Fanzine:Njperry’s tales of tourzilla
I never had the chance to see The Police play before they broke up so I was thrilled when The Police announced they would be touring again, although worried how they would sound after all the years apart.
I had seen Sting in three concerts through the years in Indiana, North Carolina, and California, all in large outdoor amphitheaters.
In about 1997, I saw the Andy Summers Trio with my Police friend Anne play at a dumpy bar in Washington DC. While the show was awesome, it was sad to see a man who had played Shea Stadium with The Police play to a handful of fans. It was small enough that I had the only direct communication with a member of The Police when I shouted to place something from XYZ and Andy replied “No thanks. I just had dinner.” So seemingly even Andy doesn’t like that album, although I still do.
The only member I had never seen play before the tour was my favorite member of the band, Stewart Copeland.
I. First Police Concert: Virgin Music Festival, Baltimore, MD Aug. 4, 2007
My first Police concert was at the 2-day Virgin Festival in August 2007. It was an incredibly hot day. Lots of attendees were fainting during the day from the heat.
The Police played at the largest of the 2 stages, closing out the day’s events. My police friend Anne and I saw most of the shows of Ben Harper and Beastie Boys and kept moving closer to the stage when we could.
Just before the show started, I saw the profile of three heads on stairs behind the stage. Two taller guys and one shorter one. One of the 2 tall guys had a lot of hair and the other didn’t. It was The Police.
When they came on stage with Message In A Bottle, I was in heaven. The highlight of the whole tour for me was the moment that I saw The Police live in person for the first time.
I loved the show. Every bit of it but especially seeing Stewart play the percussive world behind his drum set on Wrapped Around Your Finger and Walking In Your Footsteps.
The show reminded me of just how good musicians Stewart and Andy are. Was impressed with how well they played their instruments. I knew they were good but seeing them really made it real.
It was strange to see these kids singing songs older than they were. With were we were standing, almost everyone around us was younger than Anne and me.
Between the incredible heat and the youthful energy around us, I think it made the whole show more exciting. The Police seemed to feed off of the crowd energy.
It was sad that The Bed’s Too Big Without You was 1 of the 2 songs cut for the shorter music festival set list. Loved that song and it disappeared from the set list shortly after that.
II. Second Police Concert, Verizon Center, Washington, DC Nov. 5, 2007
I next saw The Police in November 2007 in Washington DC, again with my Police friend Anne.
We bought expensive seats through BestBuy, on the Sting side, in the corner a few rows off the floor. While at the Virgin Festival almost everyone around us was younger, here is was the opposite with nearly everyone being older. Not unrelated, there was less energy and excitement with this crowd. Although I think it was a technically better show than at the Virgin Festival muscially, it didn’t have as much energy from the fans or the band.
While it didn’t have the excitement of seeing them the first time, I still loved hearing and seeing The Police play live again.
When Sting sang during So Lonely “Just take a seat. They’re always free,” I asked the guy next to me if his seat was free since mine was far from it. He laughed since the seats were not free at all.
III. Seeing Stewart solo, Savannah Music Festival, March 26, 2008.
The highlight in some ways was something not part of The Police tour but Stewart’s show in Savannah Georgia in March 2008.
In late 2007, my work sent me regularly to Brunswick Georgia to give training. Brunswick is about an hour and a half south of Savannah. The training people said they would make sure to “need” me the week Stewart would be in Savannah, so I bought tickets for the show. Then work moved the training to Dallas. So I had to get out of training and get myself to Georgia.
It was, as it was called, Stewvannah, that forced me to stop lurking and start posting at stewartcopeland.net.
The one-night Stewvannah trip was great in both seeing Stewart play and meeting Nutters. Really became a Nutter then. I sat at dinner with Rancid Date (her scene name but far from an accurate one) and her husband Bry and TOWOS and her non-Nutter husband. I met many others there.
My ticket was not great and the incredible Divemistress-of-the-Dark organized the extra tickets and handed me the ticket her husband was going to use, in the FRONT ROW.
The show was awesome. While I enjoyed the Orchestralli CD and the recording of the 2002 London concert, it was so much better in person to hear these songs performed.
The premiere of Celeste was great and I loved the version of Grace.
After the show, I hung out more with Nutters and eventually walked down a Savannah street singing Klark Kent’s My Old School with Sockii. Long have I waited for someone with which to sing “I felt like Yasser Arafat.”
IV. Third Police Concert, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY Aug. 7, 2008.
The third and final show was the finale at MSG.
The show prep started badly with difficulties from TicketMaster better now known as TicketBastard. I was at a conference when tickets went on sale and my friend Anne bought the tickets. I encouraged her to get seats behind the stage but she was hesitant. Good thing since those seats got moved. We ended up, even as a Legacy Police Fan Club Member, getting bad seats which were then moved without our knowledge to the next level up.
The seat situation got better, though. Stewart showed his incredible appreciation for his fans by giving away about 100 (!!!) great seats to his fans in a contest. I was lucky enough to win a seat in section 119 while other Nutters were upgraded to the snake pit.
The Dive-Mistress came though again for me and she sold me her 2 seats in section #1 (ONE!!!) for a reduced value after she was invited to the pit. That allowed me to transfer my section 119 to a friend in New York who is a big Police fan and the seats from TicketBastard to Nutters coming to the show from Wisconsin.
A sad point is that I wasn’t able to get to NYC in time to spend much time with Nutters. When I got to town, I had to get and distribute tickets. So I missed much time with friends and to sign the Flag.
When I got to my seats, I noticed two younger guys sitting next to me with guests of Andy tags. I thought about asking how they got them but I didn’t want to be rude. They seemed a little bored but it and too young to be Police fans. They and other Andy guests in the row ahead of me eventually got some bracelets and moved elsewhere. I next saw the two who had been next to me on stage when Andy’s sons joined Sting’s daughters on stage during Every Little Things She Does is Magic. That is when I realized I was sitting next to Andy’s kids. Should have said something.
The show was incredible. There were rumors of many special guests joining The Police but the only guests were the New York City Police Band who joined the band The Police for a surprisingly good version of Message in a Bottle.
The highlight of the show for me was So Lonely. That version really rocked.
And, now I am eagerly waiting for what the three of them do separately.
