Zenyatta Mondatta: 1980/81

Police is right on target with fine jamming...

For a band who once prided itself on its minimalist approach to rock touring and recording, the Police has certainly grown.

It seems like just last year the British New Wave trio was professing the need to bring live rock music closer to the people and get rid of all the tons of sound equipment, lighting and electronic effects that had besieged concert touring over the last decade.

Well, that was last year. This year the Police, who turned its cult following into a massive commercial one by churning out fresh, irresistible pop melodies like 'Don't Stand So Close to Me' and 'De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da', has abandoned its artistic philosophies in order to play before the larger audiences the band can now attract.

The Police's popularity may have compelled the band to abandon this back-to-basics approach, but judging from the band's Saturday night Fox concert I guess it's just as well.

Led by the prodigious picking of bassist Gordon (Sting) Sumner and the even more powerful pounding of drummer Stewart Copeland, the group displayed its fusion of reggae, R&B and basic rock chording through a 90-minute set that aside from the pretentious flood lighting, presented some of the finest jamming by a British rock trio since the late '60s.

During 'Man in a Suitcase', a tune from the group's latest album, 'Zenyatta Mondatta', Sting and guitarist Andy Summers flavoured up some interesting riffing with various tonal and echoing effects, as Copeland provided the back beat with such exuberance and intelligence that he alone could have kept the interest of his mostly teenage audience.

Through familiar hits such as 'Roxanne', 'Message in the Bottle' and 'Walking on the Moon', Sting's fluid, jazz-inflected vocals were right on target as the band made three instruments sound like six. And not since the heyday of Cream has a band of three musicians done so much with so little.

(c) Atlanta Journal by Andrew Slater