Do you think this forum counted ?

[Philip]

As it kept alive the 'Police Community', not only until the announcement, but for several years. And, as SC is still checking it occasionally. I think what we wrote had some influence on what is happening. And you ?

[Dietmar]

didn't count at all
was obviously Sting's spontaneous idea

[Philip]

Dietmar you mean the "i get upone morning..." storry is tru ? come on.

[New Zealand Promoter]

no, really, phillip - the band got together for a few meetings over the last year or so, to check the forums at this website. the reunion had nothing to do with the fact that sting, despite his repeated and consistent explanations concerning the reunion, decided to go with his gut instinct and get a reunion happening. tabloid lies! it was the forums! i mean, this really is the most logical and likely explanation.

we all know how closely sting follows these forums, websites, discussions etc over the internet. he's a net 'nerd', and i'm surprised that sting didn't set up his own forums to canvas public opinion more deeply before using it as leverage to convince stewart and andy to come on board.

[Mary]

Dietmar you mean the "i get upone morning..." storry is tru ? come on.[quote]

Tell me more about that! I remember Stewart interview where he said that Sting had a problem with Police days...

I send a message for Sting stuff about a reunion and their answer was at 12th October : "I don't think that will be happening, but you can always keep up with Sting's
whereabouts on the TICKETS and NEWS pages.
[/quote]

So we all have a quote on this Police Tour 2007!

[Philip]

Sorry Dietmar, but you say this forum didn’t count at all. I say even you, Herr Dietmar count. I was really surprised when Henry and Stewart mentioned on an interview on national radio last year: “there is this German guy called Dietmar”.

[sockii]

I don't think you can point out one forum or another (or even all of them) as a determining factor. No number of chatting, eager fans was ever gonna drag Sting back to the Police until he was darn well ready and eager to do it on his own, for whatever his reasons and thinking may be.

Of course, the fact that the fans have been wanting a reunion for so long had to be encouraging in at least knowing that a tour was likely to be a successful endeavor. But that's been the situation long before this board even ever came about...this tour was only going to happen when the band was ready to do it, not because the fans wanted it.

[DirtyMartini]

tj7 = hilarious.

[Mister Gradenko]

I am happy to take all the credit.

[Philip]

hahaha, i just read your answers. (it’s difficult to follow a thread because the order of appearance changes every other minute!!). So you think the age of Internet has nothing to do with Stewart’s will to do his movie and to redo the police? I’m not sure the world is as big and as complicated as you think. What site can one surf on when one is a rock star ? hahaha ?

any way. There is no possibility to discuss this here, because, it seams to me more and more (perhaps I do the same) that everyone is just writing…. What he wants to read. It’s a multiple monologue more than a dialogue.

So read this: “Stewart is pretty”, “the police is the best rock band ever”. Discussion is over.

[Mrs. Gradenko]

Maybe not allot (since Sting was the only one still saying no... for a while). But it let Stewart know that it was still a good idea, that we all wanted it.

[quote]Dietmar you mean the "i get upone morning..." storry is tru ? come on.[/quote]
Nah. Sting was probably like, "Fine fine, we can probably make another fortune off this.... but I'll only do it if you tell everyone it was my idea."

[DirtyMartini]

[quote="Philip"]So you think the age of Internet has nothing to do with Stewart’s will to do his movie and to redo the police? I’m not sure the world is as big and as complicated as you think.[/quote]

I disagree -- I think the world is much bigger and more complicted than you think.

Stewart's will to reform The Police has never been in question: he's been vocal for decades about wanting to reform. (Even when he finally years later accepted and admitted that it would never happen, he never said that he wouldn't *want* it to.) Sting has been the wild card.

I totally agree that "I woke up one morning" is an apocryphal story -- but it's a shorthand that Sting wants to stick to for his own privacy and that's his prerogative. And yes, I'd say forums, fansites, et. al. have shown that interest in The Police has been kept alive and have been good evidence that a reunion would be succesful.

But did forums -- or more particularly from your OP, this one forum -- "count" in the band's (and more accurately Sting's) decision to tour? Let's put it this way: would YOU give up a year of your life -- bust your ass, miss your family, travel constantly, all the while being forced to reevaluate the last 30 years of your existance and how you have handled them -- because a few nameless, faceless people on the internet (who represent a small percentage of the populus at large) wanted you to?

Sockii put it perfectly: "No number of chatting, eager fans was ever gonna drag Sting back to the Police until he was darn well ready and eager to do it on his own, for whatever his reasons and thinking may be."

[georgygirl]

I dunno...



But I think any band before it reunite again for a world tour, has to make a research about how many possible fans will attend to the the gigs.

Just imagine there are just a very few fans to go...Well, maybe the band will not reunite again.

I am more with Philip than with Dietmar, that they can start a research trough internet forums to count how popular they still are, but of course is not the only data they need...

[GinaSuperCat]

Before the Grammy performance was announced there were less than 700 registered here, and I would think that will definitely let you know the opinion of some Stewart fans particularly (or at least the ones who are registered and vocal, that is), but in order to sell out shows on a tour of this caliber it would take a cross section of a different sort to figure...a calcualtion that really, no matter how much information you have, will be really really difficult to predict in advance...this is why the dates have been released in the manner they were, to test the *general* demand and not self-saturate demand...we can know a lot know in hindsight but before the release of the big news, it was a different thing...the results of which seemed to even surprise Stewart and Andy (from what I gather from their own reactions in interviews since then)...

I do think that the forum has its own influence in other ways, though, even if the larger claims would remain unquantifiable...for example when Stewart replied in the poll that appeared here after the rehearsal announcement (the question about samples, the three of them, or do wop babes)...I think that the opinions here likely had at least some influence on it being the three of them...even though Sting had already announced it would just be the three of them on stage (but that option could technically include the use of samples or Andy and Stewart singing backup)...but seeing Stewart was taking singing lessons before heading to Italia, well, it seems that it will be the three of them with Stewart and Andy singing backup...something that's much more taxing than tracking the samples over and from Stewart's own comments not his fave choice but definitely the overall voice of the 'fans'...so I would have to say yes it did in some ways, as non-proveable of a claim as that is

[DirtyMartini]

[quote="GinaSuperCat"]I do think that the forum has its own influence in other ways, though [/quote]

Agreed, at least as far as SC is concerned. As the evidence shows, even if The Man may not follow the advice/wishes/dreams of his people, he listens to his people.