The Police may reunite in 2007!

[TimmyB]

From www.billboard.com

Police Reunion Rumors Reaching Fever Pitch

January 03, 2007, 3:10 PM ET

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Rumors are swirling that the Police will reunite for 2007 dates in England and the United States, which would be the legendary trio's first since disbanding in 1986. Sources tell Billboard.com the reports are legitimate but would not publicly comment until final details are nearer to completion.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the release of "Roxanne," the single that broke the Police in the United States. In a statement issued last month, A&M Records said, "It is our intention to mark the anniversary by doing something special with the band's catalogue of songs. Needless to say, everyone is hopeful the band will support our plans and while early discussions have taken place, nothing has been decided."

Sources say in addition to DVD releases, A&M is planning another multi-disc collection in the vein of 1993's "Message in a Box," which featured the band's complete studio recordings and a handful of rarities.

A Police reunion has been the concert industry's dream for two decades, as it is believed the band could play stadiums internationally should it choose to reunite. But besides an impromptu set at Sting's 1992 wedding to Trudie Styler, the Police's only other post-breakup performance was in celebration of its 2003 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

And while Sting has repeatedly expressed reluctance at reuniting, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers have kept the flame alive. This summer, Summers told Billboard he was certain the group could have continued on past its 1983 commercial peak with "Synchronicity."

"The more rational approach would have been, 'OK, Sting, go make a solo record, and let's get back together in two or three years,'" he said. "I'm certain we could have done that. Of course we could have. We were definitely not in a creative dry space. We could have easily carried on, and we could probably still be there. That wasn't to be our fate. It went in another way. I regret we never paid it off with a last tour. We snuck out the back door, which is what we were told to do, until it just became too frustrating to lie about it."

"I'm very keen on it," Copeland told Billboard.com of a potential reunion, the day after the Rock Hall induction. "But I absolutely understand why it's not going to happen and I'm down with that. It was really great to be the Police for 15 minutes. If you can think of some other award we can go get or some other good reason, give me a call, and I'll try it out!"

In 2001, Copeland excitedly told Billboard about "one piece of unreleased Police product" which he hoped would eventually see the light of day.

"One of the times when they were working on the box set or something like that, they convened the three of us on the phone. Sting and Andy were in Italy; Andy was visiting Sting at the time, and I was on a DSL line in L.A.," he recalled. "And we went down all the song titles from all of our albums. Song title: 'Can't Stand Losing You.' And we each just talked about the track and argued and shouted and screamed. There was laughter and tears. It was very cathartic. It was almost like a therapy session. It was hysterical. It was so much fun."

"We were really going at it with all the language, straight for the jugular, refighting the battles, laughing hysterically while we put the stiletto exactly where we stuck it last time," he continued. "The engineer said it was like watching a concert. They were in Italy and it's like after dinner, and I'm here in L.A. at 10 in the morning. I'm getting more and more caffeinated as they're getting drunker and drunker."

"It seems like we're in contact all the time, but actually, years go by," Copeland said of his ongoing relationship with Summers and Sting. "It's sort of like whenever we see each other, it's like we saw each other five minutes ago. We don't have any sensation of time going by. We don't pick up the phone every week, but when we do, we pick up from where we left off."

[Ms.Huxtable]

Good Gawd!!! Move over nero!

HAhaha.

I'd pay some big bucks to see the Police. 2nd mortgage bouchey? How exciting!

[MarcO]

music biz writer Bob Lefsetz's take on the reunion scene is interesting, and so I share it with y'all:

Is it too late for a Police reunion?

Genesis is one of the most revered bands of all time. The PETER GABRIEL-led Genesis. Fans wax rhapsodic about "Selling England By The Pound" and "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" in a way you can't get ANYBODY to testify about the band's hit-laden eighties records. It took Peter Gabriel a while to eclipse the work he did with his former mates, commercially anyway, but with his 1986 album "So", which included the iconic hit and breakthrough video "Sledgehammer", Peter became a household word. Not that Genesis slacked, the Phil Collins-led outfit immediately released the surprisingly good "Trick Of The Tail" and then went on to have the aforementioned hits. It's time for a REUNION, wouldn't you think? There's been a constant buzz online. Genesis has laid fallow, Gabriel's last album was substandard. It's time to get the old boys together and rape and pillage! But that's not what's happening. Genesis is going out alone.

Rumor has it that Gabriel just won't commit. He's not ready yet. And that might be true, but the real story is Michael Cohl ran the numbers and he found out NOBODY WANTED TO SEE THE OLD GENESIS!

You know Cohl. He's the guy who guarantees a zillion dollars to the biggest acts in the world. They then go on to play arenas, with Cohl skimming a profit on top of his almost guaranteed sell-out numbers. This is how he does it with the Rolling Stones. U2. Even Barbra Streisand. Peter Gabriel-led Genesis is in that league, RIGHT?

Wrong.

Cohl isn't stupid. Before he lays out tens of millions of dollars in guarantees, he does research. And his research told him that although there IS demand for the old band, it's relatively low, they can't play arenas at a high ticket price, whereas the PHIL COLLINS GENESIS CAN!

Credit MTV. Although the Phil Collins Genesis had its first hit with "Follow You, Follow Me" from 1978's "And Then There Were Three", they became UBIQUITOUS when MTV banged one video after another. You remember the one with the puppets... The SONG you can't remember, but you do recall Ronnie Reagan in bed and the water.

Funny, the acts BROKEN by MTV, they can barely tour. But those with cred BEFORE video play, they're now icons. It seems that MTV latched on to them, boosted them, as opposed to ANOINTING THEM! The old bands already existed, they brought their cred with them. Whereas the new bands... What did they have anyway?

Of course there are exceptions. Especially amongst the earliest crop of MTV acts. But really, the big sellers on the road are those that had traction before MTV infiltrated so many homes.

So are we ever going to get to see the original Genesis, the REAL Genesis?

I'm starting to doubt it. For the same reason we may never see the real Pink Floyd go on the road. You see, David Gilmour just doesn't need the money. Yes, HIS outfit, sans Roger Waters, played STADIUMS! He doesn't need the MONEY! And Phil Collins and Michael Rutherford and Tony Banks have enough money, certainly after this year's tour, to decide it's just not worth it to play by the mercurial Gabriel's rules. Why be beholden to someone who left you in the lurch, albeit three decades ago, to make LESS MONEY!

Yes, it comes down to the money. And in order to make the big bucks, you've got to ensnare not only the hard core fan, but the CASUAL ONE! You've got to get ALL these people to come to the gig.

Check the numbers. Sting has sold more albums WITHOUT the Police. Yes, I know the Police was iconic in your life. They preceded U2. Back when you came of age, when you were in high school. Hell, you might have even seen them in a STADIUM!

But almost nobody plays stadiums anymore. Fans don't want to be treated that poorly. And you want to be close! You'll pay EXTRA to be close!

But you won't pay to be close every week. Maybe a couple of times a year. The Stones are not going to live forever, you want to see them before they die. But who else? Do you want to pay to see Yes in an arena? How about Boston? How about REO Speedwagon? You remember "Hi Infidelity", with its iconic "Keep On Loving You". That album sold more than any CD THIS year! Do you want to see THEM? They broke big the same year the Police became ubiquitous, with "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic". Or maybe we should go to '83, when "Every Breath You Take" dominated. Quiet Riot was number one just after "Synchronicity", do you want to pay $250 to see them? How about Lionel Richie, whose album followed theirs? Shit, almost no one cares about his new record... And then there's Huey Lewis, his album "Sports" dominated in the middle of '84. Right before "Born In The U.S.A." had a seven week run. People still want to see Springsteen, don't they? Well, certainly not in stadiums. As for arenas at Stones prices?? I don't think so. And Bruce's reign was followed by Prince's "Purple Rain" soundtrack. Prince did come back. But now he's playing a club. He had to give away his record. And prices were not exorbitant. He got one go-round, hell, he played some cities twice. But the Police PRE-DATE Prince. And I don't think a ton of African-Americans want to see the Police. And they never had a reputation as a KILLER live act. Good, but not SPECTACULAR!

Sting does pretty fine on his own. He's far from desperate. And he's proven that just when you count him out, he writes a catchy hit. He seems to have the ability in his DNA. And he seems to play by his own rules, take his own counsel. Don't expect STING to sign with Clive Davis and cut standards, just to be viable.

So, Sting doesn't need to do it. He's far from desperate. How badly do you need to see the POLICE?

Does your wife want to see the Police? Sure, she loved "Every Breath You Take", but the earlier records, the ones YOU loved, appeal more to guys. Are you gonna be able to get a group of your fortysomething, your FIFTYSOMETHING buds together on one night to go? Are their spouses going to LET THEM?

And the longer a band waits, the less viable touring becomes. Suddenly, the seventies are A LONG TIME AGO! Hell, the Police BROKE in 1978.

I think a Police tour would do well. They were established before MTV rocketed them into the stratosphere. And "Synchronicity" was the number one album for 17 weeks! But this was before the SoundScan era. And there are no Police albums on the catalog chart, not even a compilation. And no Sting records either. And no Peter Gabriel or Genesis discs either. But there IS a Stones album. Yes, people still care about the Stones. But you'd be surprised how few care about so many of the other "superstar" bands. At least enough to pay a fortune to go see them.

--

Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/

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Andy Summers will be on The Hour on CBC sometime this upcoming week, according to a promo I saw tonight.

[diskdaddy]

Fortunately for us, if they do reunite, Sting can still sing the way he did back in the day.

Something I've noticed is that people will pay for the tickets to a see a lesser version of what once was. You can hear cover bands that sound more like the originals sometimes.

List of more mainstreamy singers that can/sorta can/can't hit the highnotes anymore (but certainly are still worth watching):

________________________________________________

[color:green]CAN

Sting: Saw him last year here in Ottawa (two years ago maybe?), shitty seats, but he was classy as usual. Sang a bunch of old stuff.

Roger Hodgson: Seen a bunch of footage of him (and on Canadian Idol...not that I watched anything but that five minutes). Who'd win in a fight? Roger or Geddy Lee?

Eddie Vedder: Smashing concert in Montreal...sat in the Penalty box area, lots of legroom!

________________________________________________

[color:orange]SORTA CAN

Burton Cummings: He can hit the notes, but not with the scratchiness of yester-year.

________________________________________________

[color:red]CAN'T

Elton: (since his surgery in Australia in...199X)

Loved it when I saw him and the original band, but he can't do the falsetto anymore.

AC/DC: Looking forward to their tour if they commit, but Brian tops out now on his power/range.

Our Lady Peace: I hate them and they suck. He's terrible, live.

Any more?

[secondtube]

Can:

Neil Young

Can't:

Stephen Stills

[paisley]

Back in the day the Police used to have these all day festivals... that would be awesome to see them play as a part of a full day of entertainment... that's my hope!

The Police Picnic '81 line-up: Oakville, Ont. / CANADA

The David Benedeth Band, John Otway, The Payolas, Nash The Slash, Oingo Boingo, Killing Joke, Iggy Pop, The Go-Go's, The Specials, The Police.

Attendance: 29,000

The Police Picnic '82 line-up: Toronto, Ont. / C.N.E. Grandstand Stadium / CANADA

The Spoons, A Flock Of Seagulls, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, The English Beat, The Talking Heads, The Police.

Attendance: 45,000

The Police Picnic '83 line-up: Toronto, Ont. / C.N.E. Grandstand Stadium / CANADA

Blue Peter, King Sunny Ade & His African Beat, The Fixx, Peter Tosh, James Brown, The Police.

Attendance: 35,000

events I missed that taught me to really try not to miss events

Sting: "We played in Toronto, and we had James Brown open for us. It's the greatest honour we've ever had. I was out there, grooving away, and this grapefruit lands on stage, almost hits him. I thought, 'Who the hell throw a grapefruit at James Brown?'. Then I realized they probably hadn't heard of him. When a young audience hasn't heard of the man who invented soul music, there's something wrong with music in this country." (Chicago Tribune; 21-07-1985).

John Otway, Iggy Pop, The Go-Go's, The Specials, The English Beat, The Talking Heads, King Sunny Ade & His African Beat, The Fixx, Peter Tosh, James Brown

I hate myself

Edited January 8, 2007 by Guest
oakville

[phishtaper]

the 1981 show was actually in Oakville, not Toronto. at the 1982 show, the Talking Heads were a last minute addition (not on any posters) and were arguably better than the Police. Joan Jett got pelted with fruit and they stopped the show.

that was back in the day when they let you bring a cooler full of beer (and grapefruits) into the stadium.

[paisley]

yeah, catching the Talking Heads would've changed my life for the much better... people I knew talked me out of going... [color:purple]oddly enough, I don't still keep in touch with them

everyone seemed so angry at nothing easily definable back in those days (see Sting's quote above about James Brown and the grapefruit)... myself included to a degree... thank god for the drugs

[phishtaper]

that show was my introduction to the Talking Heads. i'd never paid much attention to them prior to that, other than they did that funky "peanut butter" song (Life During Wartime). always made sure to catch them every time afterwards. hugely influential band.

i was a MAJOR Police fan, and Demolition Man and Spirits in the Material World were highlights for me. love those songs - anything from Ghost in the Machine - best Police album, imo.

[paisley]

saw a recent performance of Joan Jett with her band on tv a few weeks ago and it was actually pretty good... kinda looks like she's been reading assassin manuals and working out for the past 25 years in preperation for the next knob who makes the mistake of lobbing any fruit her direction

Joe Jackson sadly got boo-ed off every stage he got on during that period as well... those were bad times for creative, talented, well dressed bald dudes... beginnings of the "if you don't have great hair why am I looking at you?" era