Reggatta de Blanc: 1979/80

The Police: on the beat...

The rules for success in new wave rock seem simple: One: Avoid public toilet seats. Two: Give your band a name that employs the indefinite article ''The''. Witness the Police and the News, two-thirds of Friday nights feature on a Music Hall triple bill. The Police burst on to the scene last spring with a fabulous gimmick: Three blondes, two Brits and a Yankee, playing reggae-influenced pop on a very high energy level.

But Friday night, with the trappings of success littered all over their stage in the form of expensive lights and electronics, the Police were no gimmick and effectively followed up their initial success with an intelligent, almost educational presentation of their music. Although the band yearns for Bob Marley's respect, their reggae especially the bastardised stuff on the second album, is lily-white. So was their audience at the first of their two sold-out shows.

There were two halves to each song, lead vocalist and bassist, Sting, was the focus during the verses. Swaying back and forth in a Marleyesque two-step while chanting simplistic prose (I see you sent my letters back and my LP records and they are scratched), he hypnotised the crowd aided by the chunky rhythms of guitarist Andy Summer and drummer Stewart Copeland.

The payoff came in the chorus, an explosion of lights, noise and adrenalin that let loose like clockwork on 'Losing You', 'Truth', 'SOS' and 'Roxanne'. It was during these moments, and there were many, that the band looked like The Clash, The Jam or any one of a number of well-known punk bands.Yet the contrasting styles combined for a vaguely original taste and the Police have improved on the formula greatly since their disappointing appearance at The Edge last spring.

The only danger is the fragile formula itself. A particularly long instrumental solo featuring Summers playing his electronics like a child would a new toy went over poorly and it took a couple of numbers for the band to recapture the mood. One can only hope that the Police haven't painted or dyed themselves into a corner.

The News committed the fatal error of going under a name used by a superior English band when they went under the name of The Mods. However they will do much better under the new title for the simple reason of a phenomenal improvement.

Singer Greg Trinier is still a spastic loony on stage but drummer David Quinton, bassist Mark Dixon and guitarist Scott Marks have become a very formidable trio in the past six months.

Quadrophenic posturing aside, The News are a good band by any standards and 'Between Four Walls', a song written by the group after watching Midnight Express, shows immense promise. Due to circumstances beyond my control I missed Wazmo Nariz's warm-up set. Do, I have that backwards?

(c) Unidentified Newspaper by Jonathan Gross

Concert teaches ABCs of new wave...

If there was a pop music fan who had spent the last two years banding penguins in the Antarctic, and didn't really understand what the term "new wave" implied, last night's grouping of Wazmo Nariz, The News and The Police at the Danforth Music Hall Theatre would have been a perfect primer on the whole scene.

There is, of course, no specific style of music called new wave. The term refers to a period of time more than anything else, and actually contains numerous styles under one great, throbbing umbrella. Last nights concert exhibit- ed some of the foremost of those styles.

Wazmo Nariz is a new singer from the United States who represents the Midwest mechano-rock style associated with bands such as Devo. Of the three acts, Wazmo came off the worst because the audience really couldn't appreciate his bizarre vocal stylings really a series of yelps and whoops more than anything else. That's unfortunate because The Wazband, which backed him up, showed evidence of real flash, combining elements of The Ventures, psychedelia and sixties vocal-instrumental pop. Perhaps they should dump Wazmo and start over.

The News represented that arm of the new wave which seeks to revive 1964 Carnaby Street. Running through versions of standards such as 'Itchycoo Park' and 'She Is Still A Mystery To Me', they shone with a strong combination of vocal blends and tough, guitar dominated rock.

And finally, The Police represented that branch of the new wave movement which has tended toward reggae. Behind the particularly effective drumming of Stewart Copeland, who seemed to be able to switch from rock to reggae rhythm at the drop of a high hat, The Police proved conclusively that there is a middle ground between the other two styles, and that they had established a firm luck on that territory. In reggae repetition is the most important element in the music, and The Police specialized in creating a solid groove with repeated vocal and instrumental licks.

While last night's show didn't present anything that might have caused the above penguin-chaser to regret his two year hiatus, it was never less than entertaining at any juncture. And you really can't ask for anything more than that.

(c) Globe and Mail by Alan Niester

Con-job by slick Police...

Talk about a con-job. At the Music Hall, on the Danforth late Friday and early yesterday, there were scenes of sleaze and general decadence, right out of Berlin in the '20s: Heavy leather, make-up on make-up, and the like, all for the Police, the latest of the British new-yet still managed to sound fresh. wave bands to break into the big time.

And this is what one does, for the new-wave, right? Well, maybe, if you're obsessed with being trendy and don't know anything about the Police. For this trio is as squeaky-clean as latter-day Beach Boys. Bassist-singer Sting, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers, all blonds, play a scrubbed whitewash of reggae that's so whole some, Walt Disney would approve.

And there was much to approve of at the first of the band's two shows. For one thing, it was preceded by The News, the local quartet formerly called The Mods, who've found new life and a pretty good show in a new sound. Their She's Still A Mystery To Me, encapsulated several late '60s styles-California country harmonies, and pseudo psychedelic soloing - yet still managed to sound fresh.

As for the Police, their show was an extension of the one they gave at the Edge months back when few of the nouveau decadents were around with a clutch of gimmicks added, including a superb sound system, and lights to match the pulse of the rhythm.

Such gimmickry might have destroyed any other new band, but for the Police, it was perfect. All the off-stage kinkiness aside, on stage this was a first-rate show by an uncomplicated, slick pop band, which has managed to con a whole lot of people into believing it's something it isn't.

(c) Toronto Star by Peter Goddard