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Sting: Bring On The Night @ 40

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Sting’s Bring On The Night, released 40 years ago this month, seldom makes it into the pantheon of ‘classic’ 1980s live albums (usually including Stop Making Sense, Alchemy, Under A Blood Red Sky, No Sleep Til Hammersmith, Exit…Stage Left).

But it probably should if you like brilliant playing, good singing and an interesting setlist, apparently with no post-production ‘sweetening’ too (even Rush admitted to some studio retakes after the event).

Former Police live mixer and occasional road manager Kim Turner spent most of 1985 recording Sting’s world tour (this writer was at a Royal Albert Hall gig of January 1986).

The result was probably his most underrated album, out of step with pretty much anything else released in 1986, the one that let his superb Dream Of The Blue Turtles band loose. Sting was obviously fond of it too, designing the cover and writing copious notes on each song which even allowed for a little self-criticism (‘Children’s Crusade’).

In a contemporary interview, he claimed that he shared all the album’s songwriting royalties with the band, so much did he value their contributions. With good reason: you could set your watch to Kenny Kirkland’s vamps and countermelodies. Sting worked very hard with backing vocalists Dolette McDonald and Janice Pendarvis (demonstrated on the tour doc directed by Michael Apted, of which more another time…) and their voices mesh beautifully.

Drummer Omar Hakim is at his absolutely peak with delicious, flowing fusion and funk playing, fresh from classic albums with Weather Report, John Scofield and Dire Straits. Bassist Darryl Jones gets on with his work fairly anonymously, but embellishes the back end of ‘Consider Me Gone’ with a few remarkable bebop lines.

Some Police material is improved. An atmospheric ‘Tea In The Sahara’ gets the tempo right, Kirkland resplendent in Herbie mode and Sting doing a decent Andy Summers impression. ‘Low Life’ grooves along tastily while The ‘One World’/’Love Is The Seventh Wave’ medley is brilliant, with its weird key changes and Sting’s Wes Montgomery-style guitar break.

He apparently always hated the chorus on the Police version of ‘Bring On The Night’ so it gets a makeover here with some major-seventh chords and nice, breezy R’n’B feel. Kirkland’s epic solo is one of the great piano statements of the 1980s.

The B-side ‘Another Day’ is effervescent and funky (in a different key to the studio version) despite some of Sting’s most depressing state-of-the-world lyrics ever.

But a lot of the softer stuff is underwhelming: ‘Moon Over Bourbon Street’ barely registers, while ‘I Burn For You’ comes sans Omar’s blowout from the doc. ‘Been Down So Long’ is a light-hearted, corny blues with ill-advised ‘sexy’ Sting vocals, despite another beautiful Hakim performance. ‘We Work The Black Seam’ adds little to the leaden studio version.

In general, the album maybe could have done with more up-tempo reggae, and it’s surprising the A&M bosses didn’t demand the inclusion of some bigger Police hits.

Many critics were quick to label the album as ‘fusion’, but if you listen to what Branford Marsalis is actually playing, his chief influences seem to be King Curtis and Grover Washington Jr. The Wayne Shorter/Coltrane licks only really come out on ‘Children’s Crusade’.

Upon its June 1986 release, Bring On The Night only hit #16 in the UK, didn’t chart in the USA (?) but 18 months later won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male.

Meanwhile Sting was becoming the Sting we know today. He had presented Quincy Jones his Grammy for Record Of The Year (‘We Are The World’) in February 1986. In June, he duetted with Mark Knopfler at the Prince’s Trust Wembley gig and did the Artists Against Apartheid Clapham Common gig organised by Jerry Dammers. He then reformed The Police for the Conspiracy Of Hope Amnesty tour leading, of course, to the disastrous ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me ‘86’ single.

The next stop was the Bahamas to record …Nothing Like The Sun, another career high point and a return to the bass. He would never record with Omar Hakim or Darryl Jones again…

Book Review: Backtrack by Tessa Niles

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Excellent recent documentary ’20 Feet From Stardom’ busted the myth once and for all that backing singers aren’t ‘good’ enough to be solo artists.

In fact, the contrary is often true: they make the artist sound and look better, and there are often a myriad of reasons both professional and personal why they haven’t become headliners in their own right.

Tessa Niles is probably the UK’s most celebrated backing vocalist of the last 35 years, and her excellent new memoir lifts the lid on a distinguished career singing with David Bowie, George Harrison, Elton John, Kylie, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Tina Turner, Pet Shop Boys, Annie Lennox, Gary Numan, The Police, Duran Duran, ABC, Tears For Fears and Robbie Williams.

It’s a real page-turner and ’80s guilty pleasure, a voyage through all the pop fads of the decade (and decades since) and a search for a fruitful work/life balance in the face of demanding touring schedules and family commitments.

We follow Niles’ career from her early days as factory worker, cabaret entertainer and ‘Benny Hill Show’-auditioner to the late-’70s/early-’80s London live music scene, where good, young female singers could make a decent living at the city’s many nightclubs.

She is excellent at painting a picture of this somewhat dodgy state of affairs, when a pre-New Romantic London was anything but swinging and ‘Page 3’ culture was at its peak.

But a shrewd volte face leads Tessa into the burgeoning jazz/funk scene and decent, reliable gigs with Morrissey Mullen and Incognito, plus a chance meeting with US ex-pat arranger and producer Richard Niles.

Though their subsequent marriage gives Tessa her professional surname, it also leads to some conflicts of interest when he helms her commercially-unsuccessful solo debut.

But then Trevor Horn is on the blower and she is whisked into the studio to work on ABC’s ephocal Lexicon Of Love album, the beginning of a long and successful professional relationship with the uber-producer. ‘Date Stamp’ in particular shows Niles’ voice off to great effect.

From here on in, her career goes from strength to strength, but it’s not without its pitfalls: The Police’s long ‘Synchronicity’ world tour plays havoc with her vocal cords due to Sting’s insistence that she (and cohorts Dolette McDonald and Michelle Cobbs) sing in ‘full voice’ throughout, without any vibrato.

There’s also a funny anecdote about what exactly constitutes an audition for Sting.

Then of course there’s Niles’ memorable, electrifying turn alongside David Bowie at Live Aid – it’s amazing that they only had two days’ rehearsal for the ‘little gig’, as Bowie called it.

Elsewhere, there’s lots of good technical stuff about what actually constitutes a decent studio vocal performance – and also what artists and producers demand from a backing vocalist – with wicked anecdotes concerning Tina Turner’s ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’, Steve Winwood’s ‘Roll With It’, Duran’s ‘Notorious’ and Tears For Fears’ ‘Swords And Knives’. Niles also doesn’t shy away from personal reflections about her family relationships and romances.

There’s far too much Clapton and Robbie Williams for my liking and a decent proofreader wouldn’t have gone amiss, but I devoured ‘Backtrack’ almost in one sitting. A really enjoyable, gossipy read.

‘Backtrack’ is out now on Panoma Press.