the 'Sacred Love' tour on German soil (the first concert took place on Tuesday at Berlin's Waldbühne), Sting limited himself to short statements in German and a few pleasantries for the audience. Otherwise, the gentle rock star focused on his music, much to the delight of the 17,000 people at Cologne's Tanzbrunnen. And the Tanzbrunnen had been specially "turned" for the event. The almost 40-meter-wide stage was located on the Rhine side, with the fans turning their backs on the traditional Tanzbrunnen stage.

The intimate atmosphere typical of the venue was missing, and there was no longer any sense of closeness to the star, but Sting easily made up for all that with an excellent performance. And after the somewhat breathless performance of Inside from his current album, the former lead singer of the legendary band "Police" had the crowd under control. For two hours, Sting delivered a skilful mix of hits and new songs, changing tempos furiously, soothing the soul with soulful songs, supported by amazingly good acoustics, and then immediately getting the fans dancing with his pounding bass.

The band's percussion section, in particular, ensured that the songs really grooved, while the keyboards lagged somewhat behind Sting's abilities. The fact that the legendary Police hits "Roxanne" and "Every Breath You Take" garnered the most cheers during the encore clearly demonstrated the audience's age structure. Those in their mid-thirties were already among the younger crowd.

(c) Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger by Jürgen Oehler