Former Police frontman Sting performs a crowd-pleasing 17-song set in Paris's relatively intimate Olympia music hall in this April 2017 concert. Rocking bass guitar, the fluent-in-French Sting shares some small talk with the locals (with no subtitles), but these interludes are brief as he serves up Police songs and solo career hits, including several drawn from his 2016 return-to-rock-roots release 57th & 9th. Kicking off with the solid Police numbers “Synchronicity II” and “Spirits in the Material World” (with a bit too much of the reggae “e-yo-yo”—almost a parody of the Police), Sting is joined by a fine backup band that includes guitarists Dominic Miller and Rufus Miller, drummer Josh Freese, and accordionist Percy Cardona, along with special backing vocal guests Joe Sumner (Sting's son) and two members of The Last Bandoleros. Sting fans will appreciate the excellent renditions of faves such as “Englishman in New York,” “Fields of Gold,” “One Fine Day,” and “Fragile,” while Police aficionados will be overjoyed with the band rocking out on “Message in a Bottle,” “Roxanne” (with a beautifully interwoven Bill Withers's “Ain't No Sunshine”), and the ultimate creepy stalker megahit “Every Breath You Take.” The only serious misstep here is an insultingly jokey version of the punk hit “Next to You,” from the Police's 1978 debut album Outlandos d'Amour. But forget the caveats; this will find huge favor with Sting fans. Presented in DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo on DVD, and DTS-HD 5.1 and LPCM stereo on Blu-ray, extras include bonus songs by openers Sumner and The Last Bandoleros. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)
Sting: Live at the Olympia Paris
(2017) 102 min. DVD: $14.98, Blu-ray: $19.98. Eagle Rock Entertainment (avail. from most distributors). Volume 33, Issue 1
Sting: Live at the Olympia Paris
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
Order From Your Favorite Distributor Today: