The Synchronicity Concert

[cgarges]

So, I guess the Police concert from Atlanta came out on DVD recently. I have been intimately familiar with this show for years. I actually turned down a chance to go to this show (like a moron) and about a year or two after the tour, I bought a bootleg of this entire show (with a few tunes from some other shows) at a record convention. I also got it on VHS when it came out and bought the CD when they finally released it a while back. It's always been one of the best live Police recordings I've heard.

Now, I'm a HUGE Police fan, but it still never ceases to amaze me how on top of their game these guys were. This show was recorded at the height of their careers. They were the biggest band in the world at the time (breaking almost all the attendence records at venues where they played multiple nights) and this show proves that they came from an era where if your records sounded good, you were probably a good live band. It's amazing to me how no matter how fast they played the songs (and Stewart was a pillar of adrenaline), they could always hang with the sequenced material. And no in-ears, mind you.

They played tight and for the most part, pretty freaking in-tune.

It's also a nice touch seeing some of the footage from tunes I had on my bootleg that weren't on the original video. I always wondered what the hell was going on at the end of "Tea In The Sahara" and finally learned that it was Sting playing a fucking oboe. There's also a couple of clips of the front-of-house guys and the lighting guy, which once again made me think about running a show like that without lighting automation. Kudos.

On top of all that, the recording sounds excellent. I'm astounded by the number of mics on that drumkit and the fact that it all sounds incredibly cohesive. Eddie Offord was credited as the recording engineer, which I hadn't ever noticed before. Nice touch. I always thought he was a very under-rated engineer. Peter Smith mixed it at Utopia in London.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[JGriffin]

I'll have to check that out.

[tonewoods]

This is another one I'd like to see...

I've had the audio CD of it for years, and the band just smokes.

I've heard there's bootleg versions of this floating around, and that they are going to release it one of these days, but check out the note at Amazon:

"This title will be released on January 1, 2010"

Weird, no?

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

I've been wanting that for awhile, even made it to the checkout line before I put it back promising myself no impulse buys for DVDs or CDs. I had it in my mitts at Wal Mart where this took place! It was cheap there Like 13 dollars cheap! My evening is now planned.

[mwingerski]

The Synchronicity show at the Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina was the first concert I ever saw in my life. They were the first band that made me want to play music and it's amazing how well the stuff they were doing stands the test of time.

Too bad Sting got so damned "lite rock" in later years... although Dream of the Blue Turtles and Nothing Like the Sun had a damn good band of players...

I'll have to pick that DVD up...

[Roman Sokal]

Eddie Offord was credited as the recording engineer, which I hadn't ever noticed before. Nice touch. I always thought he was a very under-rated engineer.

Absolutely!
he was incredibly skilled in fact. i still love the recording and original mix (errr... in lieu of all these 5.1/2.0 remix/reissues!) of Yes' 'Fragile'. on vinyl, even better...the most cleanest and otherwordly sounding mix ever.
also on par is his work on ELP's 'Tarkus' ("Lucky Man" sounds bloody fantastic, the warm soaring hi fi synths sound great even in the initial cold CD version of it); as well, said band's 'Brain Salad Surgery' and ditto for the track "Still...You Turn Me On" (well no keys on this tune but the wah and bass combo is nice). Offord's recordings and mixes always had amazing strong power to them- a very nice oomph...dynamic yet loud...something people should use as a reference these days instead of the old tiresome and ear shredding digital brick-wall limiting.

so all in all...offord- very under-rated. correction- vastly under-rated!!!

ok- all this talk about ELP/Yes and seeing the tony levin band last night has got me progged-out!


r

[Roman Sokal]

This is another one I'd like to see...

I've had the audio CD of it for years, and the band just smokes.

I've heard there's bootleg versions of this floating around, and that they are going to release it one of these days, but check out the note at Amazon:

"This title will be released on January 1, 2010"

Weird, no?

weird indeed. well at least they certainly have enough time to completely change that terrible front cover artwork!!!!!

[NewAndImprov]

I recently rewatched "Stop Making Sense", and was struck much the same way Chris was by the Police show, a great band at the top of their game, innovative staging that still looks cool 20 years later, and all done before computers, back when you actually had to have skills. Will have to check out the Police DVD, I actually saw that tour. Yes, I'm old...

[cgarges]

I'm hoping they'll put that History Of The Police Live out on DVD sometime soon, too. That's a great one, complete with fight scenes.

mwingerski, it's a shame you saw them at the Greensboro Coliseum. That venue was actually worse than the old Charlotte Coliseum, which sounded like absolute shyte. Still, I'm jealous. I missed the Charlotte show, too.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[mwingerski]

well, when you're in 6ht grade and you think stewart copeland is the coolest thing since Star wars, you tend to not remember things like "acoustics" and "how the band actually sounds"... But you're right, that room was a piece of ass...

[Scodiddly]

Yeah, well, Stewart Copeland *is* the coolest thing since Star Wars.

I never actually saw the Police live, despite being a big fan back in high school. It's fun now to listen to the old records, though - Copeland really was the spark behind that band, though Sting wasn't any slouch when it came to fronting and songwriting.

[vvv]

I saw that tour in Champaign, IL; I'm pretty sure that the Trick opened. And maybe Joan Jett?

I know I was really high, but it was a great show.

[0xeneye]

I saw The Police in 79 in Boston and the Synchronicity tour also in Lexington,KY. Yep, Joan Jett opened there too.

I was amazed at 1.) how much they must have hated each other (the stage was like 200 feet wide and they stayed as far apart as possible, never even glancing at each other), and 2.) I remember think Copeland must have been really coked up, 'cause he never stopped playing, even between songs, they just pulled the faders down.

I hated Synch and Ghost, still do, but their first three albums rocked, and all of them are very good musicians, with great style and a signature sound. I have to admit also that their independent solo paths failed completely in my opinion without Sting....and the Police couldn't write a song (Be My Girl???) to save their lives without him.

[Dan Fitzpatrick]

i saw the Ghost tour in sacramento in about 1982(?) ... weirdly, Santana was the opening act. i was about 15 i guess. one of the first concerts i went to without adult supervision.

i remember my dad telling me, "if someone offers you pot, you have to say no."

aw man!

i remember how right in the middle of a song, Sting yelled "put down the f**king stick a**hole" at a stage securtiy guard who had gotten a little out of hand ... and kept on singing the song without missing another beat.

and sting had one of those cool little black basses that had hardly any body and no tuning pegs.

[supertzar]

I went to the Synchronicity tour in Detroit when I was eleven years old. It was really good. That's about all I can say. This guy asked if I wanted to get on his shoulders so I could see, but I was too shy to do that.

I have a bootleg called "Vinyl Villains" from some Polytechnic Institute in the U.K. from the early eighties that is way cool. Everything those guys did was tasteful and superbly musical.