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John Callis's Collection

Sting   07/27/1988

Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
Source soundboard
Media SHN on CDR   3 discs
J-Card Comment Comments:
In 1988 Sting had serious plans to release a live album of (parts of) the show recorded at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles on July 27, 1988. Eventually this never came about, but the COMPLETE recording surfaced on the bootleg "The Art Of The Heart" in October 1992. The quality of the recording is excellent, because this is a soundboard recording!

From the accompanying booklet:
The Nothing Like The Sun tour lasted almost exactly one year. It started with some "try-out" dates at the New York "Ritz Theatre" on November 15 and 16, 1987. And with a "Book of Guiness" record of 200,000 people attending his show at the "Maracana Stadium" of Rio De Janeiro on November 20th. It was during these Brazilian days that Sting first met with the Indians in the Amazonian forest.

In between the gigs of Brasilia and Porto Alegre he went with J.P. Dutilleux (a Belgian filmmaker), Trudie Styler and Mino Cilenu to the Kayapo Indians of the Xingu region. It was here that he learned about Chief Raoni's problems concerning the rainforest destruction. Later in May/June 1990 Sting did a world tour with Chief Raoni and other Indians to tell the world about the dying of the Amazonian rainforest.

After this Brazilian experience, Sting came back to London for some gigs and the Christmas festivities in his homeland. The official start of the tour took place at the "Sundome" in Tempe, Florida. The first part of tour was spent performing in huge indoor arenas, all over Canada and the United States for Amnesty International. Played in different cities, together with Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman and local artists, this event was called the "Human Rights Now! World Tour". Sting did not play at the dates of Oakland, for unknown reasons, and of Tokyo, because of his commitments for the upcoming months in Japan. The Nothing Like The Sun normal shows were lasting about 130 minutes every night. Just once in a very small theatre in the heart of California, he made an exception. For 3,000 people only...

This concert was played at the end of July, 1988, while Sting was again crossing the United States for the second part of the tour, performing only in huge stadiums or at special summer festivals. 3000 people (all invited guests, no tickets were sold) saw a three hour show of Sting; it was a uniqueevent, as his concerts were always lasting much less, ending with an acoustic version of "Message In A Bottle". He performed all the songs he did during the other dates of the tour. It was the longest show he ever did in his entire career. During the whole tour the set list was changed most of thenight; in Europe different tracks were played in any country, also because Sting liked to sing a song in the language of the country he was performing that night.

That night in California he played all those tunes, the complete program he had prepared for the new tour, including tracks in Spanish, French and German. Even some members of the band had the chance to perform some songs of their own: Dolette McDonald, Delmar Brown, Kenny Kirkland and Branford Marsalis provided some very high quality moments. What you're approaching is the complete recording, in full stereo, of that magical event, a "must" for any Sting fan.

To introduce Consider Me Gone, Sting told the audience: "I was singing this next song, I think in San Francisco last week and while I was singing it I couldn't help thinking of George Bush, so I want you to think about George as I sing this song." Bush was running for President for the Republicans and eventually won the election.

Before Mackie Messer: "We just came from a tour of Europe. At this point of the show every night I come on and I do a song in the language of the country I was performing in. [..] It shows some kind of respect for the culture and the people you are playing to, and also they go fucking crazy when you do. So tonight, just for the fun of it I'm gonna do a song in German, a song in Italian, a song in French, and then I'm gonna play you what I play in the mid-west of America. You'll be surprised." Before Caro Mio Ben: "What I'm not gonna play here tonight is an awful version of the William Tell Ouverture which we fucked up in Switzerland. This song is Italian. You'll like this if you like pizza."
Trades Allowed Yes
Owned by John Callis · Last Updated May 23, 2023