stade de france - part one (Thursday, October 25, 2007 )
It was a Wednesday. September the 5th. I was driving towards Paris. I had an appointment with Yann Plougastel who had asked me an interview for 'le monde 2'. I have a telephone that picks up emails and every time gives out a sort of radar noise. I get to the toll and I take advantage of it to check what has arrived… There is a queue to pay.. I have some time.. A few things…Spams and an email from Sting. Him and I do converse a lot through emails. Him, generally early morning.. Simple messages, words that warm your heart. We chat about friendship or family or health or about emotions. This time, it is afternoon and it is « Mon ami ( in french..), how would you feel about playing a song with us at the Stade de France, may the last of the evening 'next to you' etc etc . » and at the end « So, whadya think? ». The kind of question where the only answer is « YES! ». First, because you are playing at the Stade de France, and what more with the Police and overall with friends, not just any friends, but, more than anything, friends. And also, when someone asks you at the end, end « So, whadya think? », it is that he wants you to answer « Yes » I made the most of that moment… I drove to Paris thinking about that friendship, about the joy that I felt and about the happiness Sting must have felt writing that present to me. And I was thinking about the song that ' Next to you' is,.. The speedy intro… I was wondering… I should share that joy with other persons. But, I had to be careful whom I was going to tell it to. And first and foremost, answer Sting, confirm and prepare for it. But, a message of friendship has to be shared, it is like a chain that you must not break and do it with friends and loved ones. So, I called my darling and told her. Of course, she was over the moon for me. Then Fanny, the mother of my children. So cool. We talked about it and mainly decided not to tell the children so that get a dose of adrenaline live at the Stade de France. And then I called my manager and told him to keep it for himself. That was it. That night, when I got home, I wrote to Sting , in italian, and i told him that, of course, I accepted and that I would love to receive an mp3 of the live version of the song and that images of the Stade de France, when, him, Trudie, Bono, Ali, Zucchero and I went to see the Football World Cup final, France – Brasil in 98, were flooding in. Great! Really great!! Then, I put on the single ' Next to you' on the stereo, plugged my guitar in and played like a mad man. I knew that that very night they were playing in Birmingham and , as the song says, I wanted to be next to them.