Synchronicity: 1983/84

The Police play JFK...

''It's 98 degrees,'' said Sting, as he and his band, the Police, took the stage at JFK Stadium yesterday afternoon. ''That's the temperature of blood,'' he added. This enigmatic statement was nonetheless greeted by riotous cheers.

By any standard, yesterday's big outdoor rock concert was an unusual one. There was, as Sting noted, the temperature: ''This is quite literally the hottest day of my career,'' he noted sardonically.

But more interestingly, stadium-sized rock shows just aren't supposed to function the way this one did. This concert, featuring Joan Jett, Madness, R.E.M. and the Police as headliners, was remarkably well-organised. The bands played concise sets, and there was no more than a half-hour wait between acts - at a time when it's commonplace for rock-concert intermissions to last up to an hour. Moreover, the bands who made up this bill are not your usual arena-rock fare. Stadium-size shows are typified by the sort of hard-rock and heavy-metal acts whose loud, blunt music loses none of its effectiveness when funnelled through great mountains of amplifiers.

But yesterday's show was different: The Police is an English trio whose albums are models of pop precision, even subtlety. It must have stunned the stadium security guards, used to enduring bestial snarls and crude vernacular from the entertainment at these shows, to hear a band that laces its music with knowing references to Jung, Nabokov and Paul Bowles.

But if this was all the Police did, of course, they wouldn't be filling JFK Stadium - they'd be playing coffee houses accompanying themselves on bongos. No, the Police - singer-bassist Sting, guitarist Andy Summers, drummer Stewart Copeland - makes irresistibly catchy, devilishly intricate pop songs, tunes you hum well before you grasp the words. The band's new album 'Synchronicity' is currently at the top of the pop charts, and is full of the band's synthesis of rock, reggae and Third World rhythms. On record, the Police's music can sound thick, lush, layered. In concert, the band drastically reworks its material so that it sparkles with simple clarity.

When Sting plunked out the opening bass guitar figure of the group's hit 'Every Breath You Take', the ground rumbled along with him. In song after song, from 'Roxanne' to 'King of Pain', the band made little adjustments - speeding up a tempo here, bringing Copeland's percussion forward there - that allowed their songs to take on fresh life in front of thousands of boiling but happy fans.

Preceding the Police were Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, a first-rate hard-rock band. The band's performance was marred a bit by awkward pacing, but Jett has a knack for taking simple riffs and fashioning fast, amusing music from them. She didn't play nearly enough songs from her new record, 'Album', but relied instead upon old favourites such as the anthemic 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll'.

Both R.E.M., the brooding Athens, Ga., band, and Madness, a giddy English group, played quick, light sets that allowed them just enough time to prove their talents.

R.E.M.'s quirky, dark music may have been too melancholy to go over with a cheerful crowd that had come to party, but Madness charmed the audience with its fast-paced tales of jolly English youth.

It looks as if the United States is finally warming to Madness' brand of ''ska'' music - a subdivision of reggae that emphasises pumping dance rhythms. Stars for four years in England, the group's 'Our House' single is finally making them well-known over here, and that peppy tune was the high point of the band's set yesterday.

(c) The Philadelphia Inquirer

Police 'Sting' - city feels no pain...

The lead singer of The Police called Saturday's concert at JFK Stadium the "hottest gig in our career."

Sting, as he is known in the world of rock music, was referring to the nearly-100 degree temperatures. But for the 50,000 spectators, The Police's performance generated more heat than the sun.

The sweltering, sticky weather did little to slow down the band, which took to the JFK stage with the force of a minor hurricane.

Dressed in contrasting colours, bass player Sting and guitarist Andy Summers worked the crowd into a frenzy with their jog-in-place dance steps and exuberant stage presence. American Stewart Copeland, who founded the band some six years ago, helped set the frenetic pace with his sharp, island-flavoured drumming.

The blonde trio's concert followed brief but enjoyable opening spots by REM, Madness and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.

The Police began their nearly two-hour set with the title track of their current LP, 'Synchronicity', which is comfortably nestled at the top of the album charts.

From there, the band swung back and forth between new material and songs from their first four LPs, such as 'Message In A Bottle', 'Walking On The Moon and So Lonely'.'" In concert, backed by two female singers, The Police rework their intricate material so that it sparkles with rejuvenated Third World rhythms.

The crowd didn't let the heat dissuade it from letting loose, either. There was plenty of dancing, singing and partying both on the field and in the bleachers.

The Police delighted their fans by playing every song from the second side of 'Synchronicity', including the imagery-filled 'King Of Pain' and the romantic 'Tea In The Sahara'.

But the showstopper was the band's current No. 1 hit, 'Every Breath You Take', a mournful tune based on the demise of Sting's own marriage. For this, Sting's sorrowful expression matched the despairing, obsessional lyrics. When he dropped to his knees at the song's conclusion, the crowd rose up for a thunderous ovation.

Sting was obviously as taken by the crowd as they were by him. He commented on everything from their "amazing" dance steps to the blistering heat.

Concert-goers lifted their arms in grateful jubilation as stadium workers doused them with water from fire hoses. Sting, meanwhile, commented that "next time we're in Philadelphia, we'll play in the winter... with ice cold winds."

"This stage is so hot that if you stay in the same place, your feet get burned," he joked in a clipped British accent.

Sting, who managed to exude on-stage charisma with every breath he took, was never in danger of burning his feet; he jumped, danced and teased the crowd with his sexy gyrations, working up more than a mild sweat.

But Saturday's show offered even more for the ears than for the eyes. From the reggae-laced 'One World' to the Lolita-inspired 'Don't Stand So Close To Me', The Police were in top musical form.

Sting managed time and time again to get the massive crowd to sing the quirky "ee-oh" choruses found in tunes like 'Reggatta de Blanc' and 'Invisible Sun', giving the show a ritualistic aura.

The band sounded sharp despite the immense size of the stadium, but the value of onstage was questionable. Dressed in black, two female backup singers who joined them nun-like robes, the women did little more than provide a diversion for the crowd, which had to wonder why they wore such heavy gowns in such unbearable heat. 

"I remember driving down the New Jersey turnpike and wondering how Philadelphia would be," Sting told the well-mannered yet boisterous crowd. "You showed me."

The only real disappointment at Saturday's concert was the absence of the joyful 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic', one of The Police's biggest hits. The crowd apparently expected the band to tear into waited several minutes for the trio to return the tune during one of its two encores and once more but they didn't.

About 80 determined fans remained huddled at the base of the stage, singing the chorus of 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic' as the crowd reluctantly filtered out of the stadium.

It wasn't surprising. As The Police proved, you can't get enough of a good thing.

(c) Press of Atlantic City by Nicole Pensiero

Police, Joan Jett burn up JFK Stadium...

The title of the Police's latest album - 'Synchronicity' - was the order of the day yesterday afternoon during the four-act show headed by the superstar British trio at massive JFK Stadium.

And not just on a musical level.

Yes, the Police played a number of songs from the disc. But what stood out brighter than the sun was the overall efficiency level and precision timing of the huge production.

Bands entered and left the end zone stage before any of the 55,000 in attendance could say, "I should have brought an extra bottle of suntan lotion."

The record-setting heat was reason enough for Sting, the Police's bass player, lead singer and resident movie star, to declare upon arrival: "It's 98 degrees. That's the same temperature as my blood. But we'll play the show anyway."

It was actually a degree above the hottest it's been at this point in August since 1955.

A quarter of the way through the Police's almost two-hour set, the nearly unbearable heat prompted Sting to shout: "This stage is so hot, if I keep my feet in the same place at the same time, they'll burn."

Surprisingly, field medics reported an unusually low number of casualties. A pair of officials said they knew of only about 20 cases of fainting from either sun or drug- related causes.

The first two bands R.E.M. and Madness completed their musical contribution just 12 hours after the 1pm start. Neither group wasted time adequately playing their hits before graciously bowing out for the queen of hard-line rock - Joan Jett.

Ms. Jett, dressed in her trademark tight black leather pants suit, scampered onto the stage with her Blackhearts and ripped into 'Bad Reputation', the big hit from her three-year-old debut album of the same name. She played every song during her brief, 45-minute stint with her usual gusto before limping off the end zone-long stage with an apparently injured right leg. She never returned for an encore.

But the 24-year-old Lansdowne, Pa., guitarist did offer a couple of pleasant surprises. Besides the favourites 'I Love Rock'n'Roll', 'Crimson and Clover' and a few new tunes from her current LP, 'Album' - Ms. Jett added her version of the early '60s hit 'Shout' plus the Rolling Stones' 'Star Star', which appears only on the cassette version of the album. By 4:15, it was time for the Police to raid the stadium.
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Looking like a little black spot on the platform to most of the sun-drenched crowd, an enthusiastic Sting and his officers guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland once more accomplished what has made them one of today's hottest pop music commodities. They produced more diversified sounds than could be expected from any other trio on the face of the earth.

The Police were aided only by a pair of female backup singers donning mysterious black cloaks and an extra bass player during 'Walking on the Moon'. The Fab Three omitted the horn section used on their last tour and, with the exception of 'Invisible Sun' and 'Spirits in the Material World', most of the material was from their previous, brass-heavy album, 'Ghosts in the Machine'.

Sting, wearing red pirate pants and a white, loose-fitting shirt, looked like a Hollywood movie star freshly rejuvenated from a day in the Malibu sun. The band dutifully made their way through a smart selection of songs that covered the majority of the new album - 'Every Breath You Take', 'King of Pain', 'Tea in the Sahara', 'Wrapped Around Your Finger', 'A Million Miles Away' and the title track - and most of the hits of their five-year career.

Except for an occasional muddled bass line, the overall sound was as good as its ever been at the cavernous stadium.

After 'Murder By Numbers', a song that appears only on the flip side of the long-time No. 1 single, 'Every Breath You Take' and the cassette version of the album, four limousines queued up one behind the other beneath the stage ramp for the last two songs before 'Don't Stand So Close to Me', 'Roxanne' and the two-part encore, 'Can't Stand Losing You' and 'So Lonely'.

"I remember coming the New Jersey Turnpike and wondering what Philadelphia looked like," said Sting as the Police made a quick getaway to their fleet of limos at the five-hour mark. "You showed me."

(c) Trenton Sunday Times by Randy Alexander