Just seen sting perform on "later with Jools Holland" on BBC2.

I instinctively feel like resisting Stings forays into various genres, but I think he has found his niche in a credible deep and authentic way with this.

He was asked why he chose to include one of his songs on an album conatining songs going back as far as the 15th century and his response was that people have been making up songs for thousands of years and he wishes to include himself in that process and see hmself as part of a bigger picture - in other words reminding his fans that songwriting was not a late twentieth century phenomenonowned exclusively by the young and hip.

He seemed to love the song that he was singing and with good reason, besides which he was being supported by some awesome players, including a woman who played the harp and sang in what sounded like gaelic and who had a glorious and soulful singing voice.

He was very focussed on his music and on his band and seemed genuinely unconcerned about the hype and the chatter.

I enjoyed the whole show a lot but his song about christmas at sea set the scene and added a certai magic to the proceedings that I haven't seen or heard in a performance for a while - much less on TV.