Ghost In The Machine: 1981/82

The Police: secure in a good reputation...

Take a rock-steady reggae beat and pump it up with power chords and searing guitar licks and you have the recipe that has helped the fame and fortune of the Police rise with each visit to Philadelphia.

The band's sold-out concert Monday night at the Spectrum - the group's first time in that huge arena - marked a peak in a progression that began on the small stage at Grendel's Lair in 1979, where the Police developed a reputation as being one of the best concert bands around.

The reputation of this British band is still secure. With each leap, strut or dance he does with his bass, lead vocalist Gordon Sumner (who calls himself ''Sting'') can pack a song with unbelievable energy and excitement. When he combines the voice with Andy Summers' understated guitar work and Stewart Copeland's powerful drumming, that excitement can lift you off your feet - or bring an audience to its feet, as it did Monday night.

But reggae is by nature a slow, steady musical idiom and injecting it with the manic, power pop energy of 'Message in the Bottle' or 'Roxanne' the group's first hit, demands an extraordinarily high level of intensity. What helped the Police achieve this intensity in the past was the absence of tricks, gimmicks or fancy arrangements in their music. In three years they have grown self-indulgent in a small but noticeable way.

For this concert they had with them a three-piece horn section and a show that featured, of all things, a mirrored ball - the cliche lighting effect of arena concerts - that scattered droplets of light over the crowd during 'Shadows in the Rain'.

And so we had a concert of peaks and valleys, of songs with blinding energy, such as 'De Do Do Do', and 'Can't Stand Losing You', and low moments as in 'Invisible Sun' and 'Spirits in the Material World', in which the Spectrum seemed too big for the band.

The Go-Go's, an all-female dance band from Los Angeles, were much more consistent. Lead singer Belinda Carlisle danced about the stage like a prom queen at a sock hop, putting a fun, frivolous edge on such excellent dance numbers as 'We Got the Beat' and 'Our Lips Are Sealed'. The energy was pure, clean and never varied.

(c) The Philadelphia Inquirer by Bill Kent

Police and Go-Gos at the Spectrum...

It wasn't the same seeing the Police at the Spectrum, Philadelphia's pro sport arena, as it was back at CBGB or even the midsize Palladium. Short of playing stadiums, the indoor arena is the Police's last performing frontier in rhe States.

To their credit, the band made an effort to send everyone home happy. Sting engaged in the tried and true audience singalong, but did it with good humour. The Spectrum throng responded alertly and eagerly - and mostly in tune, too. Only veteran Police fans might have mourned the singalong's replacing exciting bits of jamming, which were always delightful tangents and surprisingly so, this not being the era of the solo.

This performance - a fairly comprehensive selection of material old and new - was unflaggingly energetic. As late as the second encore, Stewart Copeland was playing his drumkit like an octopus on speed! An added three-piece horn section provided melodic/harmonic fillips as well as brief but effective solo firepower to set off Andy Summers' guitar.

Not as wonderful a show as I'd previously seen from The Police, but without a doubt worthy of the Spectrum's healthy reaction (which, by the way put jaded New York crowds to shame).

Openers the Go-Go's got an impressive reception, proving the group can play large arenas with its ingenuous enthusiasm intact. Occasional mixing board glitches aside, Gina Schock's drumming propelled the sweet guitars and vocal harmonies; singer Belinda Carlisle continues to improve as a frontwoman. Almost half the audience literally danced and clapped through much of the set. Next time around the Go-Go's might well be ready to headline at the Spectrum themselves.

(c) Trouser Press by Jim Green

The Police: Every little thing they do is magic...

It's a measure of progress that when the Police played the City of Brotherly Love three years ago, they were headliners at Grendel's Lair, an intimate South Street nightclub that seats about 200.

The size of the concert venue in- creased dramatically Monday night when the British rock group held captive a crowd of more than 15,000 people at the Spectrum for an hour and an half as they ran through a selection of songs from their four albums.

Fronted by bassist-vocalist Sting, the group's sound meshes together nicely and shows the concept of a trio in rock 'n' roll music did not die with Cream in the late 1960s.

Opening with a pair of hits, 'Message in a Bottle' and their current single, 'Every Little Thing She Does is Magic', the group's music comes across harder live than on record.

For the third song, a three-man horn section composed of two saxophones and a trumpet was introduced by Sting as "Dave, Darryl and Marvin" and augmented the group on songs from their new album 'Ghost in the Machine', including 'One World' and 'Demolition Man'.

Sting, who alternated playing an upright, electric bass and a small electric bass that measured no more than seven inches across at the body, had the crowd singing along on several occasions, including 'Roxanne' and 'De Do Do Do, Dah Da Da Da'.

His fellow players, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland, complemented his fluid, bass playing well. For the most part, the group stays away from taking long, pretentious solos.

Many of the band's songs, especially those on the first two albums, are reggae-influenced and accentuate the drums and bass.

The Police, though, continue to offer surprises for their audience, including a song on their new album, 'Hungry for You', that's sung mostly in French.

The only complaint with Monday's show is the band stops playing too soon as they did 17 songs in 90 minutes, including two encores. Artists such as Bruce Springsteen and The Who may have spoiled audiences with their sets that exceed the two-and-a-half hour limit.

Opening the show for the Police were the Go-Go's, a Los Angeles based band composed of five women.

Displaying youthful enthusiasm and rhythmic exuberance, the group played all 11 songs from the debut album, 'Beauty and the Beat' as well as a cover version of 'Cool Jerk'. The biggest receptions were reserved for the hits 'Our Lips Are Sealed' and 'We Got the Beat'.

The five women, who are in their early to mid-20s, seem likely to escape the fate of previous all-women bands like Fanny and The Runaways.

(c) Gloucester County Times by Tom Wilk