Sting returned to Košice after 10 years, welcomed by a full Steel Arena...

Hockey in the Košice Steel Arena was replaced by music on Wednesday evening. The guest of the Easterners was the very well-known and still popular Sting in Slovakia, who continues his Sting My Songs tour. Instead of encouraging 'go for it', the famous songs Správa vo fříči or Angličan v New York were played.

Thanks to the multi-year pandemic, the Košice concert was only Sting's fourth attempt, the first date was October 8, 2020, the second on October 4, 2021, and the third unsuccessful one on March 13 of this year. Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, as his civil name is, returned to Košice after ten years - he last performed there on November 17, 2012 - which he himself mentioned during Wednesday's concert.

Sting's Košice playlist had 18 songs, starting with the hit Message in a Bottle from the album Reggatta de Blanc, released in October 1979 with the group Police, followed by the well-known hit Englishman in New York, which is a song from Sting's second album Nothing Like the Sun, released in October 1987. While the packed arena was moving during the first mentioned song, hundreds of vocal cords joined the protagonist during the second.

He then sang the songs Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, If It's Love, For Her Love, Rushing Water, If I Ever Lose My Faith in You from his fourth solo album Ten Summoner's Tales, released in March 1993.

He also performed one of his biggest solo hits Fields of Gold, and then the songs Spirits in the Material World, Brand New Day, Shape of My Heart, Heavy Cloud No Rain, So Lonely, Desert Rose, and with it another great response, then King of Pain and finally the biggest hit from the Police era Every Breath You Take from the fifth and final album Synchronicity from June 1983. There was probably not a fan in the Košice arena who did not know this famous song. The reward for Sting and the musicians was the ovation of the audience, to which he then dedicated two encores Roxanne and Fragile.

Sting also gave his family the opportunity to perform. The concert was opened by his 45-year-old eldest son Joe Sumner, who tried to get the arena dancing before his father's performance and received applause from the audience for his efforts. He then joined the musicians at the end of the concert.

Sting's backing band consisted of Dominic Miller (guitar), Josh Freese (drums), Rufus Miller (guitar), Yolanda Charles (bass), Kevon Webster (keyboards), Shane Sager (harmonica), Melissa Musique and Gene Noble (backing vocals).

Sting was a co-founder of the band Police in January 1977, in which he sang and played bass guitar. The group broke up in 1986, having released five studio albums by then. Sting has subsequently released fifteen studio albums on his solo career, the latest being The Bridge, which was released in November 2021. The Košice concert was his eighth performance in Slovakia.

Sting was a success in Košice. On Sunday, October 30, he and his band will also perform for the people of Bratislava at the Ondrej Nepela Winter Stadium.

(c) Teraz