Reggatta de Blanc: 1979/80

Police rock Palladium to cheers of soldout house...

The Police hit the Palladium Friday night, but their performance was no bust.

Of course, these Police are the three- man rock group that introduced themselves to American audiences with their big hit, "Roxanne," earlier this year and that's the tune that highlighted their Palladium show before a full house of about 700.

Drummer Stewart Copeland, guitarist Andy Summers and the lead singer known only as Sting waited until late in the 80-minute show to play their catchy hit about a French call girl.

Before they got to that point, though, they introduced five of the new tunes from their just-released 'Reggatta de Blanc' album that already is surging up the charts and should put this band even more in the spotlight entering the '80s.

The best of those new songs-and the ninth of the 16 tunes performed Friday- was 'Message In A Bottle', a song that recently went to No. 1 in England two weeks after release. The other new tunes were 'Walking On The Moon', 'Deathwish', 'Bring On The Night' and 'The Bed's Too Big Without You'.

And, of course, there was a healthy dose from the Police's Top 20 debut album, 'Outlandos d'Amour', with tunes like 'Can't Stand Losing You', 'Next To You', 'So Lonely' and 'Truth Hits Everybody'.

The performance was dominated by the quirky, jazz-inflected falsetto vocals of Sting, who has a major role in the upcoming movie version of the Who's 'Quadrophenia'. However, Summers and Copeland also were very much in evidence as they laid down the sparse, choppy reggae rhythms that predominate in the Police's music.

Copeland, the lone American in the otherwise British band, formed the Police in 1977 after a stint in another English band known as Curved Air. The son of a CIA official, Copeland then recruited Sting from a jazz band. The group's original guitarist, Henry Padovani, was later re- placed by Summers, who was a member of the final incarnation of Eric Burdon and the Animals in the late '60s.

The Police became known as a punk band (they dyed their hair blond to play the part of a punk group in a chewing gum commercial), but Copeland says that tag was a misnomer.

"'Roxanne' obviously is not punk," said the drummer, who calls the Police's music "honky reggae."

(c) Fort Worth Star Telegram by Roger Kaye