With a back catalogue as extensive and legendary as the man himself, Sting was able to cram his setlist with plenty of classics during this Australian tour.
Sting played A Day On The Green at Sirromet Winery near Brisbane on Sunday night, opening his gig with classics Message In A Bottle, Englishman in New York and Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.
But the English musician took pause to deliver “bad news” to his fans.
“I’ve got some bad news: I’m gonna sing some news songs,” he said, after warming up the crowd with some hits.
“You never know, it might be a hit one day!”
But the tunes from his 2021 album The Bridge still went down a treat with the crowd at Sirromet, southeast of Brisbane, with hundreds of people leaving glowing reviews of the show on the festival’s Facebook page.
“Sting - still fantastic! 5th time I’ve seen him. Best ever Day on the Green,” said one woman.
“The concert was amazing, what a performer,” said another.
“Every moment was superb. So grateful for the old the new and just you (Sting). My bucket list. What a poet, what (a) musician! Thanks to the whole band.”
The only gripe from the crowd was the gridlock traffic coming in and out of the venue, which caused some to almost miss the 71-year-old rocker’s performance.
Perhaps he issued the warning after Red Hot Chili Peppers fans were left disappointed when the band ditched many of their biggest hits in favour of new material.
The Peppers’ Sydney concert on February 2 caused a massive backlashwhen tracks from their two newest albums Unlimited Love and Return to the Dream Canteen, both released in 2022, took up seven of the set’s 20 songs.
They only performed just one song from their biggest-selling album in Australia, 1999’s eight-time platinum Californication (which was again snubbed bar the title track in Melbourne).
Other multi-platinum albums like One Hot Minute (1995) and Stadium Arcadium (2006) represented one song each.
And fans were left most disappointed when the band left their most well-known song Under the Bridge out of the Sydney show.
But there were no complaints from Sting’s crowd as he rocked through his early post-punk hits with The Police and more from his nearly four-decade solo career.
And while Sting entertained an older crowd at Sirromet, fellow British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran had Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane roaring through his high-energy set on his + – = ÷ x Tour (aka The Mathematics Tour)
Largely dominated by songs from his most recent album, ‘=’ (Equals), Sheeran loaded his show with his biggest hits from his last five studio albums.
He even provided the soundtrack to a proposal in the stands, as a man popped the question to the ever-romantic 2017 hit ‘Perfect'.
Sheeran told the crowd he got goosebumps when he wrote the song in 2015, and said he was grateful people used his music for special moments.
“I have people come up to me every day and tell me stories about this song,” he said.
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“People use my songs for these moments in their live. I get it and I really, really appreciate you guys connecting my music.”
Sheeran played his final Brisbane show on Sunday night, and is now headed for Sydney to play Accor Stadium on February 24 and 25. Before heading to Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth from March 2 to 12.
Sting’s next stadium show for his My Songs tour will be at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on February 21, before heading to Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena (February 23), and two more Day on the Green pop-ups at Geelong (February 25) and Bowral (February 26).
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