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The Police Reunion Tour

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The Police Reunion Tour
Tour by The Police
Start date28 May 2007
End date7 August 2008
No. of shows
  • 5 in Asia
  • 39 in Europe
  • 94 in North America
  • 9 in Oceania
  • 4 in South America
  • 151 total
Box officeUS$362 million
The Police concert chronology

The Reunion Tour was a 2007–2008 worldwide concert tour by The Police, marking the 30th anniversary of their beginnings. At its conclusion, the tour became the third (now seventh) highest grossing tour of all time, with revenues reaching over $360 million. The tour began in May 2007 to overwhelmingly positive reviews from fans and critics alike and ended in August 2008 with a final show at Madison Square Garden.[1]

History

On 24 January 2007, Rock101, a radio station in Vancouver, British Columbia, reported that the trio was coming together again and had in fact begun tour rehearsals in Vancouver.[2] There were numerous sightings of the group and their entourage in the Vancouver area as expectation built of such a tour.[3]

The reunited Police performed at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards on 11 February 2007 in Los Angeles. On 12 February, The Police held rehearsals and a press conference for the media at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, where they confirmed that they would be undertaking the world tour starting in Vancouver in May.[4] It was also announced that the opening act for the North American and European legs of the tour would be Fiction Plane, a pop-rock band from England featuring lead singer and bass guitarist Joe Sumner, the son of Sting. In Philadelphia, Scottish rock band The Fratellis also joined Fiction Plane as an opening act. In addition, Maroon 5 joined the bill in Miami and Maxïmo Park joined The Police and Fiction Plane on the Twickenham dates, London.

Since concert tickets went up for sale worldwide, some concert dates were sold out in just minutes. Tickets for the entire British tour, the band's first in 24 years, sold out within 30 minutes.[5] Worldwide, they have sold about 1.5m tickets with revenues reaching $168m.[6]

The Police and Best Buy released a collector's set on 7 October 2008 entitled Certifiable: Live in Buenos Aires, which includes an entire concert recorded live in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the tour. The set came in the following packages: 2DVD/2CD, 1 Blu-ray Disc/2CD, and 3 premium 180-gram vinyl LPs with MP3 file key. The set also included bonus footage, including a documentary shot by Copeland's son Jordan entitled Better Than Therapy.[7][8]

The tour is a finalist for the Billboard 2008 Touring Awards for Top Tour and Top Draw.[9] The 2008 portions came in fourth in Billboard's grosses rankings for that year.[10]

Since the dissolution of the Police, Sting adamantly refused to reunite with Copeland or Summers for any prolonged period, often commenting "If I ever reform the Police I should be certified insane." However, by 2007, he had a change of heart. When asked what prompted the reunion, Sting said "I'd just done the lute album — Songs from the Labyrinth. I was thinking: 'Well what do I do? What's going to surprise people?' I just had this instinct, this desire to call the guys up and say: 'Let's give this a go.'" Sting added that he saw the reunion as "a kind of healing. I think solving problems is an exercise worth doing".[11]

The show

The first show was a preview concert held in Vancouver for 4000 members of The Police Fanclub on 27 May 2007, though the first official show of the tour was on 28 May 2007 in front of 22,000 fans at one of two nearly sold-out shows. Opening with "Message in a Bottle", the band performed for roughly two hours, playing mostly chart hits with a smattering of other favourites popular among fans of The Police. While the Vancouver concerts received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics,[12][13] drummer Stewart Copeland in a forum posting (on his official site) called the band's 30 May performance "lame" and took humorous pokes at himself and his bandmates, calling one of Sting's song-ending leaps that of a "petulant pansy instead of the god of rock", joking that the band botched the key changes so thoroughly they ended up playing "avant-garde twelve-tone hodgepodges" of "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" and "Don't Stand So Close to Me", suggesting guitarist Andy Summers was "in Idaho" when he and Sting ended up half a bar out of sync with Copeland's drumming, and claiming he "made a hash" out of a fill in "Walking in Your Footsteps" by playing it in the wrong part of the song. In spite of these glitches, however, he said he was enjoying himself and after the set he and his bandmates fell into each other's arms backstage, laughing.[14]

Stage design

The Police performing "Roxanne" on 28 May 2007 at GM Place, Vancouver

The stage setup for The Police was a simple split-level oval design, ringed with blue lights. Above the stage were seven LED screens—three in the front of the stage, one on each side and two in the rear. The setup was not used during the show in The Woodlands on 20 May 2008 due to the smaller stage at the venue. In Marseille, France on 3 June 2008, the screens were used but not the split-level oval stage setup.

The placement of the band members echoed that of previous tours, with Sting and his bass equipment located stage-right, with Andy Summers and his guitar pedals and amps on stage-left. Stewart Copeland was located in the center rear, seated behind his drum kit. Behind him on a platform that could be raised and lowered, was a percussion setup consisting of various timpanis, hanging rotosounds, tuned percussion kits, and digital xylophone centered by a 60" gong used on various songs.[15]

Musical changes

The Police had spent months in North Vancouver and Tuscany, Italy rehearsing and putting a new spin on the songs. "I think we've got a good mix now where the fans get the song they remember, and most of it will sound the way they remembered it. Just when they are enjoying that, they get a new twist. I think all three of us are pretty happy with the balance there" Stewart Copeland from the 2007–2008 Tour Program describing the new takes on the songs. They updated them, and wrote out all of the backing parts so the three of them can play them; though some backup instrumentals and vocals (either pre-recorded or performed by off-stage musicians) were used.[16]

Tempos were slowed down for several songs, most notably "Don't Stand So Close to Me", which was slowed down to accent the powerful lyrics of the song. During "Wrapped Around Your Finger", "Walking In Your Footsteps" and "King of Pain", Stewart Copeland moved back and forth during the songs between his drumkit and the percussion setup on the elevated riser.

"The songs have to evolve. Twenty-odd years later we have to be better musicians than we were. So we've slowed it all down, looked at where we are, and how the songs are now happening by listening to ourselves play them", said Sting in the 2007–2008 tour programme.

Stewart Copeland was quoted as saying that he would "like to add 'Hole In My Life'" to the playlist at some point in the tour, and the song was performed live for the first time when the European tour kicked off in Stockholm on 29 August.

Set list

This set list is representative of the performance in Mountain View on 14 July 2008. It does not represent all concerts for the duration of the tour.[17]

  1. "Message in a Bottle"
  2. "Walking on the Moon"
  3. "Demolition Man"
  4. "Voices in My Head" †
  5. "When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around"
  6. "Don't Stand So Close to Me" †
  7. "Driven to Tears"
  8. "Hole in My Life" †
  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. "Can't Stand Losing You"/"Reggatta de Blanc"
  14. "Roxanne"
  15. "King of Pain"
  16. "So Lonely" †
  17. "Every Breath You Take"
  18. "Next to You"

† - performed in a different key than original album version

Other songs played throughout the tour were "Synchronicity II" and "Walking In Your Footsteps" †. Other songs played in 2007 were "Truth Hits Everybody" †, "The Bed's Too Big Without You", "Spirits in the Material World" †, "Dead End Job" and "Murder by Numbers". All were replaced by "Bring On the Night" in 2008.

Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" and Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" were added for the final concert at 7 August 2008 at Madison Square Garden.[1]

Tour dates

List of concerts, showing date, city, country, venue, opening act, tickets sold, amount of available tickets and gross revenue
Date City Country Venue Opening act Attendance Revenue
North America[18]
27 May 2007 Vancouver Canada General Motors Place Fiction Plane 4,000 / 4,000 Fanclub Only Show $200,000
28 May 2007 37,018 / 37,018 $4,046,518
29 May 2007
2 June 2007 Edmonton Commonwealth Stadium Sloan
Fiction Plane 		29,592 / 29,592 $3,216,118
6 June 2007 Seattle United States KeyArena Fiction Plane 29,022 / 29,022 $3,314,875
7 June 2007
9 June 2007 Denver Pepsi Center 33,736 / 33,736 $3,762,755
10 June 2007
13 June 2007 Oakland McAfee Coliseum The Fratellis
Fiction Plane 		47,202 / 47,202 $4,572,620
15 June 2007 Paradise MGM Grand Garden Arena Fiction Plane 16,165 / 16,165 $2,863,954
16 June 2007 Manchester Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival — — —
18 June 2007 Phoenix US Airways Center Fiction Plane 16,710 / 16,710 $1,970,365
20 June 2007 Los Angeles Staples Center 17,036 / 17,036 $2,656,145
21 June 2007 Anaheim Honda Center 13,663 / 13,663 $2,059,675
23 June 2007 Los Angeles Dodger Stadium Foo Fighters
Fiction Plane 		55,623 / 55,623 $6,106,010
26 June 2007 Dallas American Airlines Center Fiction Plane 33,708 / 33,708 $3,784,600
27 June 2007
29 June 2007 Houston Toyota Center 16,651 / 16,651 $1,847,945
30 June 2007 New Orleans New Orleans Arena 15,992 / 15,992 $1,677,470
2 July 2007 St. Louis Scottrade Center 17,821 / 17,821 $1,872,140
3 July 2007 Saint Paul Xcel Energy Center 17,185 / 17,185 $1,943,310
5 July 2007 Chicago Wrigley Field 79,458 / 79,458 $9,494,248
6 July 2007
7 July 2007 East Rutherford Giants Stadium — — —
10 July 2007 Miami Gardens Dolphin Stadium Maroon 5
Fiction Plane 		46,105 / 46,105 $5,094,870
11 July 2007 Tampa St. Pete Times Forum Fiction Plane 18,690 / 18,690 $2,064,875
14 July 2007 Louisville Churchill Downs — 25,413 / 25,413 $2,899,375
16 July 2007 Cleveland Quicken Loans Arena Fiction Plane 18,881 / 18,881 $1,885,040
17 July 2007 Auburn Hills The Palace of Auburn Hills 19,342 / 19,342 $2,069,428
19 July 2007 Philadelphia Citizens Bank Park The Fratellis
Fiction Plane 		42,599 / 42,599 $4,128,705
20 July 2007 Hershey Hersheypark Stadium Fiction Plane 30,318 / 30,318 $3,101,630
22 July 2007 Toronto Canada Air Canada Centre 38,031 / 38,031 $4,456,636
23 July 2007
25 July 2007 Montreal Bell Centre 41,275 / 41,275 $4,571,063
26 July 2007
28 July 2007 Boston United States Fenway Park 67,154 / 67,154 $7,644,400
29 July 2007
31 July 2007 East Hartford Rentschler Field 32,450 / 32,450 $3,318,015
1 August 2007 New York City Madison Square Garden 37,487 / 37,387 $4,753,610
3 August 2007
4 August 2007 Baltimore Virgin Festival — — —
5 August 2007 East Rutherford Giants Stadium The Fratellis
Fiction Plane 		55,247 / 55,247 $6,415,610
Europe[19]
29 August 2007 Stockholm Sweden Globe Arena Fiction Plane 24,286 / 24,286 $2,098,632
30 August 2007
1 September 2007 Aarhus Denmark Vestereng — — —
4 September 2007 Birmingham England National Indoor Arena Fiction Plane 24,099 / 24,099 $3,579,363
5 September 2007
8 September 2007 Twickenham Twickenham Stadium Maximo Park
Fiction Plane 		104,417 / 104,417 $15,369,280
9 September 2007
11 September 2007 Hamburg Germany AOL Arena Fiction Plane 29,150 / 34,596 $3,191,128
13 September 2007 Amsterdam Netherlands Amsterdam Arena 93,211 / 93,790 $10,216,228
14 September 2007
16 September 2007 Geneva Switzerland Stade de Genève 21,878 / 21,878 $2,238,986
19 September 2007 Vienna Austria Wiener Stadthalle 15,463 / 15,463 $1,460,708
22 September 2007 Munich Germany Olympic Stadium 44,740 / 44,740 $4,451,894
25 September 2007 Lisbon Portugal Estádio Nacional — — —
27 September 2007 Barcelona Spain Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys Fiction Plane 54,553 / 54,553 $5,554,320
29 September 2007 Paris France Stade de France 157,906 / 157,906 $15,319,076
30 September 2007
2 October 2007 Turin Italy Stadio delle Alpi 62,604 / 62,604 $5,164,887
6 October 2007 Dublin Ireland Croke Park 81,640 / 81,640 $11,837,425
8 October 2007 Antwerp Belgium Sportpaleis 17,905 / 17,905 $2,002,164
19 October 2007 Cardiff Wales Millennium Stadium The Fratellis
Fiction Plane 		48,065 / 48,065 $5,964,008
20 October 2007 London England Wembley Arena Fiction Plane 11,301 / 11,301 $1,852,912
North America[20]
31 October 2007 New York City United States Madison Square Garden Fiction Plane 34,961 / 34,961 $4,530,450
2 November 2007
4 November 2007 Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall — — —
5 November 2007 Washington, D.C. Verizon Center Fiction Plane 14,050 / 14,050 $1,676,406
6 November 2007 Charlottesville John Paul Jones Arena 10,496 / 10,496 $1,075,090
8 November 2007 Toronto Canada Air Canada Centre 31,286 / 31,286 $3,828,654
9 November 2007
11 November 2007 Boston United States TD Banknorth Garden 14,256 / 14,256 $1,804,535
12 November 2007 Montreal Canada Bell Centre 12,615 / 12,615 $1,419,151
15 November 2007 Charlotte United States Charlotte Bobcats Arena 13,741 / 13,741 $1,523,560
17 November 2007 Atlanta Philips Arena 27,665 / 27,665 $3,249,155
18 November 2007
20 November 2007 San Antonio AT&T Center 8,967 / 8,967 $978,905
24 November 2007 Mexico City Mexico Foro Sol 47,027 / 58,374 $2,545,113
27 November 2007 Monterrey Arena Monterrey 12,552 / 12,552 $1,298,400
28 November 2007
South America[21]
1 December 2007 Buenos Aires Argentina River Plate Stadium Fiction Plane 87,967 / 87,967 $4,972,415
2 December 2007
5 December 2007 Santiago Chile Estadio Nacional de Chile 48,725 / 48,725 $2,767,710
8 December 2007 Rio de Janeiro Brazil Maracanã Stadium 59,200 / 59,200 $5,410,606
North America
11 December 2007 San Juan Puerto Rico Coliseo de Puerto Rico Fiction Plane 11,089 / 11,089 $1,203,483
Oceania
17 January 2008 Wellington New Zealand Westpac Stadium Fergie
Fiction Plane 		21,614 / 21,614 $2,156,344
19 January 2008 Auckland Western Springs Stadium 26,665 / 26,665 $2,397,286
22 January 2008 Brisbane Australia Suncorp Stadium 25,928 / 25,928 $3,306,646
24 January 2008 Sydney ANZ Stadium 43,725 / 43,725 $4,840,514
26 January 2008 Melbourne Melbourne Cricket Ground 29,655 / 29,655 $3,865,205
28 January 2008 Adelaide Adelaide Entertainment Centre 13,950 / 13,950 $1,502,462
29 January 2008
1 February 2008 Perth Members Equity Stadium 36,518 / 36,518 $4,340,778
2 February 2008
Asia[22]
4 February 2008 Singapore Singapore Singapore Indoor Stadium Fiction Plane 10,690 / 10,690 $2,002,692
7 February 2008 Macau China Venetian Arena 7,416 / 7,416 $919,527
10 February 2008 Osaka Japan Osaka Dome 21,526 / 21,526 $2,763,164
13 February 2008 Tokyo Tokyo Dome 56,706 / 56,706 $7,062,008
14 February 2008
North America[22][23]
16 February 2008 Honolulu United States Neal S. Blaisdell Center Fiction Plane 16,444 / 16,444 $2,192,890
17 February 2008
1 May 2008 Ottawa Canada Scotiabank Place Elvis Costello & The Imposters 10,509 / 10,509 $1,245,428
3 May 2008 Buffalo United States HSBC Arena 12,091 / 12,091 $1,146,350
4 May 2008 Columbus Nationwide Arena 11,438 / 11,438 $1,088,290
10 May 2008 Rosemont Allstate Arena 12,471 / 12,471 $1,589,480
11 May 2008 Grand Rapids Van Andel Arena 7,624 / 7,624 $690,620
13 May 2008 Kansas City Sprint Center 12,314 / 12,314 $1,378,942
14 May 2008 Omaha Qwest Center 10,701 / 10,701 $1,134,045
16 May 2008 Orlando Amway Arena 11,972 / 11,972 $1,378,670
17 May 2008 West Palm Beach Cruzan Amphitheatre 18,523 / 18,523 $1,416,930
20 May 2008 The Woodlands Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion 11,624 / 11,624 $1,020,092
21 May 2008 Dallas SuperPages.com Center 10,305 / 10,305 $859,730
23 May 2008 Paradise MGM Grand Garden Arena 9,697 / 9,697 $1,694,228
24 May 2008 Phoenix Cricket Wireless Pavilion 10,765 / 10,765 $909,320
26 May 2008 Chula Vista Coors Amphitheatre 17,764 / 17,764 $1,681,110
27 May 2008 Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl 32,730 / 33,270 $3,854,713
28 May 2008
Europe[24]
3 June 2008 Marseille France Stade Vélodrome The Charlatans 47,337 / 47,337 $5,290,050
5 June 2008 Mannheim Germany SAP Arena 13,735 / 13,735 $1,510,408
7 June 2008 Düsseldorf Germany LTU Arena 46,000 / 46,894 $5,139,564
10 June 2008 Saint-Étienne France Stade Geoffroy-Guichard 28,964 / 38,193 $2,721,354
12 June 2008 Zurich Switzerland Hallenstadion Starsailor 8,896 / 8,896 $839,957
15 June 2008 Isle of Wight England Isle of Wight Festival — — —
17 June 2008 Manchester Manchester Arena Starsailor 35,603 / 35,603 $4,578,672
18 June 2008
20 June 2008 Belfast Northern Ireland Stormont Castle KT Tunstall 10,588 / 15,000 $1,313,814
22 June 2008 Venice Italy Parco San Giuliano — 24,000 / 24,000 $1,575,246
24 June 2008 Belgrade Serbia Ušće Counting Crows 27,104 / 35,000 $1,309,651
26 June 2008 Chorzów Poland Silesian Stadium 47,693 / 47,693 $3,137,631
28 June 2008 Leipzig Germany Messehalle Arno Carstens 17,544 / 17,544 $1,531,333
29 June 2008 London England Hyde Park — 30,000 / 30,000 $3,239,956
2 July 2008 Valencia Spain Estadio Ciudad de Valencia Starsailor 17,352 / 17,352 $2,193,508
4 July 2008 Bilbao Bilbao BBK Live — 31,500 / 31,500 $4,392,327
5 July 2008 Madrid Rock in Rio 43,843 / 43,843 $3,881,852
North America[25]
11 July 2008 Ridgefield United States The Amphitheater at Clark County Elvis Costello & The Imposters 14,253 / 14,253 $1,195,200
12 July 2008 George The Gorge Amphitheatre 10,255 / 10,255 $1,150,923
14 July 2008 Mountain View Shoreline Amphitheatre 16,084 / 16,084 $1,301,091
16 July 2008 Concord Sleep Train Pavilion 11,673 / 11,673 $951,206
17 July 2008 Wheatland Sleep Train Amphitheatre 10,519 / 10,519 $810,149
19 July 2008 West Valley City USANA Amphitheatre 15,655 / 15,655 $1,142,350
21 July 2008 Morrison Red Rocks Amphitheatre 17,313 / 17,313 $2,520,256
22 July 2008
25 July 2008 Milwaukee Marcus Amphitheater 15,042 / 15,042 $1,349,740
26 July 2008 Clarkston DTE Energy Music Theatre 14,696 / 14,696 $1,324,029
28 July 2008 Burgettstown Post-Gazette Pavilion 13,431 / 13,431 $867,200
29 July 2008 Philadelphia Wachovia Center 11,133 / 12,415 $1,270,215
31 July 2008 Mansfield Comcast Center 13,523 / 13,523 $1,352,730
1 August 2008 Saratoga Springs Saratoga Performing Arts Center 19,010 / 19,010 $1,504,138
3 August 2008 Holmdel PNC Bank Arts Center 16,857 / 16,857 $1,537,688
4 August 2008 Wantagh Nikon at Jones Beach Theater 27,089 / 27,089 $3,655,783
5 August 2008
7 August 2008 New York City Madison Square Garden The B-52's 18,348 / 18,348 $2,754,050
Total 3,361,794 / 3,403,419 (98%) $361,956,184

References

  1. ^ a b Andy Greene (7 August 2008). "The Police Take a Final Bow in New York City". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 11 January 2016. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Police Rehearsing For Tour In Vancouver" - Billboard, 25 January 2007
  3. ^ "Police sightings in North Vancouver" - News 1130, 26 January 2007 Archived 2007-10-08 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ The Police
  5. ^ "The Police reunion tour concert tickets sell out in just minutes," Sideline.com Archived 2007-03-22 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ "Turning rebellion into money", The Economist, 15 September 2007
  7. ^ Live CD/DVD To Chronicle Police Reunion Tour
  8. ^ ThePolice.com news .news Archived 2008-12-22 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ "Billboard Touring 2008". Billboard. Retrieved 10 November 2008.
  10. ^ Waddell, Ray (11 December 2008). "Bon Jovi Scores 2008's Top-Grossing Tour". Billboard. Archived from the original on 17 January 2010. Retrieved 13 December 2008. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Iley, Chris (25 May 2007). "Sting: How I stopped hurting after The Police split". Daily Mail. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
  12. ^ "UnderGroundOnline review of Vancouver concert".
  13. ^ "Canada.com review of Vancouver concert". 28 May 2007.
  14. ^ ""Our first disaster gig!" stewartcopeland.net". 31 May 2007.
  15. ^ "Stewart Copeland's Amazing Police Reunion Tour Setup"
  16. ^ Background vocals not performed by Summers or Copeland were noticeable in several songs, for example, "Roxanne" and "Every Breath You Take"; An example of other background instrumental is a harmony guitar riff behind the one Summers played in "Message in a Bottle".
  17. ^ Jim Harrington (15 July 2008). "Police setlist and concert review". Mercury News. Retrieved 5 July 2014.
  18. ^ North America box score data:
  19. ^ Europe box score data:
  20. ^ "Billboard Boxscore — Concert Grosses". Billboard. 119 (47). Nielsen Business Media, Inc.: 20 24 November 2007. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  21. ^ "Billboard Boxscore — Concert Grosses". Billboard. 120 (30). Nielsen Business Media, Inc.: 48 26 July 2008. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  22. ^ a b "Billboard Boxscore — Concert Grosses". Billboard. 120 (10). Nielsen Business Media, Inc.: 17 8 March 2008. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  23. ^ North America box score data:
  24. ^ "Billboard Boxscore — Concert Grosses". Billboard. 120 (30). Nielsen Business Media, Inc.: 50 26 July 2008. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 5 July 2014.
  25. ^ North America box score data:
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