Sting

deefstes

So who else was there?

Look, I don't care what people say about Sting, his fake accent and his pompous personality but I think he is a flippin' awesome musician and put up a sensational show tonight. Enjoyed it thoroughly.

aubs1

Yea!!!! My headline was gonna be: "STING gets it ABSOLUTELY right..."
Sound-wise, tone.... Just the whole TEN YARDS.
Dominic Miller.....brilliant
Rene Miller (Doms' son)....wow, this boys' gomma be like his dad!
David Sancious ......awesome as usual.
I don't remember the drummers name....brilliant...
So now I know excellent sound can be achieved at the Dome ....Stings 7 piece band was
Breath-taking...... But then, I am a fanatic STING fan!!!!

Pics to follow tomorrow, right now I'm too tired .... ?

Riaan

We're going Tuesday, at the Grand West Casino. Looking forward to it!

GaryMac

Yep we wuz there!!!!

Tremendous show.

Makes you wonder if the likes of Sting and Rod Stewart can achieve a good sound in the Dome, where did the wheels come off for Deep Purple.

I must admit Sting and his band seemed to enjoy themselves as well.
Having looked at the set lists from the other concerts on this tour prior to this one it seems Joburg got a few "bonus tracks" that he didnt play elsewhere.

Drummer is Vinnie Colaiuta who has played with everyone from Megadeath to Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck and Faith Hill to name a few.
Helluva drummer.

Next, the Eagles!!!!!

GaryMac

Riaan

Next, the Eagles!!!!!

Ditto...a few days at the beach seperate the two concerts. Life is good...

Ray

Someone was telling me that the tickets were going at 200 bucks a seat at Computicket towards the end. Does that mean that they couldnt sell? I didnt go and would be interested to know if it was fullhouse.

Warren

Pompous? I always thought Sting was a pretty good oke, from what little anecdotal evidence I have. ?

I would have loved to see him, but I totally forgot about the concert...

deefstes

Ray wrote: Someone was telling me that the tickets were going at 200 bucks a seat at Computicket towards the end. Does that mean that they couldnt sell? I didnt go and would be interested to know if it was fullhouse.

There were actually a few empty seats. In the few rows in our immediate vicinity I noticed two empty seats so it really wasn't much but still, I thought the place was going to be jam packed.

Has anyone compiled a set list of the show? I'd love to look through the list of songs again that was performed. I particularly enjoyed "I hung my head", "Desert Rose", "Roxanne", "Shape of my heart", "Sacred Love". Oh, the list goes on but these did stand out for me.

Squonk

ShreddySmurf wrote: Pompous? I always thought Sting was a pretty good oke, from what little anecdotal evidence I have. ?

A complete Mook ?

Far too big for his boots, always blowing his own trumpet, but maybe he can, He has quite a trumpet to blow!

In the same category as Bono, Painful to have a conversation with but incredible Performers.

I would like to have seen Dominic Miller as well

GaryMac

SET LIST

1.All This Time
2.Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
3.Englishman In New York
4.Seven Days
5.Demolition Man
6.I Hung My Head
7.Driven To Tears
8.Fields Of Gold
9.Sacred Love
10.Shape Of My Heart
11.Inside
12.Love Is Stronger Than Justice (The Munificent Seven)
13.The Hounds Of Winter
14.End Of The Game
15.Never Coming Home
16.Desert Rose
17.King Of Pain
18.Roxanne
19.Every Breath You Take
20.Next To You
21.Fragile

GaryMac

aubs1

GaryMac wrote: Yep we wuz there!!!!
Tremendous show.
Makes you wonder if the likes of Sting and Rod Stewart can achieve a good sound in the Dome, where did the wheels come off for Deep Purple.
Next, the Eagles!!!!!
GaryMac

Exactly Gary, I was quite concerned about what the sound would be like, since I've seen Sting at Sun City a few years ago, and then the Deep Purple fiasco (sound-wise) at the Dome ......

I was 7 rows from the front, and the sound was excellent!!!!

Here are some of my pics...... not great but ok ........

Some of the band.......

The man ...... this was "Fragile..."

Don't remember the violinists name and my keyboard hero, David Sancious ....

Dominic Miller and Vinnie (Sting rates him the Best drummer in the world) he is excellent, but the best??......

That Tele tones blew me away ....... Dom is a monster player!!!

Dominics' little boy......Rene ....... ?

aubs1

Squonk wrote:
ShreddySmurf wrote: Pompous? I always thought Sting was a pretty good oke, from what little anecdotal evidence I have. ?
A complete Mook ?
Far too big for his boots, always blowing his own trumpet, but maybe he can, He has quite a trumpet to blow!
I would like to have seen Dominic Miller as well

But then he's British ........ hahahahaha

Squomk, if you heard Dominic last night, you would go get a Tele first thing this morning ...... I kid you not, it was that great!!!!

Bob-Dubery

The fiddler was Peter Tickell, brother of Kathryn Tickell who is one of the hottest Northumbrian small pipes players around (and has guested on CDs by his Stingness).

GaryMac

I am not a drummer (then again I am not much of a guitarist either!!!!!)
But this concerning the man:-

About Colaiuta's ability to play Zappa's notoriously complex music and the complex style of polyrhythms, guitarist Steve Vai told the following story:

He's one of the most amazing sight-readers that ever existed on the instrument. One day we were in a Frank rehearsal, this was early '80s, and Frank brought in this piece of music called "Mo 'N Herb's Vacation." Just unbelievably complex. All the drums were written out, just like "The Black Page" except even more complex. There were these runs of like 17 over 3 and every drumhead is notated differently. And there were a whole bunch of people there, I think Bozzio was there. Vinnie had this piece of music on the stand to his right. To his left he had another music stand with a plate of sushi on it, okay? Now the tempo of the piece was very slow, like "The Black Page." And then the first riff came in, [mimics bizarre Zappa-esque drum rhythm patterns] with all these choking of cymbals, and hi-hat, ruffs, spinning of rototoms and all this crazy stuff. And I saw Vinnie reading this thing. Now, Vinnie has this habit of pushing his glasses up with the middle finger of his right hand. Well I saw him look at this one bar of music, it was the last bar of music on the page. He started to play it as he was turning the page with one hand, and then once the page was turned he continued playing the riff with his right hand, as he reached over with his left hand, grabbed a piece of sushi and put it in his mouth, continued the riff with his left hand and feet, pushed his glasses up, and then played the remaining part of the bar. It was the sickest thing I have ever seen. Frank threw his music up in the air. Bozzio turned around and walked away. I just started laughing.

I think ANYONE who Frank had in his band were just about the best in the business.

Anyway glad everyone enjoyed the Sting show.

GaryMac

AlanRatcliffe

GaryMac wrote: Makes you wonder if the likes of Sting and Rod Stewart can achieve a good sound in the Dome, where did the wheels come off for Deep Purple.

Sting's engineer is very good. If it's still the same guy, I've seen him work and he's phenomenal - diagnosed the Good hope with two claps of his hands. He apparently had a console made specifically for Sting and travels with it rather than with the band. ?

Aubs1 wrote: Dominic Miller and Vinnie (Sting rates him the Best drummer in the world) he is excellent, but the best??......

Zappa reckoned Vinnie Colaiuta was the best drummer he'd ever hired - and he started out as a drummer himself and wrote notoriously difficult drum parts (The Black Page is required material at most advanced drum schools). His list of drummers was a veritable "who's who?" of the top drummers in the world (Colaiuta, Terry Bozzio, Sly Dunbar, Chad Whackerman, Chester Thompson and Ralph Humphrey, et. al.).

deefstes

Aubs1 wrote:I was 7 rows from the front, and the sound was excellent!!!!

Wow, we must have been sitting within shouting distance from each other. I was in the 8th row from the front and 8th seat to the left of the centre aisle. I was also really impressed with the sound quality.

But I could wax lyrical about all aspects of the show. Each one of those musicians were excellent. How about that violin shredding by Tickell? Dominic extracted pure magic from that Tele of him. His son wasn't too bad either but he lacks a bit of the stage personality that his dad oozes. Sancious... what a sensational but unassuming keyboard player! I think he contributes 90% to that typical Sting sound.

But I think what I liked most about the show was that it struck that perfect balance between being a full blown rock show and an intimate performance. I suppose the fact that I sat 8 rows from the front contributed to that but even just the way Sting introduced his songs and engaged with the crowd was great.

Squonk

Alan Ratcliffe wrote:
GaryMac wrote: Makes you wonder if the likes of Sting and Rod Stewart can achieve a good sound in the Dome, where did the wheels come off for Deep Purple.
Sting's engineer is very good. If it's still the same guy, I've seen him work and he's phenomenal - diagnosed the Good hope with two claps of his hands. He apparently had a console made specifically for Sting and travels with it rather than with the band. ?

I saw James Blunt(There I have come out....), opening act Elvis Blue at the dome.

Elvis Blue's set was not bad, but the sound was awful, it was also too loud.

Blunt on the other hand had excellent sound and I was expecting the worst after all the dodgy reviews. I also watched with a lot of interest how they changed all the gear at intermission, almost as good as U2's sound team.

One thing I noticed is that the volume was lower for the Blunt Set. And you could at least hear all the instruments quite clearly.

Please, no anti Blunt comments, I also went to see the Bay City Rollers, Albert Hammond, Dobie Gray and Lovelace Watkins in my very early Youth ?

aubs1

Alan Ratcliffe wrote:
Aubs1 wrote: Dominic Miller and Vinnie (Sting rates him the Best drummer in the world) he is excellent, but the best??......
Zappa reckoned Vinnie Colaiuta was the best drummer he'd ever hired - and he started out as a drummer himself and wrote notoriously difficult drum parts (The Black Page is required material at most advanced drum schools). His list of drummers was a veritable "who's who?" of the top drummers in the world (Colaiuta, Terry Bozzio, Sly Dunbar, Chad Whackerman, Chester Thompson and Ralph Humphrey, et. al.).

Ok, ok, ok ...... I concede .......Vinnie is brilliant!!! I have heard very few drummers who not only are great, but their drums are also tuned to perfection, Vinnies' was!!

So seeing I am an ardent Sting fan, I believe he gets it all right!!! Dominic, Vinnie, Rene, Peter Tickell, and especially David Sancious ..... awesome!!! :applause:

deefstes wrote:
Aubs1 wrote:I was 7 rows from the front, and the sound was excellent!!!!
Wow, we must have been sitting within shouting distance from each other. I was in the 8th row from the front and 8th seat to the left of the centre aisle. I was also really impressed with the sound quality.

Wow, Leani and I were in FB block, must have been close!! ?

deefstes

Squonk wrote:I also went to see the Bay City Rollers, Albert Hammond, Dobie Gray and Lovelace Watkins in my very early Youth ?

I'd have loved to see Albert Hammond and Dobie Gray live!

Bob-Dubery

Squonk wrote: Please, no anti Blunt comments, I also went to see the Bay City Rollers, Albert Hammond, Dobie Gray and Lovelace Watkins in my very early Youth ?

James Blunt is immortalised as one of the newer additions to the lexicon of Cockney rhyming slang. It is possible to make a bit of a James Blunt of oneself.