Synchronicity: 1983/84

Polished live act wins Police a merit badge from fans...

"You know how terrifying it is up here?" Sting asked the crowd about halfway through The Police's set.

How does the old adage run? You only conquer fear after you can admit to it.

As The Police have developed from cult to superstar status, so the trio, and particularly Sting, has grown in authority and presence. There was no indication from this performance that any of them suffers from stage fright. In fact, Sting has become a much more entertaining front-man than he was when last we saw him, during the 'Ghost in the Machine' tour.

At that time, the group's woodenness on stage seemed in character with Sting's detached, often didactic, songs and the mechanical precision with which they were interpreted. Since then, Sting has become a more volatile, spontaneous performer.

Although The Police's musical stability is still very much a three-sided affair, Sting stamped his hallmark on the set from the start. Quite apart from his husky, soaring singing and the tidal rumblings from his bass guitar, he is the personality of the group from the audience's perspective. It was Sting who leaped about the stage, and Sting who ad-libbed about the heat and the trio's previous visits to Phoenix.

Of the other two members, Stewart Copeland was the more evident. His intricate, crisp style continues to place him among the more stimulating drummers. Andy Summers' guitar work, while not so imposing as his colleagues' playing, fit into the whole just as intricately.

In fact, the set was a very pleasing compromise between studio cohesion and live atmosphere. To an impressive degree, The Police reproduced the studio's polish and fidelity, and yet added stage volatility.

Hits and material from the current album 'Synchronicity' were obviously there in abundance, and that, too, was what the sell-out crowd wanted. During slower, lesser-known numbers, attention drifted away in some quarters of the baseball ground.

Highlights? 'One World', which Sting and the audience sang as if they really cherished its message of solidarity; 'Invisible Sun', in which video footage from Ulster illustrated the song's message about the intangible something inside that keeps us going. The "tea break," the brief intermission during which video cameras followed the trio to behind-stage refreshment tables.

Apart from a battery of female vocalists and a shadowy figure helping out occasionally on bass and keyboards, the trio was not augmented.

Although big news in England, Madness is still a relatively unknown quality here.

At this stage in their American fortunes, these north London lads probably would be better understood in a more intimate venue. Their material abounds in Cockney humour and chants that owe much to music hall and playground. But much of their onstage fooling was lost in this large facility. Numbers included 'Our House', and their first English hit, the ska-influenced 'One Step Beyond'.

(c) The Arizona Republic by Andrew Means