Synchronicity: 1983/84

'Police' Fulfils Promise To 'Lift Roof Right Off'...

Although it took a little while for the crowd to fall in the groove the Police swung into Birmingham Tuesday night and carried away the Jefferson Civic Center.

"Last time we were here we just raised the roof a little," bassist and lead singer Sting told the near filled-to-capacity arena This time we are going to lift it right off."

And so they did.

Opening with 'Synchronicity I', an almost African Ju-Ju like tune from band's latest album 'Synchronicity' the band kicked im mediately into high gear and maintained rhythm in a revolving variety of styles.

The sound was crisp and Sting and his counterparts, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers, had no problem filling the hall.

The band stuck more or less to its simple three-instrument sound, except for the use of a three-woman chorus to pick up where Sting overlays his voice on record and the occasional use of pre-recorded, synthesized bass patterns on the more polyrhythmic numbers.

The band moved with swift deliberateness from the African-style rhythms apparent on Synchronicity to the more reggae and new-wave sounds heard on two earlier albums 'Reggatta De Blanc' and 'Zenyatta Mondatta'.

Even though the show was obviously well thought out and pre planned, the group never gave the impression that the performance was cut and dried. Sting's rapport with the audience was warm and un-condescending. He looked most pleased after leading the crowd in singalongs on some of the band's most accessible numbers, including a slow-reggae rendition of 'One World is Enough for All of Us' and the band's most recent single, 'King of Pain'.

The Police come off even more on stage then off as a truly versatile group. First evident in the performance Tuesday was the group's superb musicianship. second the band's intelligent lyrics.

But more importantly, the Police left one with a feeling that the music can be serious, and be fun.

More than anything else, the Police are a dance band And by the end of the show. Birmingham did indeed show the group how to dance Alabama style.

Opening for the Police were Kissing the Pink, an English band in the synthetic Euro-pop tradition.

(c) Alabama Journal by Michael Sznajderman

Police take matters into own hands...

In a show that mingled intelligence with arrogance, hits with relics and passion with polish, The Police unquestionably lived up to its status as 1983's top rock touring act Tuesday night.

Performing before a Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Coliseum crowd rounded off at 17,000, the British trio - drummer Stewart Copeland, guitarist Andy Summers and bassist/vocalist Sting - outclassed last year's show here, indicating it has become quite at home on the stadium circuit.

The band's latest album, Synchronicity - for 16 weeks the number one LP in the country - got a thorough workout, as The Police opened with both versions of the record's title cut and later included 'Walking In Your Footsteps', 'O My God', 'Wrapped Around Your Finger', 'King of Pain' and the awesomely passionate 'Every Breath You Take'.

And, thankfully, although most all the hits came in the course of the 90-minute set, The Police didn't see fit to turn the show into a Top 40 countdown. The 'Synchroncity' cuts were wrapped around the biggies like 'De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da', 'Message In a Bottle' and 'Roxanne', as well as lesser-known, but as-qualified, cuts like 'Hole In My Life' and 'Can't Stand Losing You'.

The rhythm section of Sting and Copeland - with Sting also operating various tribal harps took control, but it was Summers' articulate guitar work that made the group's reggae sound not only accessible, but also confidently distinguishable.

A backup cast of three female vocalists, decked out in scanty marching band uniforms, was apparently more for show than tell, as the women's contributions were devoured by the big sounds from their male leads.

Wearing a shredded coat of red, yellow and blue, Sting gazed into the Coliseum's nosebleed section and acknowledged: "This is not the easiest building to make sound like a concert hall."

It's not and The Police didn't, but the band made a hockey rink sound almost as good.

Not so fortunate though, was opening act Kissing The Pink.

(c) The Birmingham News by Bob Carlton

Police pack house in Birmingham on 3rd try - A dancing Coliseum crowd reacts to group's performance...

When the Police first came to Birmingham back in 1979, the locals must have thought it was a raid.

Certainly, the appearance was a bust. Promoter Tony Ruffino of Ruffino-Vaughn Productions said only 170 people showed up at the old 800-seat capacity Brother's Music Hall.

In 1982, three years and a fistful of Top 40 hits later, the Police played for 12,000 at the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center's Coliseum, Ruffino said.

And last night at the same coliseum, on the heels of the No. 1-selling album 'Synchronicity', the three-piece band with the larger-than-life sound packed the 17,000-seat arena.

Ruffino rates the Police with such rock heavy-weights as Journey, David Bowie and Bob Seger as the top draws on the concert circuit these days. In August they put 67,000 people in New York's Shea Stadium.

"They're bigger now than ever," Ruffino said Monday during a break in preparations for last night's show. "As big as just about anything in rock music."

Earlier albums established the Police as a proficient group with an abundance of hooks. Their latest effort, dominated by the songwriting of singer-bassist Sting (a.k.a. Gordon Sumner), is much more of a no-nonsense effort, appealing to older listeners as well as the traditional teenage rock audience.

Certainly, Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and percussionist Stewart Copeland had the Coliseum fans dancing in the aisles. Playing most of 'Synchronicity', spiced with several of their earlier, reggae-influenced hits, the Police commanded several standing ovations. Two Top 20 hits the No. 1 'Every Breath You Take' and 'King of Pain', which peaked at No. 7 have already been culled from 'Synchronicity'.

That it has sold 3.5 million copies without the band making concessions to the middle of the road the album title, for instance, refers to an obscure theory posited by psychologist Carl Jung - is further evidence of its craft.

To convert a passage like "A connecting principle, linked to the invisible, almost imperceptible, something inexpressible..." or any other of the mostly downbeat topics in 'Synchronicity' into toe-tapping dance music, they've got to have something on the ball.

(c) Birmingham Post Herald by R. B. Fallstrom