The one show Sting called better than Woodstock: “A wonderful day for rock ‘n’ roll”
Sting never seemed like the kind of person looking to be a rock and roll star.
He was going to end up playing music one way or the other, but it’s hard to think of a single frontman who has ever looked cooler than he did whenever he strapped on his bass and started playing tunes like ‘Roxanne’ back in 1978. He was more than happy to keep playing for whoever would listen, but once the rest of the world started to pay attention, he was going to need to do a little bit more than play a couple of catchy tunes.
But for the first few years of The Police’s career, choosing to stay the same was the best they could have hoped for. Every other band usually screws themselves over when trying to make their second album the biggest thing in the world, but by working in the same studios that they did on their first record, Regatta de Blanc was the same as their previous record with everything refined, from Stewart Copeland’s massive drum breaks to Andy Summers’ turning ‘Walking on the Moon’ into a sonic adventure.
Sting was still writing the best songs that he could, but in the next few years, becoming a solo star was inevitable. The band were clashing much more once they started to become pop stars, and even if there wasn’t as much wiggle room for the rest of them, you could tell that Sting was about to become one of the biggest names in pop once ‘Every Breath You Take’ and ‘King of Pain’ reached the top of the charts.
Then again, his approach to becoming a solo star was a lot different. He had his fair share of moments rubbing elbows with some of the greatest artists in the world, but his heart was always in stretching himself out a bit more. He was not going to get stuck playing rock and roll forever, so seeing him incorporate the sounds of jazz and even a dose of funk into his sound was a lot better than having to deal with a hundred more versions of ‘Message in a Bottle’ or ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’.
But somewhere in between the energy of his early days and becoming one of the biggest names in adult contemporary, there was Live Aid. Sting had always been interested in working with musicians every time he jammed with someone new, but the idea of sharing the stage with countless artists at the top of their game for a charity gig was almost too good of an idea for him to pass up.
And when he finally got off that stage after performing with Mark Knopfler and on his own, he felt that what they did outmatched the greatest festivals of all time, saying, “It sounds like a cliché, but it really was a wonderful day for rock ‘n’ roll. Even if no money got through, I think the symbol of goodwill and cooperation and togetherness was so important, it was useful in itself. Beyond that, however, we also raised so much money that I’m confident it will get through, which makes it that much more important. Everyone said it was our generation’s Woodstock, and it was, but I think it was more important than Woodstock.”
It’s hard to really compete with a show that gave us one of Jimi Hendrix’s greatest performances and a show-stopping set from The Who, but in terms of what it meant for rock and roll, Sting is a lot more correct than most people are willing to admit. It has been long enough for people to digest what the show meant for the world, and even if Sting wasn’t in the most memorable moments, seeing Queen and U2 devour Wembley Stadium wasn’t something anyone was going to forget for as long as they live.
It’s a little bit disheartening seeing some of the money not make it to those charitable causes all the time, but for a brief moment in time, Live Aid did genuinely feel like it had the potential to change the world through music. Woodstock had only hinted at a gig of this magnitude, and when people got to see it with their own eyes, it felt like each chord could turn the world on its axis.
