Ghost In The Machine: 1981/82

The Police blend old reggae with new pop devices...

The Police staked out the commercial pop market a few years ago and decided on a method of operation not yet cultivated or burned out: "It's when you choose ingredients that are less used up that you get the most interesting results." drummer Stewart Copeland said in a recent interview. "We were looking for something else to try that hadn't been tried."

The trio of British blonds has gone on to parlay a budding commercial interest in reggae with pop hooks and choruses for a style that is its own, music that is provocative yet simplistic.

Early Police music was perhaps too repetitious and syncopated, as is the case with all reggae. But the group's last two albums - which have propelled it quickly through the ranks of new-wave rookies to pop superstars - finds it steadily moving away from reggae. This has cost The Police some of its raw urgency on records but gained a new realm of sounds from which to work.

Performing Sunday night for a capacity crowd of 10,000 at the Lakeland Civic Center arena, the trip joined both the rough-edged reggae formula of old with the newer pop devices it has used for a powerful, 90-minute concert.

Starting off on stand-up bass for 'Message In A Bottle' and a fast-moving 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic', singer Sting began pushing his voice harder and higher than is heard on the group's records. He proved himself one of the finest pure rock singers. Much of the time, though, the sound mix in the huge arena robbed the audience from fully appreciating his voice. The group's overall sound is built around Sting's talents as a vocalist and bass player and its image created upon his teen-idol good looks.

Stewart Copeland, in perpetual motion behind his barrage of percussive weaponry, adds depth to the rhythmic direction from Sting's bass. Guitarist Andy Summers supplies what instrumental harmony and brightness there is in The Police's music, often accounting for the only grace in syncopated songs with shimmering fills and interesting use of a guitar synthesizer.

On it's latest LP, 'Ghost In The Machine', the band began to incorporate subtle keyboards and horns. In concert, the brass was joyously unleashed by a three-man horn section. When properly used, as on 'When The World Is Running Down...' and 'Spirits In The Material World', the horns added a vibrant, funky dimension to The Police. During 'Demolition Man', the horns served as a perfect counterpoint to Summers' hot guitar licks.

The show dragged somewhat during the reggae hits like 'Walking On The Moon' and 'Roxanne'. Instead of having the horns perk up to brighten these songs as they did on others, the horns were lost., blowing in beat with Copeland's heavy-handed drumming.

Sting has mastered all of the annoying arena-act clichés: asking if the crowd "feels all right" and having it join in on choruses of the most familiar songs. But these detracted little from the overall arresting effect The Police had.

Opening the show were Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, which provided a short set of lean rockers culled from its hot-selling album 'I Love Rock'n'Roll'. Once a musical novelty with her all-girl band, the Runaways. Jett shows how practice and persistence can pay off.

(c) St. Petersburg Times by Drew Rashbaum

Police capture mass appeal...

By breaking the laws of formula-rock, The Police have grafted complex rhythms and simple melodies into an irresistible brand of mass-appeal dance music.

This energetic, bleached-blond power trio that the clung to the leather coattails of the initial British new wave explosion in 1979 with 'Outlandos d' Amour', an album of catchy, jagged pop with reggae underpinnings, has become the most commercially successful English new wave band in the United States.

During a sold-out show at the Lakeland Civic Center Sunday night, The Police proved that the transition from club band to arena superstars has not affected their rapport with their fans, nor the force behind their music.

Taking the stage to the taped strains of 'Voices Inside My Head' following a rousing set by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, the trio bolted into 'Message in a Bottle', which featured lead singer Sting on a curiously shaped stand-up bass.

Sting's charisma was wasted in the vastness of the arena but his dancing and unique, high-pitched vocalizing proved mesmerizing.

While Andy Summers played cool, deliberate guitar riffs to Stewart Copeland's drummer-gone-amuck compound of reggae, rock and even jazz rhythms, Sting's remarkably rangeful wailing held the infectious din together, especially on 'Demolition Man' and 'Spirits in the Material World', two tunes from their latest LP, 'Ghost in the Machine'.

On this album, the band adds instrumental textures like keyboards to the sparse guitar-bass-drums approach, and expands its lyrical scope to include political preaching in 'One World (Not Three)' that easily beats the Socrates-based philosophy of 'De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da'.

To compensate for the richer arrangements on 'Ghost', the group added a three-man horn section for this tour. Unfortunately, their contributions were inaudible during 'Every Little Thing She Does is Magic', a love song which has become so classic that even John Davidson has tackled it.

But after a hard-rocking 'Hungry For You', the sound mix cleared up enough to prevent tarnishing spirited renderings of 'Walking on the Moon', 'Invisible Sun' and 'De Do Do Do'.

The show's only lulls came during the over-extended versions of 'Shadow of the Rain', and 'Bring on the Night', as the usually intricate pop-reggae fusion that is so impressive on record came out sounding jumbled in the vast arena.

This is the one drawback to the group's super-stardom without Sting's vocals as a guide, the jams are turned into tiresome cacophony by large-hall acoustics.

But the exhilarating, teasing version of 'Roxanne', with its chorus slapping harder than ever, and a handful of encores including the hilarious 'Can't Stand Losing You' showed The Police at their best short, driving and direct - bridging the gap between new wave and FM radio tastes without pandering excessively to either.

(c) The Tampa Tribune by David Okamoto

Police prove why crowds, critics have joined the force...

The Police, the only new-wave group to enjoy major commercial success in the U.S. while still retaining the critics' acclaim, showed how those two often opposite items can be connected Sunday night in a sold-out concert at the Lakeland Civic Center.

The group, which specialized in socially relevant lyrics sung over an up-tempo reggae beat, even managed to conquer the Civic Center's acoustics for the most part, with lead singer Sting's vocals fairly clear and distinguishable.

The Police have had a number of hits in the states in the past two years, and wasted no time getting to them, much to the delight of the fans, many of whom were garbed in appropriate new-wave style.

'Message in a Bottle', the group's first song to achieve hit status in America, opened the evening on a promising note. The lyrics were clear, the mix of vocals and instrumental backing was good, and the echo-chamber effect that some groups suffer from in the Civic Center was held to a minimum.

The top hits from the group's latest album, 'Ghost in the Machine', came next. The first, 'Every Little Thing She Does is Magic', was the top cut from the album, and the crowd reacted favourably to hearing such a recent, and popular, song so early in the concert.

The second, 'Spirits in the Material World', suffered a bit from a bad mix, but the lyrics were crystal clear, and Sting's vocals showed off the lyric line admirably. The song focuses on the group's apparent intent with the album, to reach for the emotional side of life in an increasingly technological society. While the message is a bit odd from such a highly technical group, nevertheless it is at least a message worth making, and it came across quite clearly in this song as well as the others.

Much of the middle part of the set no doubt seemed to drag for those who knew the group only from its hit record material. But the slower-paced songs during that stretch of the evening displayed the group's reggae-influenced roots amply, focusing on material from the first two albums, 'Outlandos d'Amour', and 'Regatta de Blanc'. The crowd seemed surprisingly content with the slowed-down pace, and was rewarded for its patience with both an excellent performance by the group, and an occasional recent hit like 'De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da', from the 'Zenyatta Mondatta' album.

Perhaps the best performance of the evening came toward the end, when the group did an interesting live version of the contemplative 'Invisible Sun', from the 'Ghost in the Machine' album. The live version was much less sophisticated, and yet much more energetic, than the album version. The crowd responded to the energy with appropriate enthusiasm.

A pair of encores allowed for a mix of old and new material that had not been performed during the set, highlighted by an outstanding live version of 'Don't Stand So Close to Me', that left the crowd dancing in its collective seat and quite happy with the evening. The Police include Sting on lead vocals and bass, Andy Summers on guitar, and Stewart Copeland on drums. 

Opening act Joan Jett and the Blackhearts began their 40-minute set with energy and promise, but seemed to lose much of it as the set wore on. A very good rendition of 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll' midway through the set was the high spot in a performance that showed how difficult life can be for an opening act. Miss Jett worked hard to bring some life to the crowd, but got a lukewarm response. There was no encore.

(c) The Ledger by Rick Wilber