Giving it some Elbow

What with one thing and another, I had rather lost track of what Sting was up to. Still on the lute? Moved on to nose flutes? Thrash metal rereadings of back catalogue? It turns out that he has taken to the road with an orchestra, in a heroic stand against the bitter frugality of these gloomy times. Drummers don’t cost much, and bassists come cheapest of all, but a whole orchestra has to be fed and watered, housed in very nearly sanitary conditions, transported by lorry from one location to the next and, apparently most tiring of all, listened to, as none of them ever stops talking. Sting obviously has ‘people’ to do all this, as he lolls between venues in his carbon-neutral luxury rickshaw, but the expense must be considerable.

I’d love to see one of these shows, though. Even the best pop music can be improved by the presence of a full orchestra wheeling away behind it, as anyone who bought David Gilmour’s Live at Gdansk CD or DVD from a couple of years ago will confirm.