Police Reunion: 2007/08

Mission Nostalgia - No one plays Police songs as well as Police: The band's first German concert in Hamburg...

Nothing's happening in the green parking lot. Lines of cars squeeze into the narrow eye of the road, and the license plates indicate many long drives home. But the wait isn't annoying. Because the magic still works. Even 45 minutes after the concert. Police were there.

Celebrated by 30,000 people in the Hamburger SV stadium at the first of their four German concerts. Now you're sitting in the green parking lot, with Sting's voice in your head or on your car radio, letting the show linger a bit. Everything's somehow like it used to be. Great. So, there was a point in reviving the trio after all.

It's a two-hour practical seminar on pop history. Monothematic. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, this is the police," seminar leader Sting stammers as the three enter the stage to loud cheers. It's also the most lavish spoken text of the evening. Anyone who wants to forget a quarter-century of hiatus in two hours shouldn't waste time chatting, not even on September 11th.

Messages are sung here at most, the first one being a message in a bottle. 'Message In A Bottle' opens the charts, in a raw version that carries the message: There may be no new songs on this nostalgia mission, but we haven't returned as cosy lounge musicians, as our own cover band, as The Absahner, formerly known as the Police. But as the original, with a guarantee of quality and another message: A song is only as good as the way you play it. And no one plays Police songs as well as Police.

In that sense, there are many good songs on this evening. Nothing else. Of course, such purism seems out of date. Who dares to simply stand on a stadium stage these days without compensating the crowd for the exorbitant entrance fee with a storm of special effects? Instead, an event consisting solely of music. It may have tempted the three Brits to reflect on their own status. After all this time. Considering that the comeback was a whimsical idea, the result isn't bad.

There's a lot of familiarity on stage. Guitarist Andy Summers, still fashionably baggy rather than jagged, sprinkles ethereal echo riffs into the arena. Occasionally, he packs a punch, but otherwise stays in the background. As well as that can be with three people. Stewart Copeland, as always, drums in cycling gloves. He sits on his stool, working on drums and metal, as if both enraptured and possessed. He simply can't keep his fingers still, seemingly with four arms, a drummer and percussionist rolled into one.

Sting may be the focus, but Copeland was and remains the driving force behind the energetic Police sound, which always sounded like more than just three people.

And Sting? He's stretched a tight T-shirt over his muscular 55-year-old body and plays a battered bass. His voice, on the other hand, is unmarked. He can still hit the very high notes, but he can't hit every single one anymore. On 'Truth Hits Everybody,' he initially stays a step lower, but then rises again, as if to prove: Here, folks, everything is still possible. They've just given up the bouncing around of the past. It would have looked silly if they were in their mid-fifties.

Hamburg listens – in perfect sound – to a best-of program with a few minor outliers. 'Driven To Tears' is more of a backbencher, as is 'Walking In Your Footsteps'. The rest is partly polished New Wave folklore from the halcyon 80s, when songs could still be called 'De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da.' 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic', 'Wrapped Around Your Finger', 'Invisible Sun', 'I Can't Stand Losing You', and finally 'Roxanne'. The band celebrates the song exuberantly – yet still very fresh. At this point, at the very latest, you wonder if such a band would have a chance today if they were new.

'Every Breath You Take' and the wild 'Next To You' as an encore, then it's over. But the magic continues. All the way to Parking Lot Green. And a little beyond.

(c) Hannoversche Allgemeine by Uwe Janssen