Ghost In The Machine: 1981/82

The Police: An arresting performance of reggae and rock...

Salt Lake's finest punkers and New Wavers showed up Thursday night at the Salt Palace to see and hear one of the world's hottest rock and reggae bands - the Police.

The power trio, with generous assistance from a three-piece horn section, blasted the ears off the surprisingly small crowd with a short but strong set of Police sounds.

The Police, consisting of singer/bassist Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland, put out plenty of volume Thursday. In fact, Sting's bass reverberated throughout the hall, boring through this reviewer's chest like a runaway rhinoceros, Coupled with Summers' stinging guitar licks and Copeland's rapid-fire drumsticks, the Police was able to produce a tremendously loud sound that was, well, arresting.

The reggae beat of the band was unmistakable; pulsating, hypnotic. rhythmic and, very loud. Added to the reggae beat were equal portions of back to basics rock and roll, resulting in a potent brew.

The Police played 'Walking On The Moon', 'Don't Stand So Close To Me', 'De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da', 'Hungry For You', 'Spirits In The Material World', 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic', and the classic 'Roxanne'.

In retrospect, the concert was good, not great. This reviewer expected more from them. For an alleged supergroup, the Police lacked variety and spontaneity. After awhile, all of the songs tended to sound the same. Singer Sting must have used the word "yo" in half a dozen songs. And one can only take so much throbbing bass.

Sting was a charismatic lead singer. Dressed in Indian pyjamas and striped shirt, the former teacher from northern England looked like a modern-day pirate gone punk. His voice got lost in the mixing most of the night, but it was absolutely illuminating on 'Roxanne', the best song of the evening.

Sting, whose real name is Brian Sumner and who dyes his dark hair blond to match the others, even played the keyboards on one tune and pulled out an electric standup bass for another. The electric bass he plunked most of the night was a compact. odd-looking affair.

The band rarely paused between songs. They managed to pack about a dozen songs into their 70-minute set. Even with the two song encore, the Police was on stage relatively briefly. They must have been saving up for their Labor Day gig at the 'US' Festival near San Bernardino, Calif.

The audience for the Police stood from start to finish. calling out responses when Sting demanded them, dancing in the aisles or on top of their seats when the mood overtook them. It was a knowledgeable crowd who cheered the trio at every opportunity.

Still, the perfunctory performance must have left some Police fans starving for more.

In my opinion, the Police is a very good '80s rock group. The band's show left me numb, how ever, not excited. They've got a ways to go before they rank alongside the big boys. In time, perhaps they will.

Gary U.S. Bonds opened for the Police. An infectious singer who was popular 20 years ago. Bond did a nice job on 'This Little Girl', 'Out Of Work', 'Dedication,' 'Club Soul City' and his classic 'Quarter To Three'.

(c) The Salt Lake Tribune by Tom McCarthey

From Abbey Road to Salt Palace - Police's music, audience grows...

The Police first came to Salt Lake City about three years ago, in November 1979. Since not enough tickets were sold to fill the Terrace Ballroom, where the band was originally scheduled to play, they played Abbey Road, the small club now known as New Faces Roadhouse. There were only about 120 people at the "concert"-Salt Lake's hard-core "punks."

The Police's return to Salt Lake City on August 26, 1982, shows how far they've come, both in popularity and in musical progression. Where Abbey Road held a crowd of 120 in 1979, the Salt Palace, upon the Police's second Salt Lake engagement, was over three-quarters full. And where the Abbey Road group was an older crowd of rowdies, the 1982 crowd consisted mostly of high school kids "playing punk," wearing outrageous costumes that they could talk about in the locker room the next day.

The Police's music has changed as well. In 1979, the band had just released their second album, Regatta de Blanc, a work that, despite its pretensions to something more, was essentially modified punk-New Wave with a touch of reggae. Indeed, the Police's warm-up act three years ago was The Specials, a punk ska band that faded somewhat as punk became passe. Today, with a couple of world tours under their belts and two more successful albums, 'Zenyatta Mondatta' and 'Ghost in The Machine', their music has become more complex, more universally appealing, and their base of popularity broader and younger. New, in 1982, it did not seem at all strange or strained that the warm-up act for the Police was Gary U.S. Bonds, a veteran American R'n'B rocker whose career, recently resurrected by Bruce Springsteen, began in 1960.

While Bonds put in a solid performance, highlighted by spirited renditions of both his current radio hit, 'Out Of Work', and last year's 'This Little Girl', the crowd belonged to the Police. And from the first strains of 'Message In A Bottle' to their encore, "(Can't Stand) Loosing you," the band presented a tight, fast set that didn't let up during the entire hour-and-a-half of non-stop music they presented.

Backed by a horn section which featured two sax players and a trumpeter, The Police ripped through 'Walking On The Moon', 'Roxanne', 'Demolition Man', 'Spirits In The Material World', 'De Do Do Do, Da Da Da Da', 'Don't Stand So Close To Me', and 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic', among others. Stewart Copeland's energetic, semi-frenetic drumming highlighted the performance, and while neither Andy Summer's spare guitar-synthesizer work nor Sting's complex bass work were anything short of brilliant, Copeland drove the band.

The Police are craftsmen, not showmen. With the exception of a mirror ball, some smoke, and a couple of light flashes, the band did not dazzle the eye as they astounded the ear. But two or three songs into their set, it was obvious that this crowd didn't need flash. The dancing in the aisles that began during Bonds' encore, 'Quarter To Three'. (a 1961 hit), turned into full-scale hysteria at times, with those fans who weren't gyrating on the floor standing on their seats with arms flailing.

Surprisingly enough, given the echo-laden acoustics of the Salt Palace, The Police reproduced their polished studio sound well. Sting's exhortations to audience participation in the choruses of 'Roxanne' and 'Spirits In The Material World' were followed with gusto, and Summers pulled a couple of solos out of nowhere that were bright, intense aural assaults.

Given the quality of their performance, it would not be surprising to see The Police's Salt Lake following multiply proportionately to that in the past. Given their energy, their talent, and their flair for live performance. The Police could very well expanded on the punk reggae roots that underlie their music and be to the '80s what Elvis was to the '50s and The Beatles to the '60s-producers of sound that defines a generation.

(c) Daily Utah Chronicle by Randall Edwards