In my humble opinion, Sting's best live work was with the four man lineup used between 1990 and 1997 for the "Soul Cages", "Ten Summoner's Tales" and "Mercury Falling" tours (the latter featuring the late Kenny Kirkland on keyboards and augmented by a horn section and occasionally backing vocalists). Still, the core group did some adventurous stuff, and I enjoyed listening to recordings of multiple dates from the same tour, and discovering how the band developed and experimented with arrangements on the road. Even though the setlists were more or less set in stone, the arrangements always allowed for some flexibility. Occasionally, the band took the opportunity to play some acoustic sessions, which for me, is where the music took to new heights, and what made me a Sting fan in the first place. Here, for your listening pleasure, is an excerpt from the rehearsal sessions for Sting's appearance on MTV Unplugged...recorded straight from the soundboard! This is a fascinating glimpse into the process of rearranging music for the acoustic format, making it required listening for fans of Sting, and for music fans in general. There is some very entertaining goofing around by the band (most notably during "Every Breath You Take"), although Sting is generally pretty focused on making the most of the rehearsal time. As a listening experience, this is as close as "behind the scenes" as one could hope to be. Tracks 6 and 7 are particularly interesting in this respect. Since this is direct from the board, there are occasional drops as the engineer is fiddling with levels (most noticeable during "All This Time"). Most of the actual performance was released on VHS, with several tracks featured as b-sides for the "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You" CD-singles. As such, I can't seed those songs here. However, there are three omitted tracks that I can share, and so I'm including them in this bundle. ENJOY! Sting - MTV Unplugged Rehearsals and Outtakes Silver CD > xACT > FLAC 1. Level Check (with elements of "Little Wing") 2. Mad About You 3. All This Time 4. Level Check (with elements of "St. Agnes and the Burning Train") 5. How Insensitive 6. Why Should I Cry For You? 7. Message In A Bottle 8. Every Breath You Take (with elements of "The Banana Boat Song") 9. Fragile 10. Fragile take 2 11. The Soul Cages (with elements of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine") 12. Level Check (with elements of "Shadows In The Rain") 13. Need Your Love So Bad (partial) 14. Red Light Green Light 15. Fragile 16. Ain't No Sunshine Recorded March 5, 1991 for "MTV Unplugged", New York Tracks 1-13: Rehearsal Tracks 14-16: Performance Outtakes Sting - vocals, upright bass, acoustic guitar on "Fragile" Dominic Miller - acoustic guitar, upright bass on "Fragile" David Sancious - piano Vinnie Colaiuta - drums Special Guest Vinx - backing vocals, percussion Random Sting Geek notes: Track 9 - Sting sings the lyrics in Portugese Track 10 - Spontaneous bossa nova version! Track 14 - Improvised jam while cameras change tapes Track 15 - The band just can't get it started... length expanded size cdr WAVE probs filename 1:54.00 20109644 --- -- -xx 01 Little Wing.flac 6:47.00 71794844 --- -- -xx 02 Mad About You.flac 5:46.25 61093244 --- -- -xx 03 All This Time.flac 5:03.40 53543324 --- -- -xx 04 Saint Agnes.flac 2:01.70 21509084 --- -- -xx 05 How Insensitive.flac 9:38.15 101994524 --- -- -xx 06 Why Should I Cry For You.flac 9:39.35 102217964 --- -- -xx 07 Message In A Bottle.flac 6:18.40 66773324 --- -- -xx 08 Every Breath You Take.flac 4:29.00 47451644 --- -- -xx 09 Fragile.flac 5:22.00 56800844 --- -- -xx 10 Fragile take 2.flac 7:02.42 74539628 --- -- -xx 11 The Soul Cages.flac 4:43.60 50062364 --- -- -xx 12 Shadows.flac 3:42.13 39191420 --- -- -xx 13 Need Your Love So Bad.flac 3:54.00 41277644 --- -- -xx 14 Red Light Green Light.flac 4:25.00 46746044 --- -- -xx 15 Fragile.flac 6:36.10 69877964 --- -- -xx 16 Aint No Sunshine.flac 87:23.50 924983504 B (totals for 16 files, 0.5447 overall compression ratio)