'No wave' Police find arresting beat...
The latest fave raves from England are easier to listen to than they are to classify.
The Police, whose 'Message In A Bottle' shot to the top of British pop charts two weeks after its release, breezed into Theatre St. Denis Saturday night preceded by a burgeoning reputation and an avalanche of confusing publicity.
Initially part of the punk music ex plosion, the trio survived the demise of that dubious art form and, by virtue of surviving punk and flourishing. became part of the new wave, the enduring genre that includes Nick Lowe, Graham Parker and Elvis Costello.
But the Police are not pigeonholed that easily. They prefer to describe their music as "no wave", and the weekend concert proved the band is if nothing else totally original. No one is currently playing the reggae-tinged rock that two Britons and an American expatriate have honed to perfection and ridden to the outer reaches of the top in a little over two years.
It is somewhat misleading to say The Police are playing reggae. Although they have obviously listened to and been influenced by Bob Marley, the links to Jamaican music are subtle.
What the Police have done is adapt the reggae framework to their own purposes. and the key adaptation has been reggae rhythm. The interplay between bass. drums, and lead guitar the steady, hypnotic chuck-a-chuck beat-forms the core of the Police attack.
The band's considerable energy is fuelled by the superb drumming of Stewart Copeland, an American who was living in London when he formed the Police in 1977. Copeland recruit- ed Sting (that's his stage name, like Fabian or Pele), a young Briton who had been playing bass in a traditional jazz group in his native Newcastle; and guitarist Henri Padovani, who was subsequently fired and replaced by Andy Summers.
Playing small club gigs in England and living on the edge of starvation, the Police sold A&M records a single in 1978. When 'Roxanne' became a hit, the band kissed poverty goodbye.
An album followed - 'Outlandos d'Amour' - and the group toured the U.S. last year. Travelling in a station wagon on a no-frills budget, the Police played small clubs and halls. smoothed out the bugs in their live show and developed a cult following.
They are touring North America again, this time in support of their latest LP 'Reggatta de Blanc' - and proving themselves a dynamite stage act and a band that is going to become very big in the near future.
The Police are astonishingly tight for a band that has been together for a relatively short time. Sting, who writes almost all the group's material and handles the vocals in a high, lilting voice, is a charismatic stage presence.
Bouncing around the more sedate Summers and obviously enjoying every minute in the spotlight. Sting generates infectious enthusiasm. Apart from the theatrics. he is a singer of considerable range and inventiveness, as well as a superb bassist.
The combination of Sting's bass and Copeland's drums produces the thunderous bottom that drives the Police and is augmented, rather than overwhelmed by Summers' tasteful. understated lead.
Copeland plays on an elevated platform at the rear of the stage, leaving Sting plenty of prancing room. The drummer is nearly obscured from view by a complex kit, every piece of which gets a thorough workout during a Police performance.
A cum laude graduate of the late Keith Moon's school of power drumming, Copeland plays with great skill and greater ferocity, laying down complex rhythms that provide a powerful. elemental beat for Sting's paeans to lost love and loneliness.
The lyrics are simple - without being simplistic and are unlikely to become the watchwords of a generation. An argument can be made, how- ever, that this is not a generation seeking watchwords. If a couple thousand fans are content to join Sting in belting out the chorus of Roxanne, who is to say that meatier content is required? Rock'nroll works if it creates genuine enthusiasm, a hand-clappin', toe-tappin' good time.
By that standard, the Police succeed.
(c) Montreal Gazette by Mike Boone
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