I haven't been to a concert in years and now 2 in three weeks but what two to go to, Michael Buble and Sting. This time the venue was the O2 and this was also a first for me as I haven't been here since it was renovated from the old Point. But before I cover the concert we first headed with some friends for a pre-concert dinner in Peploes on Stephen's Green, another first.
We had a beautiful meal and very reasonable €25 for a three course meal that was excellent quality, a restaurant I will definitely go to again. A short taxi ride to the O2 which was was short in distance but took a good half hour with all the traffic heading to the concert.
I was very impressed with the O2, 9,500 seated capacity with plenty of bars and very accessible and not a bad seat in the house. Sting was backed by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra with about 50 musicians in total. Firstly the acoustics were excellent and we didn't leave with ringing in our ears it was a real pleasure to be able to listen to every note so clearly just like listening to your hi-fi in your own sitting room. The energy of the conductor, Stephen Mercurio, transmitted to the orchestra and he really appeared to be enjoying himself and the arrangements were marvellous.
But what about the man himself, well only a couple of days before I heard his album Symphonicity and didn't really like what I was hearing, but in retrospect it's better than my quick listen, so I was worried that this wasn't going to be a great experience but I needn't have worried. He started bang on 8pm and he was only about 30 seconds into his first song and I thought hiw voice was going to break and feared he's not going to last the night. But no, his voice just got better and better.
It's not until you hear the string of hits that you realise what a prolific writer he is and he covered all his best hits: Lose My Faith, Englishman in New York (great Oboe), Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Roxanne (just great), Russians, Fields of Gold, When We Dance, Next to You, Moon Over Bourbon Street, Ghost Story, Every Breath You Take and on and on. He had only one back up singer, Jo Lawry, which was a bit suprising given the size of the orchestra and she did only one duet I Say Your Name which she did very well and made me want to hear more from her.
All in all we had a great meal, a great venue, a great experience and a great night.
