Reggatta de Blanc: 1979/80

The Police: A band with potential...

Sting, a weary man with a sweaty blond haircut, is visibly fatigued after more than an hour of singing and playing bass with the English rock band, The Police.

He fumbles for cold cuts backstage at Raincross Square, and his eyes plead for sleep.

It's Wednesday night in Riverside just another stop on a three-month, 70-date tour.

The band has been awake since early morning, hustling around Southern California on company business. Yesterday it was a press conference with 30 journalists, photo sessions for both People and Rolling Stone magazines, and a concert. Tomorrow it'll be turkey dinner and yet an other concert.

Sting calls this mass marketing blitz part of a "big machine."

"I'm not particularly fond of it, but I do see the point of it all," he conceded. "We want to sell a million albums."

Drummer and co-founder Stewart Copeland put it another way.

"We really want to make an impression. We want to succeed we want to be big. But it's not that we want to be big like Neil Sedaka. We want to be important like the Beatles."

The labour is paying off. The Police's second album, 'Reggatta de Blanc' just hit number 30 on the Billboard charts, four weeks after its release, and the group's debut album peaked at #23 earlier this year.

But the group is still young and unproven. The 3,500-seat Riverside auditorium was less than half-filled Wednesday night. 

When asked if he thinks the new album would climb higher than the first record, Sting just - crosses his fingers and thumps them under the table.

The band's early success is not all hard work and hype. The Police do have a fresh new product to market a novel blend of reggae and rock, best exemplified by its radio hit, 'Roxanne'. It's an attractive sound, certainly distinctive, and progressive enough to let other musical elements glide into the picture.

And in concert, The Police were cuts above most of the new wave competition. All members were accomplished musicians, and Sting's piercing falsetto was stunning. This was only a three-piece unit, but with a little electronic help, the band sounded huge.

Despite a sluggish mid-set lull, The Police turned in an impressive show, fulfilled expectations, and excited the crowd at hand.

Steel Pulse, the English reggae group advertised to appear, reportedly did not perform because of visa problems.

Appearing instead was Fashion, another English three-piece group that used reggae prominently as one of its new wave elements. But unlike the headliners, this group lacked focus or skill. No one but the pogo element in front of the stage seemed impressed, and I'm afraid the most distinctive thing about the band was its ugliness.

(c) The San Bernadino County Sun by Mark Lundahl