With a spring in his step, Sting turns back time in Musgrave Park...

After a joyful support set from Blondie, Sting showed Cork on Tuesday night that nostalgia is every bit as good as it used to be.

Nostalgic fans of The Police yearning for another Regatta de Revival tour will have been overjoyed to have caught Sting’s latest threesome live on Tuesday night at Musgrave Park in Cork.

Given that the effervescent Sting releases a new album virtually every year, it’s quite incredible that he finds time for a “classic hits” tour like this — where he treats himself, and the rest of us, to a trip down memory lane.

All the hits were on parade: ‘Message in a Bottle’, ‘Englishman in New York’, ‘Every Little Thing She Does is Magic’, ‘Driven To Tears’, and ‘So Lonely’.

‘Roxanne’, of course, is always a winner.

What a trio. Sting fans will be familiar with Dominic Miller, his regular guitarist of the last 30 or 40 years. Chris Maas is a great drummer, the ideal choice to complete the set.

Where does Sting find the time for a tour like this magical trip through his back catalogue?

Does he ever do a bit of gardening?

Well, if it’s not gardening he’s doing, he’s clearly doing something to maintain his wellbeing and it sure ain’t Botox.

Raising his beer, Sting said: I haven’t been in Cork for 10 years, and I apologise for my absence. It’s great to be back. Sláinte!

And good health to you too, sir. Fit, energetic, a bleach blond mop, a few wrinkles to be fair, but you’d give him a spritely 50-something. The man is 72. In October, he’ll be 73. If there are any signs of ageing, they’re certainly not to be found in his voice.

“This next one is about my little house in the country.” — ‘Fields of Gold’.

Musically, this night was perfect. In the case of Sting, however, sometimes critical use of the ‘p word’ is not meant to be a compliment — almost like he’s too perfect, maybe even too uptight, to risk a flaw.

Well, the truth is elsewhere. This performance was perfectly joyous from start to finish. Brilliant songs delivered to a capacity audience of around 15,000 people, with a charm in some ways more akin to an intimate pub show.

“I’m not a conventionally religious man, but I have read the Bible. The Second Book of Samuel, 11:22. A man falls in love with a beautiful woman, but one problem: She’s married to someone else.” — ‘Mad About You’

Does his energy leap in Ireland? When he was last in Cork, Sting was spotted dining in the Fishy Fishy Restaurant in Kinsale.

He met with fans, including one who gifted him six pairs of boxer shorts. Later, he nipped into Sin É on Coburg St to sing a tune or two.

This time around, one wonders where he turned up locally?

Not in a clothes shop, he was already sorted for boxers. More likely an uplifting elixir somewhere.

Whoever gave Sting an Irish welcome before the gig, we owe you a debt of gratitude. He was in top form and playing with the joy and energy of the young lad who wrote ‘Roxanne’ all those years ago.

And thanks also to the lad who gave him those boxers.

They must have been top quality, because his movement was as free as his spirit was joyful.

Every bit as joyful was Blondie, the opening act supreme. Debbie Harry holds an audience with ease and immense charm. Her voice is as good as ever, and the band is red hot.

The way the crowd engaged with ‘The Tide is High’, ‘Heart of Glass’, and all the other hits got the night warmed up nicely .

Nostalgia is at the very least as good as it used to be.

(c) The Irish Examiner by Joe Dermody