I for one am absolutely delighted that he will NOT be touring with Sting this time around. Although he seems like a great guy, I just don't like what he has done to Sting's music, especially not on stage.

For me, the absolute peak of Sting's career is still the TST tour - those four guys together kicked some serious butt! Besides the obvious fact that they were and are all incredible musicians, what made this line-up so great was their attitude - anything was possible. Listen to live recordings from this tour, and you will often hear small, improvised changes to the songs that made them grow and move constantly. It kept the guys on their toes all the time, and I just didn't feel that on the BND tour - it seemed much more like a preset performance being delivered.

And I think Kipper is partly to blame for this, although in the end, Sting is the one who makes the decisions. But it is harder to improvise in the spur of the moment when the music relies so heavily on drum loops and sequencing. Also, If the rumours are true, it was Sting's fascination with Kipper's drum programming that drove Vinnie away from the BND recording sessions - and THAT is not easy to forgive ;-) !!

Why Sting is so crazy about Kipper, I will never know. I'm fearing that he is developing a "Phil Collins-syndrome" where he starts relying too heavily on all the new possibilities of the modern technology and forgets to just play music! Sure, you can do amazing things with Kipper's equipment, and he definitely knows how to handle it, but you shouldn't use it just because you can - it should be musically warranted (which I have no doubt Sting will say that it is!).

That said, I have higher hopes for the upcoming tour. I have a feeling that Sting, too, missed the TST days on the last tour and that he is trying to bring some of the magic back on stage this time. He is back to his "record as a blueprint" idea, and that is something he almost never mentioned during BND.

So, now all we need is to get Vinnie and Sancious back, and things will start to brighten up ;-). Can't wait to hear Vinnie with Sting again on the BBC Radio 1 show.

--
"And my sanity scans the horizon"
Sting - The Wild Wild Sea

http://www.mzh.dk

---- Original Message ----
From: TaoofKim@aol.com
To: police@mailman.xmission.com
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 4:59 AM
Subject: [Police] No thoughts on Kipper...

> So, not one person had any thoughts on Kipper. Very interesting.
> Do you think he is the person encouraging Sting to rely more on drum
> machines? Personally, that is one thing about his new sound that I
> could do without.
> KIM
>
>
>
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