I haven't posted here in a long time as I take it for granted that many of you are also on other boards such as AUI.
Someone here asked something about joining another Police blog or group. For those on myspace.com, I moderate a Police group. You can join us there at this address:  http://groups.myspace.com/fansofthepolice
 
I also wanted to share my experience as one of the lucky ones who got to see Andy at his reading and book signing in Toronto at Chapters last Friday night.

I should start the story by saying my buddy Jock met Andy outside of the CFRB radio station in the morning and got to have a nice chat and pics with Andy before he went in for his interview. Jock handed Andy 2 bootleg shows (My Father's Place & 2nd Police Picnic in Toronto) and Andy mentioned he would definitely listen to them. Something he echoed later at the bookstore Q&A but I'm getting ahead of myself...

As super keeners, a bunch of us Toronto fans got there early and were first in line before Chapters staff even set anything up. The staff were quite disorganized in the set-up as they didn't even bother to put out any seats for the fans. Staff pleaded ignorance all along as they kept saying that nobody told them anything as to how it was gonna go. The craziest part was they put Sting's CD on in the background. We told them to change it to Andy's Earth & Sky which we knew they were selling downstairs. Good thing they obliged as it made Andy's mood a bit better I think. Eventually a line up formed behind us and we all introduced ourselves. Even at about a half hour before Andy's arrival, there wasn't much of a crowd. I put it down to Toronto being a last minute addition and not many knowing about it. All told I'd say there was maybe 50 people altogether.

While we were in line we got post-it notes to put our names on for Andy. Christine and I came loaded up with memorabilia of course including the Everyone Stares dvd, my Hall of Fame Photo with the man, old Police Files, etc.

When Andy arrived he read at least half a dozen passages including the one about recording EBYT that he told us he hadn't read yet before on the tour. Woohoo - virgin reading!! After he was done he said, "Well, normally this is the part where we all have sex." Typical Andy humour!!

What happened next was the Q&A session. I asked Andy about releasing the Police Around the World on dvd and he confirmed it would be out in 2007 with lots of extra bits! He also confirmed the meeting he and Stewart are having with A&M to discuss what else could be released. I get the feeling Andy doesn't know about all that amazing quality live stuff that is out there so I'm hoping Jock's live cds will open him up to the potential.

So then came the autographs and picture taking. I took a ton of photos - some of which will soon be up the myspace page.

When it was my turn to go up I talked to Andy about our mutual experience at the HOF gig and that Bring On the Night was my favorite Police tune. I asked him if the song was really about Gary Gilmore. Andy said, "You know I'm not sure, Sting never told me what it was about! That's interesting, it would make a lot of sense." We also talked briefly about his new photography book coming out in March 2007 which he has promised will have lots of Police pics.

Andy was really great and gave everybody lots of time to chat with him and he signed a ton of stuff for all. Another great Police moment for us Toronto fans!!! Started in on the book on the weekend and can't put it down! Hope more of you will share your experiences if you're lucky enough to catch him this time around. We begged him to come back with his guitar next time!