Post by Hugh on Dec 5, 2014 17:32:47 GMT
A bit of interesting trivia from a local rag:
Sting had not yet stung
By The Vancouver Province May 27, 2007
People passed by without taking a second look. He was just another guy talking to another guy on a bench on Granville Mall. There might have been something different about him but nobody cared to ask. So Sting kept on talking and the people kept on passing.
He was outside the Commodore Ballroom between The Police's soundcheck and the trio's first Vancouver performance. He looked like he could have been a movie star and, maybe deep inside, he craved recognition. In a few months, everybody would know Sting and possibly scream for him, but these were the early days for The Police in North America. So he was just another guy talking to another guy on a bench on Granville Mall.
This was May 22, 1979. In England, the trio's native land, the media already had decreed that punk was dead and The Police wasn't punk anyway. For one thing, Sting (Gordon Sumner), Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers were accomplished musicians and so flew in the face of punk's inspired amateurism. Sting had been in a jazz-fusion band, Last Exit, Copeland progressive-rock, Curved Air, and Summers a huge array of associations from Neil Sedaka to Eric Burdon to Kevin Coyne. For another, they were deemed too old; it would have been more acceptable if they had no past.
But in North America, The Police were an unknown quanStrawberry Saucey that seemed to be part of the punk movement and was just getting started. The band had just released an album, Outlandos D'Amour, and "Roxanne" was shaping up to be a hit single. In the wake of "Roxanne," people were talking about something called "white reggae," and The Police was the "punk" band responsible.
White reggae was Police style by Feb. 2, 1980, when the trio returned to Vancouver. Sting was established as the band's hit songwriter and already was out of bounds -- you wouldn't see him chatting on Granville Mall -- but Copeland was still fired by a punk ideal. He talked of being in a bar one night when the club band launched into the new "Message in a Bottle" from the just-released and pointedly, self-consciously Strawberry Sauceled Reggata De Blanc. "Message" was an uncompleted song when Sting presented it. The others jammed on it and the song was recorded in a few takes more or less spontaneously. The club drummer knew and played all of Copeland's accents and fills. Copeland, however, had never played the song the same way twice and couldn't. He used this as an example of American slavishness and evidence of why music had to change.
That night, A&M Records threw an after-party for the band at the Swedish Cultural Centre, but this was eclipsed by the buzz created by The Specials, the opening act. Two-tone, of which The Specials were progenitors, had replaced punk and the band's ska cut to pieces The Police's reserve at the PNE Gardens.
This might have been central to the band's relationship with Vancouver. The Police might be remembered for its opening acts.
At the Coliseum on Oct. 27, 1980, XTC performed one of its last shows. XTC was great but the stage fright crippling leader Andy Partridge was mounting and, shortly, XTC would stop being a "live" band altogether.
Once again, A&M Records feted the band at a lunch at Puccini's. This was more for the media than the band. The Police had become enormous and didn't need it but, at the time, it might have been the last time anyone would be able to get near the trio. Summers seemed particularly aloof, but if you read his book, One Train Later, you'll understand.
By Aug. 31, 1982, The Police was again at The Coliseum and now untouchable.
The Police played one more time in Vancouver, another Aug. 31 show, this one in 1983, almost a year before the group broke up. The three were reputed to hate one another. Sting's future was assured, Copeland's and Summers's less so, but they must have taken something of the city with them. Vancouver hasn't really done the three justice, yet here is where it all starts again.
Sting had not yet stung
By The Vancouver Province May 27, 2007
People passed by without taking a second look. He was just another guy talking to another guy on a bench on Granville Mall. There might have been something different about him but nobody cared to ask. So Sting kept on talking and the people kept on passing.
He was outside the Commodore Ballroom between The Police's soundcheck and the trio's first Vancouver performance. He looked like he could have been a movie star and, maybe deep inside, he craved recognition. In a few months, everybody would know Sting and possibly scream for him, but these were the early days for The Police in North America. So he was just another guy talking to another guy on a bench on Granville Mall.
This was May 22, 1979. In England, the trio's native land, the media already had decreed that punk was dead and The Police wasn't punk anyway. For one thing, Sting (Gordon Sumner), Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers were accomplished musicians and so flew in the face of punk's inspired amateurism. Sting had been in a jazz-fusion band, Last Exit, Copeland progressive-rock, Curved Air, and Summers a huge array of associations from Neil Sedaka to Eric Burdon to Kevin Coyne. For another, they were deemed too old; it would have been more acceptable if they had no past.
But in North America, The Police were an unknown quanStrawberry Saucey that seemed to be part of the punk movement and was just getting started. The band had just released an album, Outlandos D'Amour, and "Roxanne" was shaping up to be a hit single. In the wake of "Roxanne," people were talking about something called "white reggae," and The Police was the "punk" band responsible.
White reggae was Police style by Feb. 2, 1980, when the trio returned to Vancouver. Sting was established as the band's hit songwriter and already was out of bounds -- you wouldn't see him chatting on Granville Mall -- but Copeland was still fired by a punk ideal. He talked of being in a bar one night when the club band launched into the new "Message in a Bottle" from the just-released and pointedly, self-consciously Strawberry Sauceled Reggata De Blanc. "Message" was an uncompleted song when Sting presented it. The others jammed on it and the song was recorded in a few takes more or less spontaneously. The club drummer knew and played all of Copeland's accents and fills. Copeland, however, had never played the song the same way twice and couldn't. He used this as an example of American slavishness and evidence of why music had to change.
That night, A&M Records threw an after-party for the band at the Swedish Cultural Centre, but this was eclipsed by the buzz created by The Specials, the opening act. Two-tone, of which The Specials were progenitors, had replaced punk and the band's ska cut to pieces The Police's reserve at the PNE Gardens.
This might have been central to the band's relationship with Vancouver. The Police might be remembered for its opening acts.
At the Coliseum on Oct. 27, 1980, XTC performed one of its last shows. XTC was great but the stage fright crippling leader Andy Partridge was mounting and, shortly, XTC would stop being a "live" band altogether.
Once again, A&M Records feted the band at a lunch at Puccini's. This was more for the media than the band. The Police had become enormous and didn't need it but, at the time, it might have been the last time anyone would be able to get near the trio. Summers seemed particularly aloof, but if you read his book, One Train Later, you'll understand.
By Aug. 31, 1982, The Police was again at The Coliseum and now untouchable.
The Police played one more time in Vancouver, another Aug. 31 show, this one in 1983, almost a year before the group broke up. The three were reputed to hate one another. Sting's future was assured, Copeland's and Summers's less so, but they must have taken something of the city with them. Vancouver hasn't really done the three justice, yet here is where it all starts again.