Heineken Festival, The Police close - and console 22,000 disappointed fans...

"I'm sorry, Italy, I'm sorry," Sting says in Italian after the opening of "Message in a Bottle." Compassion: it's the only thing he feels he can offer a desperate audience of over twenty-two thousand who have just watched their team fail at the European Championships on the giant screens of the Heineken Jammin' Festival. It's 11:30 PM and they can play, despite extra time, despite penalties, despite their hearts telling otherwise and their lack of desire to forget. And The Police play, as they have for a year now on this world tour that has seen them reunite on the stage even without a new album or new songs, and has brought them back to the public's attention.

Sting has grown a beard, inevitably white, and perhaps that's why he looks 56 today. Compared to the Turin concert when they returned to Italy for the first time, he seems to dictate the band's tempo much more decisively. Without his voice and bass, one could easily get lost in the guitar variations of Andy Summers, 65, who has since gained a few pounds, and Stewart Copeland, 55, who, despite his reputation as a metronome, doesn't shy away from rhythmic flourishes between the drums and his percussion set. A necessary push and pull that, however, saps some of the fire and heart from their performance, highlights their technical prowess, but above all, rests on the ability of their songs to stand the test of time.

The scene is rigorous, as it was in the dawn of rock, just the three of them and the amplifiers that almost disappear on the enormous main stage at Parco San Giuliano. They listen to "Walking on the Moon," "Demolition Man," "When the World is Running Down..." and "Don't Stand So Close," which Sting introduces again speaking Italian and says he wrote to remember his time as a teacher. Then comes "Driven to Tears," fragments from those ten years of rock history that prove that even punk could have a soul, and find a glimmer of light thanks to the upbeat tempo of reggae. The audience appreciates "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic," "Invisible Sun," and then "Can't Stand Losing You" for the finale. The reprise of "Roxanne" in the encore features, among others, "Every Breath You Take" and "So Lonely."

In the afternoon, the Heineken Jammin' Festival stage hosted performances by Baustelle, Counting Crows, and a stunning set by Stereophonics. Before the Police, Alanis Morissette performed a concert that was strangely unfocused on her new album, "Flavours of Entanglement." The setlist, however, was balanced between new songs and tracks from the Canadian singer-songwriter's biggest hit of all time, "Jagged Little Pill," her third album, which in 1995 established her as an international superstar, spending 69 consecutive weeks in the top ten and winning a series of major awards, including song of the year and album of the year. From there, "You Oughta Know," "Ironic," "All I Really Want," "Perfect," "You Learn," and "Hand in My Pocket" were all featured in Morissette's new live performance. It was a highly applauded show, much appreciated by the audience, who sang along to several songs. But the match loomed, and Morissette, who overshot the mark by eight minutes, could barely resist the pressure of those Italian flags waving from the crowd. Then things went as they did.

Heineken, on the other hand, ended up essentially breaking even, just below the budget between money spent (€5 million for staging and artist fees) and money earned from tickets (€4.8 million). But then, of course, the festival will have to factor in the euros churned out by the festival machine, between beer sales and refreshments. The expected numbers didn't come in, stopping at 115,000 overall spectators when at least 130,000 were hoped for. Vasco, once again, made things right: if it weren't for him, the second day would have gone badly. See you next year.

(c) La Republica by Carlo Moretti