Sting 3.0

Former Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour is not prolific. Rattle That Lock is only his fourth solo studio album (though it follows his late band's final album, The Endless River, by only ten months). Gilmour recorded some 35 songs for this set, some dating back 18 years. Trimming them to ten couldn't have been easy. Titled for John Milton's second book in Paradise Lost, Rattle That Lock is structured as an informal song cycle to reflect the sometimes random, sometimes weightier thought processes of a typical person in a single day. It begins, appropriately, with the instrumental "5 A.M.." Orchestrated by Zbigniew Preisner, Gilmour's signature slow, bluesy, Stratocaster sting enters just 30 seconds in, followed by fingerpicked acoustic guitars, gentle synths, and electric piano amid chamber strings to announce the title-track single.

A very versatile drummer, Vinnie Colaiuta is impossible to pigeonhole as just a specialist in only one or two areas. He is capable of playing very credible pop-jazz, or recording with Buell Neidlinger and Marty Krystall in a post-bop quartet. Colaiuta's talents were obvious from an early age. After attending the Berklee School of Music, he worked with Frank Zappa (1978) and then performed with Joni Mitchell for several years. Settling in Los Angeles in 1983, Colaiuta worked for seven years as a very busy studio musician. In 1990 he went back on the road with Sting and in 1994 had his first record date as a leader, the self-titled Vinnie Colaiuta on the Stretch label.

On 11th and 12th September 2013 and as part of their massive 38 date Farewell World Tour, Scorpions played two fantastic acoustic sets in the Lycabettus Theatre, Athens and made history in the process; it is the first ever open-air show in the history of MTV Unplugged.