Podunkian Music Club

The Police—Message in a Bottle

With the rumours swirling of a reunion by the Police gaining some traction the last few days, we decided to put their name on the Music Club Marquee for this week.

When they first appeared on the music scene in the late seventies they provided a sound and look that hadn’t yet been heard on your local FM station, that of a fusion of punk, jazz, rock and reggae, elements of a little bit of everything could be found on a Police recording. Taking advantage of a new visual format of the music channels and the plethora of video shows that were beginning to take root across the musical world, The Police quickly reached up into the super stardom category pretty quickly.

From the early days of Outlando’s D’amour with its brand new sound the stripped down trio introduced the world to a whole new direction for the still in its infancy new wave movement. Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers would soon be the face of new music, their enthusiastic recordings, videos and performances a standard that many others following would try to ride the wave with.

They provided something that was fresh, a welcome change from the excesses of the disco era a return to a more energy driven form of rock and roll. Adding new elements and stylings that caught the ears of radio programmers and radio listeners alike.

Our selection tonight comes from the Regatta de Blanc recordings, Message in a Bottle became one of the most recognizable of Police songs ever recorded, with its driving guitar work and catchy lyrical riff of sending out an S. O. S., and it quickly propelled the band into the mainstream of the music industry of the eighties.

They became the darlings of the MTV generation, in fact they were almost the MTV House Band by the time they imploded among internal disputes and ego driven discord.

The recordings would continue for a few more years, delivering hit after hit after hit, their legend growing with each elaborately constructed offering, but for the true essence of the band it’s the early material that provides the hints of the great sound they were about to offer the world.

If the reports are true, they’re working out the rust in a North Vancouver sound stage, with a guest appearance at the Grammy awards and supposedly then a tour in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Roxanne.

A much anticipated reunion and one that should bring back a few memories of a creative time for music, when the legends were huge and the album sales the equivalent of many a countries GDP.

Artist—The Police
Recording—Regatta de Blanc