Reggatta de Blanc: 1979/80

Police, Specials at Showbox get rock year off to flying start...

It was late in coming, but the rock year finally got off to a great start Friday when two of the hottest bands in Britain, The Police and The Specials, nearly shook the Showbox to the ground.

Seattle has had some fine pop music shows this year - Dylan, the Roches and B.B. King among them - but no real rockers like the one Friday night.

It didn't start out like a winner however... The show started some 90 minutes late because some equipment was delayed.

When the doors finally opened and the show started, the inconvenience of the long wait was soon forgotten. The opening band, a new-group unknown in the United States, the Specials, took the audience by storm. Its rhythmic blend of punk and reggae got the crowd shouting and dancing and created a good mood for The Police, who proceeded to tear the house down with a set so powerful it seemed to surprise even them.

The Specials, a seven man group from Coventry, has so perfectly blended the anger and political awareness of punk with the pulsating cross-rhythms of reggae that it was practically created a new style.

The band played up the divergence of its sources by pitting thee two blacks in the group against the whites, at least symbolically. A couple of times the jumping, energetic black lead singer, Neville Staples, pretended to attack the stoic white keyboard player, Jerry Dammers, but it was all part of the show.

The contrast between Staples and Terry Hall, the tall, white lead singer, was also emphasised.

The band, all skinheads (short haired) and wearing polo shirts, slacks, stingy brims and suit coats with narrow lapels, was excellent. John Bradbury was an amazing drummer, skilfully incorporating reggae and rock styles. Roddy Byers was outstanding on guitar, although he seldom got a solo. Horace Panter played bass and Lynval Golding rhythm guitar.

The intimacy of the Showbox, a former night club, worked perfectly for The Police, who used the proximity of the audience to its advantage.

The lead singer, Sting, worked the crowd into a frenzy with his highly personalised style. He had them so worked up that when the band played 'Reggatta de Blanc' he didn't have to ask the crowd to sing along, it did it automatically.

The crowd danced so heartily that the floor swayed dangerously, but that only seemed to add to the excitement.

The Police's music has never sounded better. Andy Summers played great guitar and Stewart Copeland played reggae and rock drumming beautifully.

It was a great night.

(c) The Seattle Times by Patrick MacDonald

Police didn't cop out - And the Specials were special, too...

Oh, it's a small world or a global village if you like, but The Police concert Friday at The Showbox had funny moments because of the communication gap between British performers and an American audience.

The Specials opened the show for The Police, and "the support band" did very well. The English group was non- plussed because the audience wasn't dancing. While one of the black members of the band was pogoing and shadowboxing like mad, the crowd up front bounced around a bit but most stood and watched appreciatively.

The band couldn't be sure they were going over. Probably catching on, one of the guitarists told the crowd "the latest craze in London is the dance." But most of the packed house stayed glued to the floor.

The Specials were exciting. Like The Police, they often draw from reggae, but in a free-form, unrestricted way, Early on, their keyboard player did some things very much like the old Northwest organ sound. It was bright and nasty and brought The Kingsmen, Sonics, et al, to mind.

In another attempt at getting the majority to dance, one of the band members said, "It's your last chance to dance before World War III."

When they brought out a trombone and a trumpet, the group's sound leaned toward London's latest musical trend. Loosely, it could be called rhythm and blues (some call it "post-modness R & B). In context with the fast-moving British trends, that would put it "post-punk" and quite apart from "the punk revival."

For a fact, there were those in the crowd who liked The Specials more than The Police. However, those folks were a minority along with those who failed to notice The Police bass-playing lead singer Sting's charisma.

Of Sting's stage presence a young, woman said, "It's pure sex." Sting (Gordon Sumner) had a part in 'Quadrophenia' as the coolest mod, Ace Face.

Sting's vocals are reggae inflected and sometimes like a slow, cool-jazz scat singing. Next to his contribution (and completely supportive of the vocals) is the guitar work of Andy Summers. Summers, who had worked with The Animals. and Soft Machine, was superb, mixing rhythm and leads with a jazzman's sensitivity.

Stewart Copeland's drumming seemed technically proficient. He held The Police's eclectic sampler together, but seemed to drag the beat at times. He appeared to get stronger as the night wore on.

And the night did "wear on." Well over an hour late in starting, the "8 o'clock show" didn't end until 12:30 a.m. As The Police were rocking out nicely with 'Message In A Bottle', 'Roxanne' and 'Can't Stand Losing', various moms and dads were plucking their youngsters from the audience... "Gee, it isn't over!"

By the time they finished the encores, Sting had thanked Seattle ("the home of Jimi Hendrix and 'Louie Louie'"). sung a plausible rock anthem ("Born in the Fifties") and thrilled a good share of the crowd with the musical question, 'Won't You Be My Girl?'

(c) The Daily Herald by Rick Nelson