At Nissan Pavilion concert, Annie Lennox was the cake and Sting the icing

By SUZANNE MOE

Date published: 7/16/2004

Sacred Love tour not one to be missed

For THE FREE LANCE-STAR

The anticipation was almost unbearable. I had been waiting more than a month for the opportunity to photograph and review the Sacred Love performance by Annie Lennox and Sting at Nissan Pavilion on Friday.

That afternoon, at 1:05 to be precise, I received the call I'd been hoping for. Yes--I had been approved for press passes!

I was to be at the Nissan Pavilion administrative office at 7:20 p.m., where I would receive my press pass and then be escorted to the front of the stage. From there, I would be required to stand at the feet of my idol and photograph her for her first three songs.

Be still, my heart!

After Annie sang her third song, I was to leave front stage and be seated in the orchestra section for the remainder of Annie's performance. Then back to the administrative office at 8:50 p.m. to again be escorted to the front of the stage to shoot Sting's first three songs, and back to my seat for Sting's remaining performance. I was ready for the challenge.

I quickly showered, changed, hooked up my camera gear, packed my notepad, let the dogs out, and prepared for my trek north. I called my friend who lives just off Interstate 66 en route to Nissan Pavilion, and he, too, was ready for the adventure.

I should probably let you know upfront, I'm a deep-down, longtime Annie Lennox fan. I think Sting is wonderful, but the way I saw it, Annie was the cake and Sting the icing. I would do just about anything for Annie Lennox. Why, I would even drive on I-95 and I-66 on a Friday afternoon for just a momentary glimpse of her.

Unfortunately, my four-hour "sacred love" journey from Fredericksburg to the Nissan Pavilion was neither sacred nor loving.

Mine was one of more than 5,000 cars trying to cram their way from a multilane highway onto a single-lane road which led into the unpaved Pavilion parking lot.

It was pure slow-moving-to-not-at-all-moving chaos. Somewhere on I-66, the clock struck 7:20, at which moment I officially became one with that part of the elemental realm which exists on the underside of the sacred love wheel.

I arrived at the Pavilion just in time to hear Annie Lennox sing her last song from the distance of my faraway parking spot. The crowd roared for an encore as my heart roared with disappointment, sadness, frustration.

It was 8:20 p.m. Annie Lennox was done.

You know the TV commercial where the woman who has waited all her life to see a whale takes a moment to go into her purse to get a stick of gum just as the whale lurches out of the ocean in all its glory, and she misses the entire experience?

Well, I understood that woman.

Date published: 7/16/2004