Mixing his new found love for techno dance vibes with his traditional mix of rock and jazz, music icon Sting had thousands of fans eating out of his hands when he performed in the capital on a cold winter night.

The biting cold that had settled on the city after a brief afternoon shower seemed to dissipate almost instantaneously as Sting took the stage in west Delhi's Dilli Haat grounds in Pitampura Sunday night with his seven-piece band.

Kicking off his show with "Send Your Love", a high-energy track from his latest album "Sacred Love", Sting didn't slow down at all before launching into a blistering version of "Message In A Bottle", one of his major hits from his days with the band Police.

Greeting about 10,000 cheering, dancing and orderly fans with "Namaste, Delhi," the 53-year-old rocker took them on a musical journey that spanned all phases of his career.

Mixing solo hits like "Englishman In New York", "Fields Of Gold" and "All This Time" with old Police nuggets like "Roxanne" and "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", Sting soon had the fans singing along.

Behind him, the band was like a tight, well-oiled machine, providing just the right groove for the tracks.

Dominic Miller's airy guitar runs mingled with jazzy piano of Jason Rebello and the duo of Joy Rose and Donna Gardier made a lot of fans with their superb backing vocals.

Even when Sting brought out the old hits, they were completely retooled - "Roxanne", the Police's ode to a sex worker, was turned into an extended jazz jam that featured a lot of improvised interplay between Sting's throbbing bass guitar and the thundering drums of Keith Carlock.

"The sound was so nice and loud that I could feel the thump of the drums in my stomach," said Sheetal Jain, who was standing right in front of a tower of speakers at the side of the stage, which was tastefully decorated.

"It's so nice to watch a show by a musician who really rocks and doesn't depend on a bunch of dancers and monitors flashing all kinds of videos to keep the crowd going. This is real music," said Vinoto Sema, a student from Nagaland.

This was the first time Sting had sung in the Indian capital since 1988, when he toured the country with Bruce Springsteen and Peter Gabriel for Amnesty International. And the fact was not lost on Sting, an avowed India-lover.

"I last played here in 1988, and I was 10 years old then," he quipped, drawing loud cheers from the audience, a motley mix of the young and old.

But it was the older songs like "Roxanne", "Fragile" and "Shape Of My Heart" which drew the biggest response from the crowd, as people sang along with Sting.

Sting also traded in his trademark bass for an acoustic guitar for "Fragile" and "Shape Of My Heart", showing off some fancy fretwork.

And the absence of Cheb Mami did not prevent Sting and his band from turning in a great rendition of "Desert Rose", his hit of a few years ago recorded with the Algerian star.

Sting saved one of his best known songs - "Every Breath You Take", a track about obsession and possessiveness that is often mistaken for a love song - for the encore before closing the show with the haunting strains of "A Thousand Years".

Not that the fans were satisfied. Many lingered around, chanting "Sting, Sting" in the hopes of a second encore that was not to be.

But then, Sting did promise he would be back in India before leaving the stage.