If fans of The Police think they’re excited about the band’s reunion tour, just listen to what drummer Stewart Copeland had to go through.
“The hardest part was not going out and telling all my friends,” Copeland, 54, said in a video interview provided by the band’s publicists Tuesday. “And all three of us had to kind of keep quiet about it, because there was such a long period between making the decision to do it and actually showing up in front of an audience.”
The February announcement sparked much hype and anticipation, but the wait ends soon. The Police visits Seattle with two sold-out shows (special packages may still be available) at KeyArena on Wednesday and Thursday nights, marking the band’s first performance in the Puget Sound area since Sept. 1, 1983, when it rocked the Tacoma Dome.
Seattle is the band’s third stop as it launches what will be an extensive world tour that will hit some of the most prestigious venues in America – including Wrigley Field in Chicago, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Fenway Park in Boston and Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. – and eventually run through Europe, South America, Japan and Australia. Not coincidentally, the band is releasing its first-ever “best of” double-disc CD, simply entitled “The Police,” on Tuesday.
“When I decided to float this idea to Andy and Stewart, and then to the world, I had an instinct that it would be a popular decision,” Sting, 55, said with a chuckle and the kind of arrogant false modesty that only Sting is able to pull off. “(I thought) that people would be excited by it, they would be intrigued by it, because it was the kind of thing I’d said I would never do, and even Andy and Stewart had sort of given up.”
Guitarist Andy Summers, 64, had apparently left an open invitation to the idea, nonetheless, because he claims to not even remember “who told me that we were getting back together.” But he admits he was a little nervous.
“I have to say, personally, I was somewhat paranoid after years of being brainwashed that we would be the biggest thing since sliced bread if we ever came back,” Summers said. “And many years passed and we passed twice through this sort of reunion-threat phase and came out the other side, (and) still hadn’t gotten back together. So then it was announced … and there was a moment of paranoia when (I) thought, ‘Well maybe people don’t want to see us and this has been an illusion all along.’”
Only a handful of the tour’s first 39 shows have yet to sell out, and indications are those fans won’t be disappointed. The band kicked off the tour Monday night in Vancouver, B.C., to 20,000 happy fans who sang along with the opening tune, “Message in a Bottle,” according to various reviews from critics worldwide who visited Vancouver for the occasion.
Even the British tabloid The Sun couldn’t resist mixing some actual praise with its prodding: “While the blokes might be getting on a bit – Sting occasionally danced like a dad – the music has not aged at all.”
Speaking of his being a dad, Sting’s son, bassist Joe Sumner, scored the opening-act slot for his band, Fiction Plane.
Reporter Victor Balta: victor.a.balta@gmail.com.
Kevin Mazur/Wire Image
Bassist and vocalist Sting, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers of The Police kicked off their world tour Monday in Vancouver, B.C.
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