My Police loving friends... I'm sorry it's taken me so long to find the time to sit down and tell my little story. I was sitting at home a few weeks ago, feeling sorry for myself because I didn't have tickets (I had already blown the budget this year) for either of the two November Police shows in Toronto, and I'd heard our friend Bruce win his front row seats...congrats again to you and Jock and Chris for nailing that one... when one of my longtime friends finally came through with an offer I couldn't refuse. My friend works for a promoter here in Canada and often is able to get me tickets or bring me in to see shows with a pass, and as you can imagine I've been bugging him since February to get me into one of the Police shows. Turns out he was able to do if for the Friday night show in Toronto. So I show up, collect my lovely backstage pass, and head into the bowels of the ACC arena to see my friend and figure out what kind of "meet the lads" opportunity I might have. Well it turns out, to no ones surprise I'm sure, that the Police are running a very tight production. And while it may not be a sizable show ala the Rolling Stones and Gensis, it is a large touring production, being run very, very professionally, with the best of the best in the touring world participating. Okay, so let me tell some stories and you can sort of judge them for yourselves. The boys each have their own dressing room, Sting's is usually the largest, but all are nicely done up, with lots of drapes, candles, ligthing and furniture ,etc. for ambiance. They certainly aren't roughing it in a old sports locker room... There are three or four large wardrobe road cases for each of them, They've got the usual catering facility for crew and staff to eat in... I saw Danny finishing up and said hello to him as he was leaving... I'm sure we fans are just another face in the crowd of hundreds they see every day, so for those of you that they appear to recognize, consider yourself lucky! Now for these two shows they had a separate band dining room for the boys. There's also a room set up as a gym... the gym equipment travels with them, don't know what they have, but they've got it all in order to keep them happy, well fed, and in shape for lots of shows. I did get the chance to go out to the front row, dead centre and say hello to Bruce and his wife... great seats mate! And then I moved backstage to wait for the show. I don't know if they did any meet and greets before the show, I assume they did with contest winners, etc., but they had few, again very controlled, ones after. A very small group of people were given access to them after the show. Unfortunately I didn't get closer than 5 feet from them and at the time it just wasn't possible to do more than nod and smile at them... I was able to stand backstage in the "tunnel" prior to them going onstage. It's quite the process. Stewart arrives first, being escorted from his dressing room by someone I didn't recognize (definetely not Jeff S). He's wearing a jacket and is talking quietly, shaking his arms and legs a bit to get the blood going while he waits for the others to arrive. Billy Francis escorts Sting from his room down to this area, Danny hands him his bass and he puts it on and starts talking to Stewart and the other fellow. My friend mentions to me to watch this interaction and watch the clock... "watch what happens if Andy doesn't show up within two minutes" was what I was told. Suppossedly a few people gets a bit anxious if they are not exactly on time and Andy has been left behind at a few arenas after the show when he spends too much time after a show talking to guests... Anyway, he shows up within a minute being escorted by someone else I don't recognize, but he's got the camera out and is taking pictures of this group of 6 standing backstage. The production security chief watches all of this and is watching for anyone that doesn't belong and making sure any other crew peopel or arena staff etc. move along the corridor away from this area... if you don't belong there, you don't get to be there. The only reason I got to see this is because my friend had spoken to him and explained that I was a big fan and that he would stand beside me agains the wall the whole time. So no cameras for this part, and no talking to them. As I'm watching "Get Up, Stand Up" comes on the PA and the "handlers" move away. The band starts to separate and get ready for the show. They all put their in-ear monitors in place and the talking is over. Andy is strumming chords and flexing his hands, Sting has his back to me but you can see he's doing scales... and Stew is off by himself doing jumping jacks and moving around trying to warm up. The Security guy talks into his headset and then the ligths are killed and out come the flashlights and they are escorted onto the stage. A very cool, kinda private moment. At this point I race around to Andy's side of the stage to catch the beginning of Message. While I've worked on many shows in the past and know how to blend into the sidelines, staying out of the way and being subtle... I just couldn't do it for this show. This was me standing side stage and backstage at a Police concert... I barely let my camera out of my hand and couldn't help but grinning all evening. As for the show, I think others have told you as much or more than I can... I just thought I'd share my little story with you. I would have loved to have met them, but it just wasn't possible, even with a pretty good connection. As it was, some security guy was getting all annoyed with me standing around taking pictures (like I said earlier, I'd met the head cheese so I was fine, but they get kinda antsy with people side stage with cameras). Now the rumours floating around the offices and staff are that there will be another leg of the tour in the summer around the time of those make up shows planned for June. So if you can imagine, they finish the tour in March, take some months off, and the play the cancelled European and UK dates in June, and play some other shows around North America - sounds to me like a summer tour of outdoor amphitheatres, which would be very cool. Can you imagine the Police at the Gorge? By the same token however, I have to say that the third Police show in Toronto was a sell out as attested to by Bruce et. al., but the Friday show had only sold about 10,000 tickets as of the Monday. So... they closed off the third level, draped it off actually, to make the place seem smaller, and everyone with tickets for the gods was upgraded to lower level seating, which again is sounded like some of the people on this list benefitted from! Good for you by the way! Personally, I think they've saturated this market, but I think they could sell a Molson Amphitheatre show or two in the summer, and I'm sure they could do that all over the US too. I heard a few snide remarks about Sting doing this because Andy and Stewart needed the money or that he was just doing it for them, but from everything I saw and was told by people on the tour, they are definitely getting along as adults and musicians. Yes, they do disagree, but no punch ups. They do have separate dressing rooms, but they also eat dinner together, ride in the same vans and buses, and planes, and generally are not avoiding each other like a couple of bands I know who hate each other and are only in it for the money. So there you go, that's my happy little Police adventure. I'd love to hear new music from them, but I really don't expect it. For your viewing enjoyment I've posted a few pictures and will get the rest up on photbucket as soon as possible. I've posted three so far... http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s125/policetour/ A shot of the band with the crowd lit up during Synchronicity II and then various arrows you find backstage pointing you to catering, they gym, Stings dressing room, Andy's, Stewarts, Kathy Schenker Music office, Live Nation Office... just nuts the amount of traffic and the amount of gear they were hauling around. That being said, it's a very cool process seeing the lights and stage getting put up and taken down, so much better than the cosmic tetris clip on the website. Best wishes to you all as the holiday season approaches. David