Outlandos d'Amour: 1977/79

The Police pounds a big beat...

"There's a new generation out there that wants to elect its own set of heroes," Stewart Copeland was saying. "It's a generation that doesn't believe in the heroes given it by the people who still live in the '60s. It wants something new-and it'll get it."

Sounds tough, right? Well Copeland's band, the Police, which finished a two-nighter at the Edge last night, was pretty tough. Not the mean, I'm-gonna-break-your-face kind of tough. But tough in a musical way. This was a band that had thought hard and long about its songs. They'd been stripped down to their essentials; the right note at the right time, with the right chord supporting it. This was the kind of tough thinking any good band from any generation whether it be Gene Vincent's Blue Caps, from the '50s, or the Yardbirds, from the '60s- has had to do just to make its mark.

And the Police has already made its mark, mostly on the new-wave circuit of clubs from the Vortex in London to the Rat in Boston, in the 18 months that Copeland, its drummer, guitarist Andy Summers and Sting (just Sting!) the bassist and singer have been together. Indeed, if any of the younger, third generation rock bands are likely to extend their success beyond this rather limited circuit, this British band should be there first.

For one reason it has a major record company A&M, supporting it. A&M's local clout was enough to insure that some radio folk showed up for the band's Friday opening night, as well as to provide select new-wave insiders with free booze. So what if the Edge has all the warehouse basement? With bottles of cramped, over-heated ambience of a champagne, imported beer (domestic would be too, too declasse) and wine showing up at regular intervals, the evening could not but leave fond memories with those having the power to spread the word.

There's another reason why the Police has a shot at the kind of mass market now dominated by Rod Stewart and the like. Its music is highly commercial in the best sense of the word.

Like many of the newer bands, this one has been influenced by reggae, early-'60s rock, and the rock avant-garde. Unlike most, though, the Police knows what to do with these influences. Its biggest hit to date, Roxanne, uses reggae idioms (as in reggae, the music evolves from the bass- line) but is in no way a piece of reggae. It is, in fact, a solidly constructed pop-song that would stand up if a big jazz band were to play it or even if a Vegas lounge singer were to use it.

Other songs the band offered Friday night from There's A Hole In My Life to So Lonely or Fallout had the same quality. To be sure, the playing was rough-edged, the volume loud and Sting's singing often not much more than a shout. Still, the guts of the music was there. It kept everything in order.

As Copeland explained in an interview before the show, though, the Police has  gone to considerable effort to draw a line between what they do and what punk bands before them have done.

"The punk message that Johnny Rotten (of the Sex Pistols) brought to America didn't really apply over here," he said. "In England, kids have a right to complain about society and a right to be angry. Over here kids have good schools, good prospects and, generally, a pretty good life.

"The new wave- our kind of music - goes beyond what punk tried to accomplish. It doesn't look to the past, to the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix or the Stones, who are still the musical basis for so many bands around these days. It says we can explore a little, and look to the future."

(c) Toronto Star by Peter Goddard