Another walk down memory lane . . .

My post about the Clash, and the comments to it, got me thinking about some of the bands and shows I've seen over the years. Some of my favorite concerts from 1979 - 1982 were The Police. I saw them on their first tour of America in 1979 while they were promoting Outlandos d' amour, their first album, that included the hit song Roxanne. Rumor had it, they were touring the country in a Ford Econo line van. Sting may be living in mansions and recording 12th century lute music now, but at the time, they were an exciting new band with a heavy ska influence. They played the entire first album, and when they came out for an encore in bathrobes, they repeated songs they had already played. Sting quipped that now that they were in California, they were no longer pale Brits, they were tanned surfer boys.

In 1982, they had recorded a couple more successful albums, and were playing at the Sports Arena. Sting was an energetic performer - great voice and ska dancing while he played his bass. What I remember about Stewart Copeland is that he had written across 4 drums in electrical tape "fuck off you cunt".

The key to attending concerts at the Sports Arena is to get down the escalators to the floor level, where you are pretty free to move around, and to get to the stage for the encores. We were dancing up against the stage, when the guy behind me said - "if you don't stop dancing, I'm going to get a hard on". I turned around and said hello, and noticed who he was with - John Belushi. I looked at Belushi, or down at Belushi - he was really short - and he gave me a devilish smile, and sort of squatted down and did his super spy stealth movement . . . . which made me laugh. A couple of weeks later, he was dead from an overdose. And a couple of years later, the Police had broken up. But it was fun while it lasted . . .