Budapest with Sting

This gig came in at the last minute. Do you want to open for Sting in Budapest in front of 250,000 people, we were asked? Yes, we did, but I was booked to play the Stephen’s Talkhouse in Long Island the day before. So we postponed that show until the end of July, and came out here to have this adventure. This is the beginning of the European tour.

We flew overnight to London, getting no sleep, and then took a flight to Budapest the next morning. A baby screamed the whole way over on this flight, while the hapless mother tried reasoning and logic with her. I was so fatigued and jet-lagged I slept through most of it anyway.

Time was unbelievably tight as it was. We had to go right to the venue from the airport and still missed our line check. When we landed, we realized that much of the gear was missing. Mike’s bass, Billy's guitar and Billy’s effects pedals had not landed with everything else. My suitcase with the stage clothes (the Beast) had been sent ahead to Dublin, so I performed in a clean T-shirt and the same clothes I had traveled in overnight. I hadn’t had a shower in 2 days or washed my hair. I put on extra makeup to compensate.

The mood backstage though was peaceful and calm. A strange Hungarian cover band went on before us, singing “Spinning Wheel” and some other songs, dressed in what seemed to be 70’s costumes.

The audience was already huge when we went on. I could see people singing Marlene on the Wall way off in the distance. Sting’s band had generously lent Billy and Mike some guitars so we were able to do the set list as planned, more or less. Right before I went onstage, my energy took a nose dive, as I had hardly slept, but I wandered into catering and had a bowl of soup. So I felt great when I went on.

Every so often you would hear a cheer off in some corner of the crowd responding to something. The set flowed well and I was really proud of the guys for pulling it together and giving it their best.

I sent Mike off to find out how to say “Thank you” in Hungarian. He never did, but someone else passed up a big note from the crowd with the word written out. There were no umlauts or anything, so I did the best I could with pronunciation. Mostly it was fun and lively and the audience was warm and friendly. It would have been great to have had the full sound, we all agreed, but we felt we pulled it off.

We came off stage, and I saw Sting doing an interview off in a booth behind a pane of glass. Eventually he came out and ambled over to us. He was very funny and relaxed.

“Was that you lot, making that racket during my interview?” he said. I said that it was. We talked about how his tour had been going -- he had to cancel a bunch of dates because of the flu. He looked thin.

“We don’t have our usual production for this show,” he said. “We have been playing films on the backdrop, and I feel naked without them!”

I thought he might require consoling about feeling naked without his films, but where are the words when you need them? I have met Sting many times over the course of my career, and he can be wonderfully accessible, or like most humans, prickly on occasion. One feels grateful when he comes down from his heights to chat... and there he is!

“What was that song? Noone knows what it’s like? Who wrote that?” he said.

“Pete Townsend.” For some reason his face didn’t register acknowledgment. “The Who? Pete Townsend? Behind Blue Eyes?” I said. I thought for some reason he would know that already. I guess I thought that all English male rock stars know each other, hang out with each other, singing songs, and trading riffs... Oh well. I guess female American folk singers don’t do that stuff either.

“I’ve been covering a song you might like,” I said, and sang him a quick version of of Have You Met Miss Jones. He clapped his hands at the end, delighted.

“A private concert!” he said. “Are you watching the whole show? Will you be around afterwards?” he said.

“No, we have to be up at 5 AM to go to Ireland. But we are opening for you in Rome next week. So we’ll watch the whole show then.” I said. He said ok and then kissed me on both cheeks, nearly crushing my face with his cheekbones. Not that I minded. He sauntered off, and went up to the stage. Whereupon the audience went nuts.

We watched some of it and then left to try and get a couple of hours of sleep. We were really looking forward to Rome.


[Next: Ireland - June 8 - 10, 2004 ]