Colin Goh and Woo Yen Yen

So as a birthday gift, Yen blanja’d me tickets for the Police reunion tour - which our music maven buddy George had somehow managed to find. It was at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, the last stop of their US leg. So Yen, George, Eddie and I went. (I guess we Singaporeans like the Police, since we come from a, ahem, police state.)

(Pardon the poorly-taken photos. They were shot with my cellphone. The stadium didn’t allow any real cameras in…)

The audience was mainly older folks like us - people who were in our adolescence or young adulthood when the Police disbanded in 1984. The Police are one of my favourite bands of all time (I have all their albums - Outlandos D’Amour, Regatta de Blanc, Zenyatta Mondatta, Ghost in the Machine, Synchronicity…), and after reading accounts of their acrimonious split, I really thought a reunion was impossible. I guess they all needed some extra cash! I mean, if Sting is willing to do car commercial jingles… But who cares? I’ve been waiting 23 years for this!

I found the performance everything I thought it would be. Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers have definitely become more mature musicians over the years. The set didn’t have the raw, punk-ish energy that maybe their ‘Live’ in Boston album showed, but it was more sophisticated, which was to be expected, and you know, I liked it just as much. I’m not one of those who expect artistes to be preserved in amber just so I can wax nostalgic about my yoof.
Standouts for me were ‘Wrapped Around Your Finger’ (with Copeland trying all sorts of new rhythms), ‘Walking In Your Footsteps’, ‘Roxanne’ and ‘So Lonely’. Anyway, here’s the full set list… programme it in your iPod and share the experience!

1. Message in a Bottle
2. Synchronicity I
3. Walking On the Moon
4. Voices Inside My Head/When the World is Running Down
5. Don’t Stand So Close to Me
6. Driven to Tears
7. Truth Hits Everybody
8. Bed’s Too Big Without You
9. Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
10. Wrapped Around Your Finger
11. De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
12. Invisible Sun
13. Walking In Your Footsteps
14. I Can’t Stand Losing You
15. Roxanne
16. King of Pain
17. So Lonely
18. Every Breath You Take
19. Encore: Next To You

But as you’ll read in my new column, somehow the whole thing made me feel old.

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