Royal Albert Hall, London, 14. & 15.5.2004 I went to see the Friday and Saturday shows in Royal Albert Hall, and have to say that this was the best "Sting"-trip I've made. I originally had a ticket only for Fridays show, but after seeing the Helsinki gig I had to get a ticket for Saturday also. And how lucky I was... The Friday night concert was really good, but the Saturdays show was - well, the best show I've ever seen! Before the show on Saturday afternoon I was hanging with some of my friends behind RAH, trying to catch Sting, and so we did! Actually we were lucky enough to meet him also on Friday. We also met the whole band coming in one by one, and had a really nice chat with Kipper. Among other things we asked about I Burn For You, and he said that they have rehearsed it, but Sting don't want to include it in the setlist... He said it's kinda hard to fit in between other songs, especially because IBFY doesn't have a clear ending. He still had a hope that Sting will give it a go sometime... Here's a little review of the Saturdays show, Joss Stone was the special guest, she sounds (and looks!) great, but that's not our main thing... The setlist was almost the same as before, the main thing was that Walking On The Moon had been moved to the middle of the show, just before Englishman In NY. So the gig started with 'Send Your Love' and already at this point it seemed that this is going to be an excellent gig... The feeling in the venue was somehow more relaxed than Friday and so was Sting. He talked a lot between the songs, told some stories behind the songs and drank a lot of different drinks (to sooth his throat). He said he was really happy to be able to perform again, and gave a good credit to the people behind the shows. They had build up the stage every night while Sting was ill and had just waited whether there'll be a show or not, and as we know, there wasn't for a long time. Must have been really frustrating to all the road personnel also... After the first four songs ('SYL', 'Inside', 'Forget About The Future', 'Dead Man's Rope' (Sting playing with his "shrunk" guitar) came the first old song, 'Synchronicity II'. After that the show went back to the new ones, 'Whenever I Say Your Name' with always as lovely Joy Rose, the original singer of the song, as Sting mentioned. Mary J. Blige just did the recorded version... 'I Was brought To My Senses' was the next one, and it really felt for me like a really nice relaxed moment in the concert, the song is so beautiful and they have played it quite a long time, so it has a really nice soft feeling. In my opinion it was absolutely one of the highlights in the show. Sting told about the next song 'This War' that it is about the feeling you get when you sit in the backseat of a car, the driver is driving like a maniac and you try to get him to slow down and to behave like a normal person... he has had this feeling all his life... Anyway, the song has a good story and idea, the videos behind really backup the song and it has a life of its own. Somehow they just still have to do something to the song, before it really rocks (as it does on the record). It's probably the drums, which are quite different from the record version, even though Keith Carlock is an excellent drummer. I really hope they keep it in the setlist also in the future. Luckily they have placed 'Fragile' in the middle of the show, it fits kinda better there after hearing it thousand times as the last song. And the crowd loved this part of the concert, especially as 'Fields Of Gold' was the next one. Beautiful songs and beautiful moods... 'Stolen Car (Take Me Dancing)' wasn't too good back in Helsinki gig, it was much better on Friday gig, but on Saturday it really worked!! They rehearsed it during both Friday and Saturday rehearsals, and you could hear the difference. Now I like the version and understand why they even made it and released as a single. Hopefully it'll get enough radio play. 'Sacred Love' was the cool version they've played with these girls dancing on the videoscreen, but then came 'Walking On The Moon'. Sting playing doublebass it does the job being one of the best songs on the gig. We talked with Kipper about the double bass in the WOTM and the next 'Englishman in NY', they had some trouble on Friday with Sting changing from double bass to normal one in EINY, after the solo part. Kipper said they're going to rehearse it for Saturday, and it did work better on the show. Before 'Roxanne' Sting asked the crowd to help him with the high parts, as his voice wasn't in full condition. On Friday he really had a lot of troubles singing it, but we backed him up quite well... surprisingly he could sing it on Saturday, only one little missed sound, otherwise almost normal. But the version was excellent! They had made quite a big change from the Fridays gig to Saturday, as they didn't play the 'Bed's Too Big Without You' part at all on Friday. So the song was almost double longer than on Friday, and the mood was much much better! The best version of 'Roxanne' I've seen live! 'Never Coming Home' closed the main set, with Jason Rebellos (& Dominics) wonderful solo. He used some organ sound on the Friday gig and it didn't work as well as on Saturday when he played it with a normal piano sound. I talked with him after the show and pointed out that it was an excellent decision to change the sound... He's just an amazing player! The first encore consisted 'Desert Rose', 'If I Ever Lose My Faith In You' and 'Every Breath You Take', so just the ones we've used to. But Sting managed to get a lot of energy to the songs, especially If I Ever.. was an excellent version with Sting really jamming with the other guys. I haven't seen that kind of energy in Stings shows for a long time. The final encore, 'Thousand Years' ended the show with its magnificient backing images wrapping the whole night nicely with the same song starting and ending the show. All together it was a really special evening for me, first to meet all the guys from the band, had a nice chat with Kipper, then to meet Sting and after all this the best show I've ever seen! I felt quite satisfied when walking back to my hotel... T I M O