The Police Reunion Tour
Tour by The Police | |
Start date | May 28 2007 |
---|---|
End date | August 4, 2008 |
Legs | 10 |
No. of shows | 148 |
The Police concert chronology |
The Police Reunion Tour is a 2007-2008 concert tour by The Police, marking the 30th anniversary of their beginnings.
History
On January 24, 2007, Rock101, a radio station in Vancouver, British Columbia, reported that the trio was coming together again and had in fact begun tour rehearsals in Vancouver.[1]. There were numerous sightings of the group and their entourage in the Vancouver area as expectation built of such a tour.[2]
The reunited Police performed at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards on February 11, 2007 in Los Angeles. On February 12th, The Police held rehearsals and a press conference for the media at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, where they confirmed that they would be undertaking the world tour starting in Vancouver in May.[3] It was also announced that the opening act for the North American and European legs of the tour would be Fiction Plane, a pop-rock band from England featuring lead singer and bass guitarist Joe Sumner, the son of Sting. In Philadelphia, Scottish rock band The Fratellis also joined Fiction Plane as an opening act. In addition, Maroon 5 joined the bill in Miami and Maxïmo Park joined The Police and Fiction Plane on the Twickenham dates, London. Tour sponsorship is from Best Buy. A portion of ticket sales is being donated to WaterAid.[4]
Since concert tickets went up for sale worldwide, some concert dates were sold out in just minutes. Tickets for the entire British tour, the band's first in 24 years, sold out within 30 minutes.[5] Worldwide, they have sold about 1.5m tickets with revenues reaching $168m.[6]
The show
The first concert was held in Vancouver on May 28, 2007 in front of 22,000 fans at one of two nearly sold-out shows. Opening with "Message in a Bottle," the band performed for roughly two hours, playing mostly chart hits with a smattering of other favourites popular among fans of The Police. While the Vancouver concerts received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics,[7][8] drummer Stewart Copeland in a forum posting (on his official site) called the band's May 30 performance "lame" and took humorous pokes at himself and his bandmates, calling one of Sting's song-ending leaps that of a "petulant pansy" and suggesting guitarist Andy Summers was "in Idaho" when he was half a bar out of sync with Copeland's drumming. In spite of these glitches, however, he says he is enjoying himself and after the set he and his bandmates fell into each other's arms backstage, laughing.[9]
Set List
North American I
Songs | Changes |
---|---|
Message In A Bottle | |
Synchronicity II | |
Spirits in the Material World | Not played in Los Angeles, New York, East Hartford, Boston (Fenway or Garden shows), Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Chicago, St. Paul, Miami, Tampa, Louisville, Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Hershey, Toronto, Washington DC. |
Voices Inside My Head / When The World Is Running Down | |
Don't Stand So Close to Me | Switched with "Spirits" in Denver |
Driven To Tears | |
Walking on the Moon | Moved earlier and replaced "Spirits" in New York, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, St. Paul, Tampa, Louisville, Boston, East Hartford, Detroit. |
Truth Hits Everybody | |
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic | |
Wrapped Around Your Finger | |
The Bed's Too Big Without You | Moved earlier and played before "Truth" in Houston, New Orleans, and St. Paul and played before "Every Little Thing..." in Boston. |
Murder By Numbers | Not played in New York, East Hartford, Boston, Oakland, Denver, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Chicago, St. Paul, Miami, Tampa, Louisville, Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Hershey, Toronto, East Rutherford. |
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da | |
Invisible Sun | |
Walking In Your Footsteps | |
Can't Stand Losing You / Reggatta De Blanc | |
Roxanne | Not played in Boston (Nov. 11) and in Montreal (Nov. 12) |
Encore I | |
King of Pain | |
So Lonely | |
Stepped off stage at Edmonton, East Hartford, Oakland, Dallas, New Orleans, St. Paul, and Tampa here then came back on | |
Every Breath You Take | |
Encore II | |
Next To You / Dead End Job | "Dead End Job" not played in New York, Boston, Chicago, East Rutherford & East Hartford, Atlanta (Nov 17). Both songs not played in Edmonton. |
European
Songs | Changes |
---|---|
Message In A Bottle | |
Synchronicity II | |
Walking on the Moon | |
Voices Inside My Head / When The World Is Running Down | |
Don't Stand So Close to Me | |
Driven To Tears | |
Truth Hits Everybody | |
Hole In My Life | (Note: not performed on North American I tour). Played before "Truth Hits Everybody" in Amsterdam, Antwerp and second Paris concert |
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic | |
Wrapped Around Your Finger | |
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da | |
Invisible Sun | |
Walking In Your Footsteps | |
Can't Stand Losing You / Reggatta De Blanc | |
Roxanne | Was not played in Antwerp because of voices problems of Sting |
Encore I | |
King of Pain | |
So Lonely | |
Every Breath You Take | |
Encore II | |
Next To You / Dead End Job | "Dead End Job" not played in Stockholm, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Paris, Antwerp and Cardiff. In Paris, former band member Henry Padovani joins the band for "Next to You" |
North American II
Songs | Changes |
---|---|
Message In A Bottle | |
Synchronicity II | Not played in Montreal (Nov. 12) |
Walking on the Moon | |
Voices Inside My Head / When The World Is Running Down | |
Don't Stand So Close to Me | |
Driven To Tears | |
Hole In My Life | |
Truth Hits Everybody | |
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic | |
Wrapped Around Your Finger | |
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da | |
Invisible Sun | |
Walking In Your Footsteps | |
Can't Stand Losing You/Reggatta De Blanc | |
Roxanne | Not played in Boston (Nov. 11) and in Montreal (Nov. 12) |
Encore I | |
King of Pain | |
So Lonely | |
Every Breath You Take | |
Encore II | |
Next To You |
Latin American
Songs | Changes |
---|---|
Message In A Bottle | |
Synchronicity II | |
Walking on the Moon | |
Voices Inside My Head / When The World Is Running Down | |
Don't Stand So Close to Me | |
Driven To Tears | |
Hole In My Life | |
Truth Hits Everybody | |
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic | |
Wrapped Around Your Finger | |
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da | |
Invisible Sun | |
Walking In Your Footsteps | |
Can't Stand Losing You/Reggatta De Blanc | |
Roxanne | |
Encore I | |
King of Pain | |
So Lonely | |
Every Breath You Take | |
Encore II | |
Next To You |
Australian & New Zealand & Hawaii
Songs | Changes |
---|---|
Message In A Bottle | |
Synchronicity II | |
Walking on the Moon | |
Voices Inside My Head / When The World Is Running Down | |
Don't Stand So Close to Me | (Not played in Wellington. In Adelaide & Perth Fergie joins the band for Don't Stand So Close to Me) |
Driven To Tears | |
Hole In My Life | |
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic | |
Wrapped Around Your Finger | |
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da | |
Invisible Sun | |
Walking In Your Footsteps | (Not played in Wellington, Auckland, Brisbane, Hawaii) |
Can't Stand Losing You/Reggatta De Blanc | |
Roxanne | |
Encore I | |
King of Pain | |
So Lonely | |
Every Breath You Take | |
Encore II | |
Next To You |
Stage design
The stage setup for The Police is a simple split-level oval design, ringed with blue lights. Above the stage are seven LED screens--three in the front of the stage, one on each side and two in the rear.
The placement of the band members echoed that of previous tours, with Sting and his bass equipment located stage-right, with Andy Summers and his guitar pedals and amps on stage-left. Stewart Copeland is located in the rear, seated behind his drum kit, and alongside him is a rectangular percussion setup used on various songs.
Musical changes
The Police had spent months in North Vancouver and Tuscany, Italy rehearsing and putting a new spin on the songs. "I think we've got a good mix now where the fans get the song they remember, and most of it will sound the way they remembered it. Just when they are enjoying that, they get a new twist. I think all three of us are pretty happy with the balance there" Stewart Copeland from the 2007-2008 Tour Program describing the new takes on the songs. They updated them, and wrote out all of the backing parts so the three of them can play them.
With some songs most notably 'Don't Stand So Close to Me' is slowed down to accent the powerful lyrics of the song. During the songs 'Wrapped Around Your Finger', 'Walking In Your Footsteps' and 'King of Pain' Stewart Copeland uses many different percussion instruments as well as regular drums.
"The songs have to evolve. Twenty-odd years later we have to be better musicians than we were. So we've slowed it all down, looked at where we are, and how the songs are now happening by listening to ourselves play them," said Sting in the 2007-2008 tour programme.
Stewart Copeland has been quoted to have said that he would "like to add 'Hole In My Life'" to the playlist at some point in the tour, and the song was performed live for the first time when the European tour kicked off in Stockholm on August 29.
Tour dates
North American Leg I
European Leg I
North American Leg II
Latin American Leg
Australian & New Zealand Leg
Asian Leg
Date | City | Venue |
---|---|---|
February 4, 2008 | Singapore | National Indoor Stadium |
February 7, 2008 | Macau, China | Venetian Arena |
February 10, 2008 | Osaka, Japan | Osaka Dome |
February 13, 2008 | Tokyo, Japan | Tokyo Dome |
February 14, 2008 | Tokyo, Japan | Tokyo Dome |
Hawaiian Leg
Date | City | Venue |
---|---|---|
February 16, 2008 | Honolulu, Hawaii | Blaisdell Center |
February 17, 2008 | Honolulu, Hawaii | Blaisdell Center |
North American Leg III
Date | City | Venue |
---|---|---|
May 1, 2008 | Ottawa, ON, Canada | Scotiabank Place |
May 3, 2008 | Buffalo, NY | HSBC Arena |
May 4, 2008 | Columbus, OH | Nationwide Arena |
May 10, 2008 | Chicago, IL | Allstate Arena |
May 13, 2008 | Kansas City, MO | Sprint Center |
May 14, 2008 | Omaha, NE | Qwest Center |
May 16, 2008 | Orlando, FL | Amway Arena |
May 17, 2008 | West Palm Beach, FL | Cruzan Amphitheatre |
May 20, 2008 | Houston, TX | Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion |
May 21, 2008 | Dallas, TX | SuperPages.com Center |
May 23, 2008 | Las Vegas, NV | MGM Grand Garden Arena |
May 24, 2008 | Phoenix, AZ | Cricket Wireless Pavilion |
May 26, 2008 | San Diego, CA | Coors Amphitheatre |
May 27, 2008 | Los Angeles, CA | The Hollywood Bowl |
European Leg II
Date | City | Venue |
---|---|---|
June 3, 2008 | Marseille, France | Stade Velodrome |
June 5, 2008 | Mannheim, Germany | SAP Arena |
June 7, 2008 | Werchter, Belgium | TW Classic |
June 8, 2008 | Düsseldorf, Germany | LTU Arena |
June 10,2008 | St Etienne, France | Stade Geoffroy-Guichard |
June 11,2008 | Oslo, Norway | Valle Hovin (CANCELLED) |
June 13,2008 | Haderslev, Denmark | Landsstævnestadion |
June 15, 2008 | Isle of Wight, England | Isle of Wight Festival |
June 17, 2008 | Manchester, England | MEN Arena |
June 18, 2008 | Manchester, England | MEN Arena |
June 26, 2008 | Chorzow, Poland | Silesian Stadium |
June 28, 2008 | Leipzig, Germany | Zentralstadion |
June 29, 2008 | London, England | Hyde Park Calling |
July 2, 2008 | Valencia, Spain | Estadio Ciudad de Valencia |
July 4, 2008 | Bilbao, Spain | Bilbao Live Festival |
July 5, 2008 | Madrid, Spain | Rock in Rio |
North American Leg IV
Notes
- ^ "Police Rehearsing For Tour In Vancouver" - Billboard, January 25, 2007
- ^ "Police sightings in North Vancouver" - News 1130, January 26, 2007
- ^ The Police
- ^ [1]
- ^ "The Police reunion tour concert tickets sell out in just minutes," Sideline.com
- ^ Turning rebellion into money", The Economist, September 15, 2007
- ^ "UnderGroundOnline review of Vancouver concert".
- ^ "Canada.com review of Vancouver concert, May 28, 2007".
- ^ ""Our first disaster gig!" stewartcopeland.net, May 31, 2007".
- ^ Rogier's Police Page
- ^ Police booking at Commonwealth
- ^ a b c The Police: Sell Out Madison Square Garden, Fenway Park, Canadian Shows; Additional Shows Announced Today