Review - Sting - Cardiff Castle

Review - Sting - Cardiff Castle

Where do you start with Sting? A remarkable talent who, not being content with being one of the world's best bass players, also has the audacity to be a phenomenal songwriter and guitarist - plus also looking like a man half his age. It's infuriating, and even more infuriating that he is still so damn good.

He bestrides the stage at Cardiff Castle as a musician utterly at ease with himself, his music, his band and the glorious setting. Are we going to get acoustic Sting? Or jazz Sting? Or poetry Sting? Or esoteric Sting?

Nope, we are going to get full on, "I've done it, I've seen it, I've sold you the t-shirt" Sting. And with that he smashes us around the face, and this is just the starter, with 'Message in a Bottle'. To have that and to be able to toss it away as your first song because you know you've got another dozen of the same quality - it's quite an achievement.

With that we are taken through a masterclass of songwriting and performance by a band who are so utterly relaxed and so utterly skilful and so utterly at ease with the material - he gives them all a chance to stretch themselves, to shine and to entertain. From 'Englishman in New York' to 'Every little thing she does is magic', to the relentless cool groove of 'Heavy Cloud No Rain', to 'Walking on the Moon', there are brilliant moments throughout.

But the utter standout moment, as 'Roxanne' comes to a crashing close after five frantic minutes, is that Sting switches from bass to classical guitar - and no, they are not even close to being the same thing - and with a deftness of touch he brings the whole thing back to earth and then gently back up into the sky with 'Fragile'.

And then, looking as cool and relaxed as he was when he wandered onto the stage at the beginning of the evening, Sting smiles and is gone, leaving just an empty stage and the walls of Cardiff Castle as a memory of what being at the top of your game looks like.