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Melbourne, Saturday 26 January 2008.

In front of a concert crowd of 40,000, The Police rocked the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

Before The Police came on stage, Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas provided the support entertainment.

Fergie came on stage around 8pm with here band and support dancers. The acoustics during Fergies set was very ordinary. I don’t whether it was the engineers behind the sound desk or sound refracting through sun light, but something was very wrong. Fergie too, sounded a little off key on most of her songs. To her credit, she did some great one handed cartwheels on stage.

The Police came out shortly after Fergie to perform. The stage was quite plain, with three video monitors at the back of the stage which showed cut away footage of the band members performing. Simple, yet very effective for The Police. There was only the three band members on stage performing. No backing singers or additional instruments.

Sting was great on lead vocals and bass. He was full of energy and gave his all on vocals. Dressed all in black, Sting put on a powerful performance for 57 year old.

Andy Summers looked great for a 66 year old. Not quite as active as sting on stage, Andy did a pretty good job on guitar. He was a little out of time on a couple of songs early in but recovered to come back strongly finishing the song. He looked a little tense, like he was just over concentrating rather than enjoying himself and playing with feeling. I doubt if many of the fans noticed, except maybe other musicians in the crowd.

Stewart Armstrong Copeland, the youngest band member at 56 looked like an aging hippy with long gray hair and a headband. He reminded me of Tommy Chong from Cheech and Chong Fame, less the beard. On drums, Stewart performed like a man in his prime. After watching him closely, I understand what a drummer means when he talks about “chops”. Stewart’s got some great chops. It was a real treat to watch and hear Stewart on drums. Together with Sting on bass, they were really tight playing together.

Overall, the show was fantastic. The Police played all their greatest hit songs starting with Message in a bottle, Roxanne, Walking on the moon, Don’t stand so close to me, Wrapped around your finger, Invisible sun, Everything she does is magic, King of pain, Can’t stand losing you, Every breath you take and many other songs from their albums.

Some of the songs had been re-arranged, and slowed down, noticeably Don’t stand so close to me and Wrapped around your finger. Both songs sounded great. I really liked what they did with them. Many of the other songs were re-worked with strong finishes particularly from Stewart on drums.

From the beginning, The Police have always very good musicians. With age and experience, these guys have only gotten better.

Having grown up in the eighties listening to The Police, I feel privileged to have seen them live in concert. Hopefully they will release a live concert DVD from this tour. Fingers crossed.