The Police @ Suncorp Stadium(22/01/08)

Wed 23rd Jan, 2008 in Gig Reviews

I can still remember the time I bought my first ever album. My dad and I had watched a band in concert on the TV one night, and I was simply taken by their – œsound’. No idea what it was exactly, but the very next day I got my dad to buy me Regatta de Blanc, at the age of 8.

This album had a profound effect on me, soon after prompting me to take up the drums after marvelling at Stewart Copeland’s style. I was immediately a fan and started following their work. Only a few years later, while I was still only 14, they effectively split up – but their influence on me remained.

Dedicated as I was, I collected the individual works of all of those three artists; from the avant-garde guitar offerings of Andy Summers; the African rhythm & movie soundtrack experiments of Stewart Copeland; and Sting’s foray into jazz/pop world.

Fast forward 23 years, and here I am… still a fan… In this day and age of commercialised nostalgia, I was always happy that they swore never to stage a reunion. That band and those records were something that have remained sacred and unmatched. So when word came that they had cracked and were going to wheel themselves out for a world tour, I took it with some mixed feelings.

On one hand, I’d never gotten the opportunity to see one of the greatest bands perform live, (and for me that very much also included seeing that drummer first hand), yet on the on the other, I’m a firm believer in not wanting to destroy something for the sake of a few quid (did I mention, they are poised to make a cool $175mil each from this tour?). Needless to say, I got myself tickets to two shows… after all, I’d never seen them, and I doubt I’ll ever see them again.

So the day has come and I’m at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium for the first show back after the Xmas break. The first support act is Sting’s son’s band Fiction Plane. Although I’m mildly curious as to why you’d let yourself support your dad’s band on a world tour and feel good about it, I don’t make it to the venue on time but I hear he looks just like him… Then comes a short break followed by what is undoubtedly the most inappropriate support act in the history of support acts ever… Fergie – WTF???

I mean, really… come on guys… get back together and all… play the nostalgia card if you must, whatever, I don’t care… but seriously folks, Fergie? What little of her set I cared to notice, comprised of nothing more than a medley of her renditions of Led Zepplin, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, etc… and finished her set with her show piece about how Skankalicious she is. How does she keep a straight face?

Moving on… the band 60,000 people came to see finally started at 9.45, launching straight into Message In A Bottle. There they were… the band fronted by a Sean Connery looking Sting, an almost un-aged Andy Summers, and Stewart thumping away in the background, the only member that looks like he’s aged considerably.

Early on in the tour in June of ‘07 Copeland was quoted as describing themselves as “unbelievably lame”. I mean, who can blame them… after an intense 6 or so years, they hadn’t played these songs together for at about 25 years. But clearly after 6 months on the road they had their chops back….for a while at least.

They played a selection of known – œbig’ tunes and some more obscure album ones, like Don’t Stand So Close to Me, Synchronicity, Voices In My Head, and Hole in My Life. But is was around about the 45 minute mark where you could notice Stewart getting tired… visually you could see that glint in his eye fading somewhat. Still not really missing a beat, but just not as sharp. But in the second half of their show, I don’t know if it was the (poor) acoustics of the stadium or not, there was some definite moments when I’m sure Sting came in half a beat early or Stewart was late, or Andy was on the wrong beat… They are in their 50’s after all.

For me, one of the joys was finally witnessing Stewart drum. His style was the same as always. Constantly dancing around the beat and rarely on it, and seemingly, in a constant state of improvisation. During songs like Wrapped Around Your Finger he hopped up behind his kit to the emerging percussion set up, (“as seen in such video clips as Wrapped Around Your Finger….”) then does his trademark jump back to his kit to pick up the beat. Incidentally, there was no drum solo.

On the whole, I have to say I was glad to see Sting didn’t take it upon himself to be the hero of the show. There was equal attention and presence of all three members and he refrained from talking about his sex life and the forests, which was a relief. Sting, however, has made a solo career of playing “jazz odyssey” watered down versions of songs made famous by The Police on his solo tours. Although I didn’t mind them in context on those tours, it is unfortunate that he made this band play similarly watered down versions of tracks like Driven To Tears, When The World Is Running Down and especially Invisible Sun. I’m very glad to say however, they stayed clear of any horrific medleys!

But what did surprise me were Summers’ guitar solos. Now this man is an extraordinary musician, and his genius with the Police has always been his ability to work abstract chord structures into pop music. Despite the soft edges on some of their renditions, I was impressed that Andy still got away with being somewhat self-indulgent during his solos in, at least more than half their songs on the night. There were moments when you could sense the tangent he’d gone on had lost 80% of the audience, yet, he went there. There seemed to be no bad vibes on stage… and as I said, Sting didn’t prance the stage like it was his own.
But the worst bit was the lame – œrock out’ bit added at the end of Don’t Stand So Close To Me that’s when I finally gave in to the reality that the reason I was at this concert was for a very different to the reason why the 59,000 other people were here.

Only a tiny selection of people there would have been proper ‘Police’ fans, while the rest were there because… well lets face it… they are a pop band. The crowd consisted mainly of a very mainstream audience. Not terribly young, but a collection of mothers, fathers, couples in their 30s and above and even some grannies. Hardly anyone under 20. And not a hint of flouro.

The staging was a very basic setup, when compared to the current batch of mega band tours. Three large screens above the stage (a screen for each member), two screens on the wings for those side of stage, and a large LED type video screen that ran above the stage and along the sides. But what was disappointing was the content. It was bland at best. When compared to even some of the smaller (big) bands on tour these days, their set up was used mainly for lighting than anything else. But I suppose this can be attributed to the fact that they never really had a presence in the digital age… and in that sense, their essence always only really lay in their musicianship. So in their defense, they didn’t try to dazzle you with a smoke & mirrors show.

To be honest, to this crowd, their name alone would’ve allowed them to simply show up with a few candlelights, so long as they played their songs.

Their key tracks were predictably placed, with hits like Roxanne and Every Breath You Take (the official demise of the band for me) coming up at just the right moments for when the guitar solos got too much for most. No rocket science here… just the big hits.. played to predictable perfection. There was a very short break when Sting and Copeland walked off stage, only to return with the last three songs of the night. On So Lonely though, they couldn’t help themselves and had that international symbol of gentrification, the dreaded gear change ! Oh yes… not one.. but two. It was the end of the show though… they’d come all this way.. I suppose it was a given.

The show ended on the dot of 11:20pm, making it a very short 90 odd minutes. It was an interesting show on the whole; one that tried to straddle several lines. While the band tried to keep themselves happy with extended noisy solos, they lost the pop people, but then lost the old school fans with their pastels. But that is also their genius… as individual musicians, they are each extraordinary, but not one of them ever surpassed their brilliance as when they came together as The Police. I can only hope that the rumours of them considering writing a new album after this tour are never realised.