Sting

“He’s real, he’s here and he’s singing for us” - just one of the comments heard at Sting’s concert at Petrovaradin Fortress on Monday evening. It may sound prosaic, perhaps even sentimental, but that is always to be expected when emotions are involved, and there was no shortage of them that night.

In front of some 20,000 people, for almost two hours, Sting showed how the greats do it and why his name carries star status and a British knighthood. That is why many (expected?) complaints were never heard, and there was not a trace of resentment that the audience’s wish for a few more songs went unfulfilled.

All in all, everyone who was at the Fortress that night can rightly say they were treated with respect, at least as far as the musicians are concerned. They can also say that Sting did not come just to “get Novi Sad over with”; instead, the famous perfectionist made the audience feel that a world-class guest had arrived, with a well-rehearsed band, leaving nothing to chance, not even coming back for more encores than planned.

Sting gave the opening slot to his son Joe Sumner, who warmed up the crowd for about an hour with his band Fiction Plane. Before long, however, the stage went dark, and when, after “Good evening, Novi Sad and Serbia,” the Fortress heard the first bars of ‘Message in a Bottle’, it was clear that what the audience had so far heard on records and CDs was not studio polish, dressed up and impossible to reproduce live.

So it is no surprise to feel that, when it comes to Sting, there is no deception, and that he is a man who can sing an entire concert in one breath while in perfect harmony with the instrument he plays. Nor is it surprising to hear from those who, upon hearing ‘Englishman in New York’, ‘Walking On The Moon’, ‘Fields of Gold’, ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic’ and ‘Shape Of My Heart’, among other songs, felt that they had finally seen and heard in person what they had until then only listened to on players and turntables.

That is exactly why the expression on the face of one woman in the audience, perhaps even Sting’s age, who came to the concert with her son, is no surprise either. However it may sound, there was something ritual in her smile and her clasped hands. Just as there was something so good in the people from Belgrade, Niš, Kragujevac, Novi Sad and many other towns in Serbia and neighboring countries who made what was almost a pilgrimage to the Fortress on Monday. Sting’s admirers spanned several generations: some came just for ‘Roxanne’, while for others ‘Desert Rose’ is a favorite.

The confident sound of two guitars - Dominic Miller and Lyle Workman - backed by Abe Laboriel on drums, together with Sting’s bass and voice, brought the audience to call them back for an encore twice and to wish for a third. ‘Fragile’ was the last song, sung in unison with a man of the stature of an English prince in baggy trousers and a modest jacket, with an energy that demands a bow. The audience probably felt it too, at moments sounding like Sting’s echo, never too loud, and it certainly made sure this Englishman was no “alien” in Novi Sad, but showed them his thousand faces and stayed true to himself no matter what. In all likelihood, the Briton felt it as well: leaving the Fortress and Novi Sad, he gave the audience his blessing and promised to come back.