Outlandos d'Amour: 1977/79

'The Police' capture sound of reggae...

"We're happy if people say we're a new wave band - the sort of attitude of the new wave is energetic, moving toward the future, not the past."

Andy Summer, along with Stewart Copeland and Sting form The Police, an English-American rock band, whose Wednesday night concert at the Bottom Line was broadcast live over radio station WNEW-FM.

Not at all common bobbies, the trio presents a unique hybrid of appeal - musically and visually. The three are uniform in their unnatural, unkempt blond hair and energized stage performances. The most dramatic is Sting, who appeared in a Sex Pistol's film and starred as Ace in 'Quadrophenia'.

Sting's drama extends into the chilling power of his vibrant vocals and driving bass guitar. Although he suffered a cold, according to an A&M Records spokesman, Sting's range and exaggerated wailing, especially in the band's most popular song, 'Roxanne', became hauntingly potent when echoed through the Bottom Line's extravagant sound system.

The small club, filled with tables to the point where moving around, much less dancing, becomes impossible, was packed with a crowd interested purely in listening. Knowing what to expect from The Police, the audience boosted their entrance with the shrilling of whistles bearing the band's namesake.

Opening and closing the show with 'Can't Stand Losing You', a song which is receiving a lot of air play and has become a hit in France, according to lead guitarist Andy Summers, the band's repertoire included a series of songs from their album, 'Outlandos d'Amour'.

Their next album, which is half completed, said Summers, will continue in the experimental vain. Influenced by jazz, rock, blues and reggae, dominant rhythms vary from song to song.

"Anyone who knows real reggae, knows that ('Roxanne') is different than reggae," Summers said of the sentimental song written by Sting to a French prostitute.

"In London, there is a large West Indian population, and reggae music is very popular, so we would be playing and it would just come out sounding like reggae," he explained.

Other numbers, like 'Born in the 50s' and 'Be My Girl - Sally' bore the influence of teeny-bop rock, but were still played with the gusto, if not the emotion of 'Roxanne'. An electronic echo device filled out a sound void created by the absence of back-up musicians and complex technical tricks, but Copeland's powerful drumming, Summers guitar work and Sting's frenetic bass kept the energy level at an alluring pitch.

Backstage after the performance, Summers who had appeared as much a "punk" as Sting, but with a more re- served sophistication, discussed his interest in jazz and other types of music.

In a soft English accent, he described the difference between mild American audiences and the British punk audiences that attend their concerts. The band is more popular live than on recordings in Britain. 'Outlandos d'Amour' did not make BBC's playlist, which is like the American hit charts, said Summers, but concerts were well received by British teen-age "punks."

"They go all out. You've never seen punks in America," he said

(c) The Central New Jersey Home News by Pattie Domm

GET THE POLICE! 

English rockers have long been looking to Jamaica, a former British colony, for musical inspiration. 

Rarely, however, has the blend of rock and reggae been so successful as with the Police, a new British trio that visited the Bottom Line recently.

The band's debut album, 'Outlandos d'Amour', which sports the infectious. across-the-board hit single, 'Roxanne', has a surprisingly full sound considering the spare instrumentation. Lead singer/bassist Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland invent arrangements that are intelligent rather than expedient.

In concert, the Police did more than live up to the record, putting on a show that was exciting, intense and completely unpretentious. Selecting songs exclusively from the LP (though Sting said backstage he has written at least another album's worth), stretched them out, using repetitive phrases as an enticement though Sting's high, appealing voice was unfortunately more than a little hoarse.

(c) Daily Record by Steve Libowitz