The Police - Hammersmith Odeon...
Not since the days when The Who first blazed pulsating acolytes "out front" can there have been scenes like those at the Hammersmith Odeon on Tuesday night.
The Police approached the climax of their 80minute pro gramme with a series of similarly simple coup de théâtre.
The mighty roar which greeted the arrival of Messrs Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland would have done credit to Wembley Stadium, let alone the 4,000 throats at Hammersmith, and the first chilling bars of 'Walking on the Moon' demolished any last pocket of resistance.
Sting's unerring, almost McCartney-like, consistency as a songwriter means the audience comes to a Police concert fully primed.
Apart from the present gigantic lunar-inspired hit, numbers like 'Message in a Bottle', 'Can't Stand Losing You' and, of course, 'Roxanne' were all given the full treatment as anthems.
But what lifted this concert above those in September was a new tautness, a greater discipline, surely refined by the group's recent tour of the United States. On this form, the Police potential is limitless.
With equally impressive and totally contrasting appearances by the indestructible Cliff Richard and the magnificently hungry AC/DC, the Odeon has in the past seven days provided three cheerful and encouraging pointers to the 80.
(c) The Daily Telegraph by John Coldstream
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