Rome - June 11, 2004
Rome was disappointing from the start. One newspaper reported that we were going on at 8, and then another said we were going on at 9. The actual time, we learned just the day before, was at 5:30. So we went out and played to about 1800 people, in a place that held about 100,000. The newspapers had also given two different addresses for the event. Gerry Leonard’s sister Nicky had come to Italy just for the show, and went to the wrong address before being directed to the correct one.
Sting was nowhere to be seen. We went onstage in the sweltering heat. I couldn’t hear my voice and guitar at all, and I said so. Eventually some sound poked through, but the guitar sounded as tinkly as a ukelele throughout the whole set. The crowd didn’t seem to respond to any of the songs, which is very unusual for Italy. Usually if they don’t respond to 99.9F, they will respond to Marlene, as that album was really popular in Europe. But nothing seemed to get much response. Some of it might have been the heat. It was really scorching and a real dust bowl. They perked up finally at Tom’s Diner and they liked Behind Blue Eyes. But mostly they seemed to want the next band. So we said thanks and went off to do some TV.
Afterwards we went to look for food. “The hospitality tent is closed. No more food.” I was told. “Closed?” I said. “How un-Italian. What is Sting going to eat?” “He has his own chef in his own private area.” So I thought, well, we can hang around here hoping Sting will say hello again, or we can go out and get a proper dinner. So we opted to go out and eat.
We had a great meal and it was strange being done with work so early in the day. We went out with our publishers from Minimum Fax, (Marco Cassini and Valerio Piccolo), and we talked about the new project that is coming out in a couple of weeks in Italy. It’s always lovely spending time with them, they are good company, but we were tired and didn’t have as much good conversation as usual.
Tim the backline guy sat next to me. I noticed him wearing an eye patch, and saw him put his head in his hands. I noticed he was pale that morning, and now he looked terrible. “What is the matter with you?” I said. “Are you very tired?” We had gotten hardly any sleep the night before because of our flights. But something had happened to his eye during the show, and now it was swollen and leaking under his eye patch. So I arranged with Phil for him to go off to the hospital, which was an ordeal, as he ended up going to at least 2 over the course of the night, and missed Sting’s show entirely.
We knew Sting was going on at 10 PM so we headed back. The square was packed with people. At 10:20 he still hadn’t gone on and the crowd was getting restless. There were hundreds of people in the backstage area, milling around. Somehow the Italian security didn’t like where I was standing and ordered me to move. “Sting is going to pass by here on the way to the stage. Go stand there.” they told me. “Why?” I said. “That is your area. Go stand behind the barricade.” I didn’t like that much. I stood in front of my barricade, and wondered what would happen next.
One of the guys in Sting’s crew saw this, and stepped in to talk to me. “Actually Sting is NOT passing by here, he is already onstage. Why don’t I take you to where you can see the show?” I gratefully accepted and then to my surprise I was led up to the side of a hill by the side of the stage, so far up that I could only see the screens.
The security didn’t like us there either. “You will have to move,” one guy told me. We were on the other side of some barricades which were holding back thousands of people, and they had thrown their garbage right where we were sitting. “You will have to move again.” So we moved again. “Please stop standing up.” I sat down.
The show began and a great cheer went up. Eventually I began to see what was happening. The Red Cross was running alongside the barriers looking for people who had collapsed. They would pinpoint a spot, open up the barricade, lay down a blanket where a lifeless body would be bundled onto it and it would be whisked away as on a stretcher.
I watched as a middle-aged man with a balding head was taken away, then someone I couldn’t identify. Within the first 10 minutes there were three fallen people, and then the Red Cross started to run up the barricade right where we were all sitting, prying it open, and laying the blanket down.
I could see we really causing problems being in the way, so I thought, let’s get the hell out of here, and we down backstage again, then went to the press area to watch the show.
Sting was in good form, and his films were back as part of the production. I had seen the show in New York and thought how relaxed and musical the show was. This was a little more pumped up for obvious reasons. He seemed to be wearing the same shirt or a similar one to the one in Budapest. Maybe he had a bunch of them. A kind of pendant hung around his neck, mesmerizing me into wondering what it was? I never found out.
The show came to a close, and Mark from my crew came and told me that Sting was going to do a runner - there was a vehicle waiting to take him to a private jet to Vienna, and that’s what happened. I had brought “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” by Carson McCullers for him, and gave it to a member of his crew with a little note. I never saw him at all that night except on stage.
We went back to the hotel and finally met up again with Tim, who finally had gotten some drops for his unbelievably swollen eye, and was back from the various hospitals he had been to.
The next day was the Isle of Wight. We planned to perfom the same set as we had at Rome. But first we had a day off to see The Who. I was very excited!
Mike said the next day that there had been a heightened security situation because of the date: 6/11/04. The terrorist bombings in Madrid took place on 3/11, so there was some concern with a free Sting concert that drew 100,000 right in the middle of Rome, that there would be terrorist activity that evening. Fortunately nothing happened.
[Next: Isle of Wight!! - June 12, 2004 ]