A Final Comment on the Police Concert and Stewart Copeland

Lynne Kiesling

Seeing the Police at Wrigley Field last week has reinvigorated my too-long dormant fascination with Stewart Copeland. And I’m not alone; Sun-Times music critic Jim DeRogatis turns out to be the same age as I am, and to have had similar behavior when attending Police concerts the first time around:

I first saw bassist-vocalist Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland perform at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 1980. I was 15, an aspiring drummer and such a geek that I intentionally bought tickets behind the stage so I could try to figure out what Copeland was doing; his uniquely syncopated, reggae-inflected hi-hat patterns, complicated fills and polyrhythmic beats remain some of the most innovative in rock history, as any of my fellow drum geeks will tell you.

Well … living in Columbus, Ohio (a town lacking even a decent radio station), I had to wait until 1983 to see them live, and I had to drive all over the Midwest to do so. In Indianapolis we had seats behind the stage so I could watch Stewart.

John at Ascent Stage got the picture I wanted at Thursday’s show.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled economics commentary … but perhaps with a little better rhythm.