Reggatta de Blanc: 1979/80

Eye for The Police...

The Police, like quite a few other rock acts of the late seventies (Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds come to mind), are veteran rockers given new life by the new wave. Guitarist Andy Summers once played in the progressive band Curved Air, and his technical skills make him a more likely candidate for bands like Yes or Genesis than a new wave act. Drummer Stewart Copeland and bassist-songwriter-singer Sting (real name: Gordon Sumner) have similar credentials and talents. Yet this trio makes music that wouldn't have been possible without the realignment of rock styles initiated by the new wave.

Last week at the Capitol Theater, the Police put on a set that combined in equal parts rock and roll and reggae, polish and improvisation. It included half a dozen songs from their forthcoming second album, 'Reggatta De Blanc', one of which, 'Message in a Bottle', is already a number one single in England.

Copeland, with his reggae-influenced drumming, is the star of the live show. "He must have spent 10 years in Jamaica to learn that," one concert-goer commented. Copeland never once played a conventional backbeat; instead he dropped accents, rim shots and bass drumbeats into place where they were least expected, making each song rhythmically complex in the extreme. He isn't really a reggae drummer; he is the only drummer in rock who's absorbed reggae rhythms sufficiently to do something original with them. That the other two musicians can even keep up with him is to their great credit.

The show had a couple of drawbacks, though. The Police seem not to know when their material is good (as it often is) and when it is horrendous. Unfortunately, 'Hole in My Life', 'Born in the Fifties' and a couple of the new songs fall in the latter category. In addition, the songs, compressed to three minutes on record, gain nothing when they're extended to 10 minutes or more in concert, especially since Summers never really takes a conventional solo during the long improvisational sections.

But the band more than proved themselves in the face of pre-concert reports that they were stiffs onstage. Far from it; the Police are one of the liveliest bands around right now.

(c) The Daily Record by Jim Bohen