Three men committed a smash-and-grab raid in north London last night. Call The Police! In an act of brazen nighttime daring, rock superstar Sting led a tightly drilled trio into the dingy environs of the Forum in Kentish Town and blasted through a set of familiar hits with a panache that was breathtaking to witness.
I’m not sure how Sting’s former bandmates in The Police will feel about this revival of their USP. Along with drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers, Sting (as bassist, singer and songwriter) was part of one of the most successful trios in pop history. Although their working relationships were rather embattled at times, The Police ruled the charts from 1977 to 1984, and had a brief, lucrative reunion in 2007 to 2008. Sting’s new band, Sting 3.0, formed in 2024, recreates the lean but loose format of The Police with drummer Chris Maas and guitarist Dominic Miller (Sting’s sideman for 30 years); but, crucially, Sting himself has complete control (the way, one gets the impression, that he has always preferred it).
The resulting band of hired hands lack the gladiatorial intensity of The Police at full blast: a trio who really pulled songs apart and played as much against one another as with each other. Instead, Sting 3.0 offer a sleek togetherness and dazzling musicality, one thrilling hit segueing into the next. A full half of their 22-song set were Police hits, with the other half comprising remodelled Sting solo classics. The format allowed the bandleader to reinvent such fantastic songs as Englishman In New York, Shape of My Heart and Desert Rose, in the lean, spacey and immensely pliable style of The Police.
Sting 3.0 formed earlier this year – Chiaki Nozu / WireImage
Remarkably slim and fit at 74 – a walking advertisement for the power of yoga – Sting wandered the stage with his bass guitar and headset mic like he owned every inch of the space, tossing out crowd-pleasers with an air of imperial elan. “When I lived in London, this used to be my local,” he said of the 2,300-capacity venue. “Then we moved to a nice house in the country. Well, more of a castle, actually.”
Sting is playing four dates in London, with the next three sold out at the 5,000-capacity Apollo in Hammersmith. But the truth is that he could sell out even bigger venues, and a reconvened Police would easily pack stadiums. Evidently, Sting prefers the intimacy that small venues allow. His perfectly formed songs were sharp and recognisable but frequently blew up with extended codas in which Sting’s liquid bass playing, Miller’s intricate guitar and Maas’s explosive drumming interweaved spectacularly. The result was criminally entertaining.
Sting 3.0 play Eventim Apollo October 26-28, then tour worldwide: www.sting.com/tour
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