Ghost In The Machine: 1981/82

Police show tops in debut here...

Their first time through the States, they hauled their own equipment and drove from town to town in a station wagon. Now the Police, one of the world's top recording acts, came to make their Coliseum debut in style Sunday night.

Like Blondie, Bruce Springsteen and many other acts, the Police were appreciated at first in the United States by a few diehard fans and the ever-despised music press. We were right about the others, and about the Police as well. The band has gone platinum on all of its albums, and toured the corners of the globe.

From inventive use of a three-piece format incorporating reggae and new wave elements into pop, the members of the Police have evolved their sound from musical simplicity to technically proficient textural pop. The band mixes influences from all over the globe into polished popular music as respected by other musicians as it is popular with consumers.

All of the members of the band write and sing. Drummer Stewart Copeland is more melodic in his playing than almost any other rock drummer one can name. On songs like 'World Keeps Turnin' 'Round' and 'Hungry For You', his cymbal work and fills acted as counter-point, while the bass and snare kept up an unrelenting rock-steady beat. Any drummer worth his sticks can lay down a beat you can dance to, but this guy puts down riffs worth listening to.

Guitarist Andy Summers is an harmonically-oriented player, eschewing tedious cadenzas for artfully crafted. webs of sound. From the opening riff of the show's first song,'Message In A Bottle', it was obvious that this guy can fill up even the Coliseum with cascading layers of sound.

Fronting the band is bassist Sting (a.k.a. Gordon Sumner) who somehow blends intelligence and sex appeal into a viable rock stage persona. As much dancing as there was going on in the Coliseum Sunday night, no- where was there more motion going on than onstage, with Sting and Summers footloose and fancy free while cranking out their groove-oriented rock.

Although the band can fill an evening with sound on their own, they had the help of as many as four other musicians Sunday night. Horns adorned many of the band's newer material, and some of the older songs were rearranged to include the saxes and trumpet. Considering the gradual leaning toward funk the Police has been. making, this inclusion was natural and welcome on songs such as 'One World Is Enough' and 'Walking On The Moon'.

Sting acted as head cheerleader for the evening's festivities, and the longer, more drawn-out versions of Police songs allowed for lots of singalongs, a role the crowd was all too willing to accept. Only at Bruce Springsteen concerts has this writer seen audiences more adept and eager when it came to vocalizing.

From modest concert beginnings, the Police now offer a technical extravaganza in their stage show. Dry ice "smoke" and lights were used in fresh ways, the sound was the equal of any other "arena rock" band's, and no mechanical failures emerged this time around, unlike the last U.S. tour, where a bass drum head had to be replaced in mid-show, with Summers and Sting filling in the time with an impromptu rendering of 'Yellow Rose Of Texas'.

After an ovation as enthusiastic as any in recent memory, the Police offered extended versions of 'Don't Stand So Close To Me', 'I Can't Stand Losing You' and 'Lonely'. From a blur of small club dates in England to mass appeal worldwide, the Police have shown that the success and acclaim enjoyed are truly deserved.

Taxxi opened the show Sunday night. Contrary to their inclusion on this bill, the band is an underrated hard rock band which some in the audience may have remembered from this summer's Oregon Jam, judging by the enthusiastic reception.

(c) The Oregon Journal by Dan Deprez

Police please coliseum crowd...

The Police raided Memorial Coliseum Sunday night and captured about 10,000 fans.

The three-piece band stepped on stage after a three-minute ovation and began a 90-minute set that had the coliseum crowd of young people on its feet throughout. The response to everything the band played was enormous.

The sound occasionally bordered on this group's idea of rock- /reggae but mostly was an infectious dis- play of new music that touched on several borders.

Sting's booming bass and Andy Summers' lithe guitar lines were kicked mightily by Stewart Copeland's powerful drumming. Tempos were mostly in the speedy range but occasionally slowed to near-rapid.

Vocals were handled by Sting also, an agile musician who plays electric bass "stick" and a large, modern-design bass that appeared to be acoustic. He also manipulated pedals with his feet and managed to work out a few patterns on an electric keyboard.

Vocally, he has a clear, high tenor that comes through in a projective style. He clearly is the performing star of the band, al- though Summers' guitar work (and rare key- board licks) and Copeland round out the sound with an awesome foundation of rhythm.

Summers and Sting make physical use of the large stage area, especially Sting, whose gazelle-like animated runs and leaps were a focus of the energy the band generates.

The concert was a nearly non-stop affair as the band wasted no time between tunes and only rarely said anything to the audience. It's a highly sophisticated, musical group and one that builds tune after tune into a giant climax that elicited encores.

While the trio was obviously the key to the music, a three-piece horn section of two saxes and trumpet/fluegelhorn accented the sound most of the way. Solos from the horns were jazz-related, as were some of the subtler underpinnings of arrangements.

Music came from all of the band's four albums. Songwriting is a force in the band and while The Police have had charted hits, the music is not top-40 fluff, pop tunes.

The show was outstanding throughout. 

The Portland-based band Taxxi opened and proved to be a good support act for the headliner.

(c) The Oregonian by John Wendeborn