Outlandos d'Amour: 1977/79

Police, Pool Q's Prove Labels Obsolete...

You can't judge a book by its cover and apparently the same can be said of rock groups and their album covers.

A large portion of the audience at the Police concert at Tampa Theatre Thursday night were bedecked in punk splendour, probably because of the cover of the group's album, 'Outlandos d'Amour', on which the band sports short, bleached-blond, British punk-style haircuts.

But through a unique and masterful blend of pop, rock and reggae, the Police have transcended all the limiting labels that the press and fans have tried to stick on them. They've established themselves as a group to be reckoned with on talent alone.

Lead vocalist and bass player Sting (his first, last and middle name) is the most controlled falsetto heard anywhere since the birth of the falsetto-whine now screeching over disco hits. His high, echoing lyrics sometimes lilt and other times weave in and around guitarist Andy Summers' choppy reggae rhythms, stringing them together to form the fabric of Police-style rock. Drummer Stewart Copeland provides an excel lent foundation for Police with his exuberant, breakneck-style drumming.

Instead of letting the audience turn into a crowd of onlookers, Sting repeatedly tried to involve the audience with the music.

"Let's fill the aisles," he requested, prompting a throng of kids in inch-wide neckties and safety pins to jump wildly along with the music and pelt the band with debris.

The audience responded well to their music, punk or not. The Police can play hard rock but it's disarmed by being sandwiched in between their "white-boy" reggae. On 'Roxanne', the group's single, the tune starts out with a reggae-like rhythm and somewhere in the middle it bursts with the pop-hook chorus, which speeds up only to slow back down.

This roller-coaster momentum the Police maintain was conceived either out of genius or compromise, but it works.

Onstage, the band flows with this momentum, dancing wildly during the fast breaks and slowing back a bit during the lulls, but always giving the impression of having energy in reserve.

After their set, someone was overheard asking, "But are they punks?" Who cares? Punk or New Wave rock does not hold a monopoly on relevance, lyrically or musically.

The Police do mirror the attitudes of disaffected youth. "Born in the Fifties" is a poignant song about the Televison Generation, those who lived with threat and violence and now are immune and apathetic.

New Wave is now a confining image that most bands, including the Police, are wary of.

In a recent interview, Andy Summers said he felt the band is a crossover between hard-core punk and standard rock 'n' roll. In that, Summers created a perfect label for those who require them.

But there is no way anyone could put a label on the opening act, the Swimming Pool Q's.

"We don't like to think of ourselves as just a rock band," said Jeff Calder, leader of the Q's.

This band, out of Atlanta, is one of the more innovative and original groups since the end of the Mothers of Invention. Sanity is given no equal time during the Q's set of insane rock 'n' roll.

A journalist-turned-rocker, Calder recently set aside prose to pursue more ways of self-expression through the Q's.

"I had written all these songs," Calder said, "and what they needed was the right people to play them."

During the Q's set, it was apparent that spontaneity reigned supreme.

Anne Boston, co-vocalist for the group, has a voice reminiscent of Grace Slick when she was in her prime. The focal point for the group, Boston shot toy flying saucers into the audience and later became a dancing Steve McQueen poster.

Calder's songs are not basic pop-rock numbers. Each is carefully, almost pain- fully, complex in structure.

Although complex, the group members don't appear to take themselves or the music as anything too serious; it's all in the spirit of fun.

But Calder and crew are perfectionists, and their casual stage appearance hides the fact that each song is rehearsed and rehearsed. The Q's just make it seem so easy.

Nothing is taken for granted by Calder. After a seemingly flawless performance, Calder felt he hadn't given it all.

"You have to take (music) seriously," griped Calder, "you have to throw yourself into it and make it work."

The Q's have been opening for such established acts as Devo and Police and appear to have developed quite a local following, judging from the "Q calls" the audience let out when they appeared.

A successful show? Definitely. Both bands proved labels are obsolete. In the end, there is no safe way to judge a band until you look underneath their covers.

(c) Tampa Tribune by Hugh Williamson