REVIEW: The Police, Live! (A&M)

- Tim Kennedy

The Police were an unusual band to appear in the heady days of punk. They'd all been in bands before - Sting and Andy Summers in overblown pomp rock tosh merchants Curved Air. The manager (and brother of drummer Stuart) Miles Copeland was a former top CIA operative and arch right-wing reactionary. They sang virtually all love songs in stark contrast to the anti-love message of their contemporaries) and their output was unashamedly poppy. Andy Summers had in fact been around the scene as early as the sixties (and had been a neighbour of the legendary Syd Barrett during his Floyd days, trivia fans).

Sting, it will be remembered, became an icon of the brief mod revival of 1979-80 when he starred as the 'ace face' in the Who's 60's great yoof epic 'Quadrophenia' of 1978. To his credit he never cashed in by making spurious 'sixties' R'n'B (i.e. 'mod') music, unlike other lesser artists at the turn of the seventies.

He has since become one of the international rock aristocracy, for better or for worse. His solo career has easily eclipsed the other two, who one occasionally spots in the credits of TV shows for writing the theme music.

True they wrote a great deal of white reggae, as did many of the original punk groups, influenced by Don Letts, dreadlocked DJ at the legendary Roxy who used to play dub and rockers disks as much as punk, in between live performances by top punk bands. But in contrast to the spiky experimental shapes thrown by the likes of the Slits and the heavy dub of the Clash, the Police took inspiration from Bob Marley, whose accessible pop had established itself widely by the late 70s. Gordon Sumner AKA Sting and his mates added a soft rock guitar feel to the Jamaican rythms, and Sting was probably the first white singer to build a successful career by affecting a Jamaican accent. Their American connection through the Copelands gave an edge that led them to greater success there than other British outfits such as the Jam, who bombed across the Atlantic.

This 145min double CD features two concerts, one in Boston from 1979 and the other 1983 in Atlanta. The performances don't add or subtract much from the originals, but it is an interesting collection, drawing from two distinct eras of the Police's development. There are three kinds of live bands: bands that reproduce their studio more or less; the bands that rip up their songs and change them round for the audience's entertainment - Led Zeppelin were very good at this; and the bands that sound totally different live anyway - generally because they can't play too well -e.g. The Clash and indeed The Rolling Stones for many years. The Police come in the first category on the evidence presented in this CD -with one notable exception.

In 1979 the Police were already established in the UK charts. "Message In A Bottle" went straight to number one in the autumn of that year. The record was the furthest yet the band had moved musically from the punk 'style'. This show opens with a putative 'punk' number "Next To You" and it is only here that the sound quality wavers somewhat. Another time the band stray into '77 territory is on "Fall Out", a few songs later, which was their first single. "Truth Hits Everybody" features too, it always struck me as a bit punky, but has the distinct advantage over the former two of being a jolly good tune. "Landlord" was possibly as political as the Police got, not very political at all as it happens. This is another 'punky' number. These sound very rushed and are in stark contrast to the confident material elsewhere on the CD. They weren't really suited to this material; this writer believes that they were only there in order to gatecrash the punk bandwagon in the first place. "Peanuts", although a fast rock number, is too 'light' to be punk. The nearest they got to some sort of anthem, "Born in the 50s" is a song on behalf of their generation, criticising their parents - but already the Police were of an older generation themselves in comparison to their peers.

Sting complains of throat trouble at the start of the show but you couldn't tell he was in any difficulty otherwise.

The material is predominantly the first album, with highlights "So Lonely" and "Roxanne" exemplifying the blue-eyed reggae element of their early output. "The Bed's Too Big Without You" is possibly the most reggae-ified of the earlier material - it was on the second album Regatta De Blanc. This is easily the highlight of the whole collection, featuring an interesting extended percussive dubwise middle section.

"Can't Stand Losing You" was a nice combination of the two strands of early Police - vaguely punky chorus with reggaeish verses. This was probably the song that broke them in the UK. Again a very good performance is featured here.

The 'risque' ode to a blowup sex doll - "Be My Girl" is the final track. This was a thing of it's time - John Cooper Clarke, punk poet, no doubt inspiration for it - especially with the cod northern English accent delivery. It has none of JCC's use of alliteration and surreal vision unfortunately, aside from the fact that JCC was (is!) a genuine working class northerner unlike Sting - a middle class north-easterner who toted a fake London accent onstage!

Overall the first CD displays the band at the end of their 'angry (not so) young men' period. The second CD has the Police playing with synths, exotic rythms and the melodic philosophical pop that they came out with around the time of the Synchronicity album. There is also some material indicating a resurgent 'progressive rock' thread - "Synchronicity 1" and "Walking In Your Footsteps" for example.

Although they took some flak at the time for pretentiousness in the UK press, this was their best album to date and compares well to anything out at the time ('82 admittedly not a vintage year for rock...) The themes of Jung and political commentary (mentioning picket lines and Ireland) were aired -somewhat casually.

However, airhead dumbness like "De Do Do Do" particularly irritated some, and indicated that although the band wanted to be viewed as serious commentators of their times, they were also keen to sidestep big issues, often content to merely use controversial images. Example "When your eloquence escapes you/Their logic ties you up and rapes you". Hmm, yes, very sensitively put...

They were contemporaries of dozens of bands that weren't afraid properly to address the difficult issues of the time such as disarmament, unemployment, Ireland, racism and so on. The Jam, U2, the Specials, The English Beat all combined great pop with serious comment and influenced their listeners. The Police never joined any of the great benefit concerts of the day and their manager was often to be heard condemning protesters as 'commies'.

What people will remember the Police for is their uncanny knack with a pop tune, and this 1983 concert displays some of their finest - "Every Breath You Take", "Don't Stand So Close To Me", "Wrapped Around Your Finger", all these and more are tunes that, once heard, will probably entwine themselves round your cortex forever. They are pop classics of the best vintage. The only slight drawback here is that the backing singers are virtually lost in the mix, this particularly affecting "King Of Pain" in its call-response section.

Certain of the songs from the 1st CD are featured again, which maybe could have been left out, but presumably are included for completeness. "Roxanne" is given an extended quiet middle section which doesn't amount to much. "Can't Stand Losing You" has a long audience partipation section which you can take or leave.

For Police fans this is a treat, two time capsules of the band during the middle and towards the end of their career. For the casual fan of late seventies/eighties music, it is a fine document of one of the most talented pop groups of that time, displaying both their strengths and weaknesses. For the Sting fan of today who isn't too familiar with his old band, it is a great chance to catch up and see just how much of the band's songwriting was his contribution - evidently most of it.