Police 79-80 vs. Police 07-08

[jerseyfan]

Which Police is better? Is it the reunion tour Police? Is it the Police from 79-80?

The reunion tour was great. But I say that the old Police is much better. The X-Factor is that back then Stewart was being Stewart. There was no slow-it-down ghost-of-John Dowland BS from Sting. Watch the show below. Stewart is f-ing awesome. His work on Beds Too Big, for example, is so good it's ridiculous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK10VVxtrOw

All those old shows on YouTube are incredible. Whether is the Beat Club, Hatfield, Essen and, of course, Frejus. They're playing hard and fast.

They also seemed to improvise and break loose a lot more.

If they had followed up the reunion with a new album and tour they would have been so tight and ready, I think we may have seen the old Police.

One can dream.

[TheEqualizer]

My vote is for the 79-80 Police by a country mile. My basis is mainly due to the fact that Sting could still sing in 79-80. To me, I think I liked Tourzilla Andy as much as I liked Andy circa 79-80. And regarding STEWART, he was certainly different in 07-08 than in 79-80, but I don't think you can say he was worse. Just different. AWESOME in different ways. So it come down to Sting. And not just his singing. I think he's responsible for the Sting-y arrangements of some of the songs. For example, the changes to Bed's Too Big WIthout You have to have been the result of Sting asserting his Stingness in ways he would have not gotten away with in 79-80. And don't get me started on Don't Stand So Close to Me. Went from one of me favorite songs to a song perfect for a restroom break or to get a beer.

[TheEqualizer]

Sometimes the Police were at their best when they were too fast. And at no point during Tourzilla were they EVER going too fast.

[jerseyfan]

Equalizer, the best Message is from the reunion tour, in my opinion. It was on fire. It was fast.

And Andy's longer solos were kick-ass. We'd never seen that before.

Sting's bass playing was more intricate.

I mention SC because in all those old concerts he was on fire. He was a human heat-seeking missle of percussion and creativity. He played hard and fast.

SC was very good in the reunion tour. I loved seeing him play. But, as I said, Stewart was not being Stewart.

It's as if you have a great home run hitter on your team and you ask him to bunt. You don't ask the Bambino to bunt. (For you non-baseball fans, that was a reference to Babe Ruth.)

[njperry]

The energy of the early days is absent from Tourzilla which makes the shows pre-1982 much better. Listen to the first disc of the Police Live from Boston, which is much better than either disc 2 from Synchronicity or Certifiable.

The earlier shows are such that I enjoy songs I don't even really like, such Truth Hits and Born in the Fifties

[drummike]

While the reunion band was great, and it was a dream come true to see them play together again, they weren't really the same band. Each member had moved on to new things, their lives had changed, they had each grown separately from the others. Still yet, this reunion band had a lot going for it and I think they mostly played very well together. I liked some of the new arrangements, but some tunes felt like they were missing a lot of the energy of the 80s band. Still, I am fine with that.

The 70s-80s band, however, was phenomenal. Each new album raised the band to new heights, with new and fascinating songs, and then they would tour and raise the songs to a new level. They played with incredible energy and skill, and made every other band seem old fashioned. Even Rush admired them and copied some of their licks. They conquered the world, made us all fall in love with The Police, and much too quickly went away from us.

As much as I have loved other bands over the years, like REM and The Church and U2 and Over The Rhine and Elvis Costello and Midnight Oil, The Police will always be at the top for me.

[roddswett]

Police 07-08 Reunion: simply because "there is no reason why they shouldn't be 25 years better"

[giovanni]

I can also say that the atmosphere around the band was different, and that's absolutely an important issue; they were hungry, the music scene was totally different, the vibe in the streets was different in the late Seventies and early Eighties. And of course, like them, we were all way much younger, our 'vision' of the music was slightly different.
All these issues must be considered in comparing the two moments.
But one thing's for sure: the band felt like there was no 'hole' in the middle; they catapulted themselves into 'The Police' again, saying things like "sometimes I feel like it's simply the following tour of the Synchronicity Tour, like it ended last year", or things like "It seems that 23 years haven't passed, we're just connected to those times again".

[roddswett]

I must add that is a common mistake to believe that fast drummers are better drummers. This is simply not true. In fact, timing is much harder to keep when you are playing slow that when you are playing fast, it leaves no camouflage for mistakes or lack of creativity and technique. Besides, drumming is not an Olympic sport. Stewart is WAY a better drummer now than he was before. I had the opportunity to listen 2 of my 3 favorite drummers by a difference of 5 days, and I can tell you Stewart was way ahead of Neil Peart. Copeland was smart, full of ideas and subtleties, filling the space and painting both details and big groove as oppose to Neil that was -to my dissolution- extremely robotic and "drummer conservative”, taking no risks at all, giving the sense to be over rehearsed.
That, together with Sting's both vocal and bass maturity and Andy's improvement I can say I really prefer the 07-08 incarnation rather than the sloppy juvenile -yet great- band of the early 80's.

[zilboy]

Goodness, folks - it's just two different versions of the same band. No better, no worse, just different. That said, I did feel that Stewart had a better awareness of how important it is to keep everything more under control while still being Stewart (and adding a few neat new tricks). Andy, for his part, added even more richness and depth than he did all those years ago, although I really disagreed with the way he shifted the bar line on the guitar part of "Magic", but that probably wasn't his decision! And I was actually pleasantly surprised that Sting could still hit some of those notes in the original key!

People grow and mature. New things take the place of old. To expect them to act like twenty-somethings in their fifties/sixties is unrealistic. Love them for who they've become even as we remember who they were back then.

And by the way, I never liked "Don't Stand So Close" to begin with, so no big loss for me!

[dontboxmein]

I must add that is a common mistake to believe that fast drummers are better drummers. This is simply not true. In fact, timing is much harder to keep when you are playing slow that when you are playing fast, it leaves no camouflage for mistakes or lack of creativity and technique. Besides, drumming is not an Olympic sport. Stewart is WAY a better drummer now than he was before. I had the opportunity to listen 2 of my 3 favorite drummers by a difference of 5 days, and I can tell you Stewart was way ahead of Neil Peart. Copeland was smart, full of ideas and subtleties, filling the space and painting both details and big groove as oppose to Neil that was -to my dissolution- extremely robotic and "drummer conservative”, taking no risks at all, giving the sense to be over rehearsed.
That, together with Sting's both vocal and bass maturity and Andy's improvement I can say I really prefer the 07-08 incarnation rather than the sloppy juvenile -yet great- band of the early 80's.

79-80's by a land slide ...however I do agree that faster drummers are not always better drummers. But if you think Stewart is a better drummer than back in the day I have to completely disagree...a better composer absolutely, but a better drummer really???

His poly rhythmic style has taken a back seat to more conventional drumming...I don't hear syncopations like Tea In The Sahara, Death Wish, Spirits, Serengeti Long Walk, Driven To Tears, Murder By Numbers, Spy In The House of Love...no comparison.

I love Stewart and his playing made me the drummer I am today ...but the old style Stewart really no comparison.

[jerseyfan]

Have you guys read "broken music," Sting's book?

You may find this book excerpt interesting, especially in the context of this thread.

Below is how Sting describes the first time he and Stewart played together. This happened after an unemployed Sting drove to Stewart's Green Street neighboorhood in Mayfair and cold-called Stewart from a pay phone. Before this, they had only met once briefly when Stewart was in Newcastle the previous month playing with Curved Air.

Stewart saw Sting playing with Last Exit, was impressed with Sting and give him his phone number.

When Sting arrived they almost immediately start playing. "Grab that bass over there, let's play," said Stewart.

Here's the excerpt from Sting's book:

He starts at a blistering pace, so I just settle myself behind the engine and wonder where this ride will take me. Off we go, riffing and pumping with his machine gun intensity, the bass weaving like a python through a jungle of thythm and splashing cymbals.

Even at this very early moment of our relationship, it is clear that there is something going on, some chemistry, some understanding, some recognition, a rapport and a tension between the amphetamine pulse of his kick drum and the shifting, rolling ground of the bass. It is like two dancers finding a sudden and unexpected harmony in the middle of their steps, or the sexual rhythms of natural lovers, or the synchronized strokes of a rowing team in the flow of a fast river. Such rapport is not common, and I realize very quickly that this guy is the most exciting drummer I’ve ever worked with, almost too exciting. I also realize that tempos will be abandoned as easily as loose baggage on that runaway train, and whatever music I shall manage to make with this whirlwind, it will not be gentle or easy, it will be a wild ride to hell and back.