The Reunion Tour was a 2007–2008 worldwide
concert tour
A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific to ...
by
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Police ...
, marking the 30th anniversary of their beginnings. At its conclusion, the tour became the third (now sixteenth)
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
Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...
.
History
On 24 January 2007,
Rock101, a radio station in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
,
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, reported the trio was coming together again and had begun tour rehearsals in Vancouver. There were numerous sightings of the group and their entourage in the Vancouver area as expectation built of such a tour.
The reunited Police performed at the
49th Annual Grammy Awards
The 49th Annual Grammy Awards was a ceremony honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2005 and ending September 30, 2006 in the United States. The awards were handed out on Sunday, February 11, 2007 at the Staples Ce ...
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
The Whisky a Go Go (informally nicknamed "the Whisky") is a historic nightclub in West Hollywood, California, United States. It is located at 8901 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip, corner North Clark Street, opposite North San Vicente Boul ...
in Los Angeles, where they confirmed they would be undertaking the world tour starting in Vancouver in May. It was also announced the opening act for the North American and European legs of the tour would be
Fiction Plane
Fiction Plane is a rock band consisting of lead vocalist and bass player Joe Sumner, guitarist Seton Daunt, and drummer Pete Wilhoit.
History
When Sumner was a teenager in England, he was inspired to write songs after he heard Nirvana's albu ...
, a pop-rock band from England featuring lead singer and bass guitarist
Joe Sumner
Joseph Sumner (born 23 November 1976) is an English singer-songwriter and bassist for the rock band Fiction Plane, and co-founder of the company Vyclone, which made an app for recording video from multiple angles.
Personal life
Joe Sumner i ...
, the son of
Sting
Sting may refer to:
* Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger
* Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself
Fictional characters and entities
* Sting (Middle-eart ...
. In Philadelphia, Scottish rock band
The Fratellis
The Fratellis are a Scottish rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
...
also joined Fiction Plane as an opening act. In addition,
Maroon 5
Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. It currently consists of lead vocalist Adam Levine, keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Jesse Carmichael, lead guitarist James Valentine (musician), James Valentine, drummer Matt ...
joined the bill in Miami and
Maxïmo Park
Maxïmo Park are an English alternative rock band, formed in 2000 in Newcastle upon Tyne. The band consists of Paul Smith (vocals), Duncan Lloyd (guitar), and Tom English (drums). The band have released seven studio albums: '' A Certain Trigge ...
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 minutes. Tickets for the entire British tour, the band's first in 24 years, sold out within 30 minutes. Worldwide, they have sold about 1.5m tickets with revenues reaching $168m.
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''.
The tour is a finalist for the ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' 2008 Touring Awards for Top Tour and Top Draw. The 2008 portions came in fourth in Billboard's grosses rankings for that year.
The show
The first show was a preview concert in Vancouver, for 4,000 members of the band's fan club, on 27 May 2007. The first official show 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 hits with a smattering of fan favourites.
While the Vancouver concerts received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, drummer Stewart Copeland, in a forum posting on his official site, called the band's 29 May performance "lame" and took humorous pokes at himself and his bandmates. He called one of Sting's song-ending leaps that of a "petulant pansy instead of the god of rock", joked the band botched the key changes so thoroughly they ended up playing "avant-garde
twelve-tone
The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and (in British usage) twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition first devised by Austrian composer Josef Matthias Hauer, who published his "law o ...
hodgepodges" of "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" and "Don't Stand So Close to Me", suggested that guitarist Andy Summers was "in Idaho" when he and Sting ended up half a bar out of sync with each other during opener "Message in a Bottle", and claimed he "made a hash" out of a fill he had worked out for 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.
"It was a sincere criticism," Copeland explained. "If you read the piece in context, it wasn't that vitriolic. It was an acknowledgement that we were only human. And we were struggling to make it work, playing as if our lives depended on it, and we still had to get it right… When Sting and Andy first read it, they were like, 'Oww!' But then they got over it."
"The Police were very good musicians," observed
Stranglers bassist
Jean-Jacques Burnel
Jean-Jacques Burnel (born 21 February 1952) is an English musician, producer and songwriter, best known as the bass guitarist and co-lead vocalist with the English rock band The Stranglers. He is the last founding member to remain in the band.
...
. "They just hated each other's guts. They still do, apparently. We played Hyde Park the same day they did ''(29 June 2008)'' and it was awful. It's not very conducive to an appreciation of someone's output, when you know they're just there to top up their
pension fund
A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income.
Pension funds typically have large amounts of money to invest and are the major investors in listed and priva ...
."
Stage design
![Roxanne Police](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Roxanne_Police.jpg)
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. 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
A gongFrom Indonesian and ms, gong; jv, ꦒꦺꦴꦁ ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ja, , dora; km, គង ; th, ฆ้อง ; vi, cồng chiêng; as, কাঁহ is a percussion instrument originating in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Gongs ...
used on various songs.
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.
#"
Message in a Bottle
A message in a bottle (abbrev. MIB) is a form of communication in which a message is sealed in a container (typically a bottle) and released into a conveyance medium (typically a body of water).
Messages in bottles have been used to send distres ...
"
#"
Walking on the Moon
"Walking on the Moon" is a song by British rock band the Police, released as the second single from their second studio album, ''Reggatta de Blanc'' (1979). The song was written by the band's lead vocalist and bassist Sting. It went on to bec ...
" †
#"
Demolition Man"
#"Voices in My Head" †
#"
"
#"
Don't Stand So Close to Me
"Don't Stand So Close to Me" is a hit song by the rock band The Police, released in September 1980 as the lead single from their third album ''Zenyatta Mondatta''. It concerns a teacher who has a sexual relationship with a student, which in tu ...
" †
#"
Driven to Tears"
#"Hole in My Life" †
#"
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" is a song by British rock group the Police from their fourth album, ''Ghost in the Machine''. The song, notable for featuring a pianist (uncommon in Police songs), dates back to a demo recorded in the house ...
"
#"
Wrapped Around Your Finger
"Wrapped Around Your Finger" is the second UK single (and fourth US single) from the Police's 1983 album ''Synchronicity''. Written by Sting, it was released worldwide by A&M Records and featured the non-album track "Someone to Talk To" as a B ...
" †
#"
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
"De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" is a song by The Police, released as a single on 20 November 1980. Released as the British second single from the album ''Zenyatta Mondatta'', the song was written by Sting as a comment on how people love simple-sound ...
"
#"
Invisible Sun
"Invisible Sun" is a song by British rock band the Police, released as a single in Europe in September 1981.Sutcliffe, Phil (1993). "A Police Discography". In ''Message in a Box: The Complete Recordings'' (pp.60–61) oxed set booklet A&M Reco ...
" †
#"
Can't Stand Losing You
"Can't Stand Losing You" is a song by English rock band The Police, released from their debut album ''Outlandos d'Amour'', both in 1978. The song also was released as the follow-up single to "Roxanne (The Police song), Roxanne", reaching number ...
"/"
Reggatta de Blanc
''Reggatta de Blanc'' is the second studio album by British rock band the Police, released on 2 October 1979 by A&M Records. It was the band's first release to top the UK Albums Chart and features their first two UK number-one singles: "Message ...
"
#"
Roxanne"
#"
King of Pain
"King of Pain" is a song by English rock band the Police, released as the final single from their fifth and final studio album ''Synchronicity'' (1983). Written by the band's lead singer and bassist Sting as a post-separation song from his wif ...
"
#"
So Lonely
"So Lonely" is a song by English rock band The Police, released as the third and final single in November 1978 from their debut studio album '' Outlandos d'Amour'' (1978), and again in February 1980 as a re-release. The song uses a reggae styl ...
" †
#"
Every Breath You Take
"Every Breath You Take" is a song by the English rock band the Police from their album ''Synchronicity'' (1983). Written by Sting, the single was the biggest US and Canadian hit of 1983, topping the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart for ei ...
"
#"
Next to You"
† – performed in a different key than original album version
Other songs played throughout the tour were "
Synchronicity II
"Synchronicity II" is a song by the Police, and the third single from their album ''Synchronicity (The Police album), Synchronicity''. Written by lead singer and bassist Sting (musician), Sting, it was released as a single in the UK and the U.S. ...
" and "Walking in Your Footsteps" †. Other songs played in 2007 were "Truth Hits Everybody" †, "
The Bed's Too Big Without You
"The Bed's Too Big Without You" is a song by English rock band The Police, released as the final single from their second studio album ''Reggatta de Blanc'' (1979). It was written by lead vocalist and bassist Sting. An alternate version was re ...
", "
Spirits in the Material World
"Spirits in the Material World" is a song by rock trio the Police, written by Sting. It is the opening track for their 1981 album ''Ghost in the Machine''. It was released as a single in 1981 and reached No. 12 in the United Kingdom[Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...]
's "
Purple Haze
"Purple Haze" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and released as the second single by the Jimi Hendrix Experience on March 17, 1967.
The song features his inventive guitar playing, which uses the signature Hendrix chord and a mix of blues and Ea ...
" and
Cream
Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...
's "
Sunshine of Your Love
"Sunshine of Your Love" is a 1967 song by the British rock band Cream. With elements of hard rock, psychedelia, and pop, it is one of Cream's best known and most popular songs. Cream bassist and vocalist Jack Bruce based it on a distinctive b ...
" were added for the final concert at 7 August 2008 at
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...
.
[
]
Tour dates
See also
* List of highest-grossing concert tours
This is an incomplete list of the highest-grossing concert tours. Only tours using reliable references and having grossed over $100 million (adjusted for inflation) have been added to the list. Some of the gross may be higher than reported ...
References
External links
Official website
Official website
Official webstore
Reunion Tour interviews and footage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Police Reunion Tour
The Police concert tours
2007 concert tours
2008 concert tours
Reunion concert tours