Hot new British rock group takes Regina by storm...
With a potent brew of rock and reggae, The Police took Regina by storm Wednesday night in front of a sold-out crowd of 2,200 at the Centre of the Arts.
The blonde-mopped power trio put on the sizzling performance expected of one of Britain's hottest new groups, plus better-than-anticipated musical virtuosity and sensitivity. The Police displayed all its catchy melodies, jazzy rhythms and spacey aural effects which are a large part of the group's appeal - by taking advantage of the centre's acoustic qualities.
The evening began on a doubtful note, however, with the announcement that Andy Partridge, co-leader of the con- cert's second-bill attraction, XTC, wouldn't be performing because of a sudden illness.
(For those jaded souls who think rock musicians live in constant narcosis, Partridge's ailment was due to eating some over-spiced Chinese food the night before in Winnipeg, which he ill-advisedly compounded by drinking milk. Such are the unexpected dangers of life on the road.)
Despite the obvious gap created by Partridge's absence, the three remaining quarters of XTC, as they called themselves, tried gamely to go on with the performance. All things considered, the off-beat Britishers did a creditable job of disguising the loss of one of their pivotal members.
Starting off with some quirky earlier tunes, like 'The Rhythm' and 'Crowded Room', XTC members Colin Moulding, Dave Gregory and Terry Chambers plunged into more accessible material from their last two albums, 'Drums and Wires' and 'Black Sea'.
'Love At First Sight' and 'Life Begins At The Hop', revealed the band's knack for wedding unusual musical concepts with surprisingly infectious melodies and rhythms. XTC's hit single, 'Making Plans For Nigel', seemed sluggish in comparison, but that was probably because of Partridge's absence.
The boys from Swindon won more than a few converts in Regina by es- chewing their atonal, discordant and manic music for a more straightforward approach.
By contrast, The Police are technically more conservative but musically, visually and acoustically more appealing than XTC.
Attired variously in white fatigues and T-shirt, dark jacket and gym shorts, lead singer and bassist Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland wasted little time in warming up to the audience.
The peroxide-blondes opened with their current AM single, 'Don't Stand So Close To Me', which brought a roar of recognition from the crowd. They followed with a spacey rendition of 'Walking On The Moon', from their second album. After two more conventional rock numbers, the band changed the concert's pace to reggae-oriented numbers, like 'Man In A Suitcase' and 'Bring On The Night'.
The reggae songs brought a rough- edged, quality in Sting's voice, which is remarkably similar to Jamaican super- star Bob Marley. Copeland performed like a one-man percussion section, covering the range of drumming styles from heavy metal thunder to reggae's jerky rhythms. Summers's polished guitar work bespeaks his years slogging it out with rock 'n roll veterans, like the Animals.
Two more numbers of their latest al- bum, nonsensically titled 'Zenyatta Mondatta', gave positive proof of the advantages of the small group. Whether its a jazz-tinged number, like 'Shadows In The Rain', or the pop-oriented 'De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da', the simplicity of the three-man format enables every note to come through, loud and clear, without the jumbled muddiness that often plagues other live performances.
One of the highlights of the evening was the Police's energetic rendition of 'The Bed's Too Big Without You', which contained elements of jazz, rock and reggae fused together by Summers's extended guitar solo. Clearly though, the hard core Police fans wanted to hear their first hit, 'Roxanne', a kinky ballad about a guy's love for a French prostitute. In spite of the band's harsh, rough treatment of the reggae-rock classic, the crowd yelled for more.
An interesting diversion was having the floodlights turned on the crowd occasionally throughout the concert. In an interview earlier this week, Copeland said the lights enable the band to keep closer contact with the fans, especially those in the rear of the hall.
The concern for audience intimacy, like the dyed hair, seems a part of the strategy to boost the image of The Po- lice. Some observers in the rock press have remarked on the "cleverness" of the group's image in helping attain such astounding popularity in a relatively short time.
"A lot of the press we get is about how 'clever' we are," said a mildly-irate Copeland. In fact, Copeland said the group's image evolved quite accidentally out of gum commercial in which the boys played an archetypal punk band.
(c) The Leader-Post by Bruce Johnstone
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