The Police At Croke Park - The verdict.

So this was a gig I have been waiting to see ever since I bought a copy of 'Ghost In The Machine' when I was eight years old. Sting had the most amazing voice , Andy Summers could make his guitar effortlessly amplify the most amazing sounds and as I always wanted to be a drummer, I was entranced by Steward Copeland's drumming and his amazing kit.

So you could say that I was a little bit like an excited child on saturday:-)

Herself was like an mother full of pride sending me off on saturday afternoon and all she was short of doing was giving me a packed lunch and a flask of tea! My mate Rachael had agreed to come with me - as herself was playing her pregnant trump card - so we met at the top of Clonliffe Road and we set off for the Cusack Stand.

After waiting for 30 minutes plus for a beer we decided to make our way to our seats, just as The Police launched into Message In A Bottle. This is where I started to lose the rag as nobody seemed to know where our seats were. We were sent up to level 3 of the Cusack Stand but we had a feeling that we were being sent in the wrong direction. Our hunch turned out to be correct and we made our way down to ground level and were pointed in the direction of the corporate area. Both myself and Rachael got very excited at the prospect of us viewing the concerst from the corporate area but alas it was too good to be true as the gentleman at the door pointed us in the direction of the steps back up to the Cusack Stand. At the steps we were met by more stewarts who told us to go back to the corporate area! Now this was getting ridiculous and the 2 beers I had swallowed a few minutes earlier were causing my blood to boil! Someone arrived and led us to our seats and our night began... 2 songs into the set.

The stage looked amazing, the sound was spot on and it was a lovely sunny evening in Croke Park so the setting couldn't have been better. So, what was missing? I'm still trying to put my finger on it...

I think the fact that the arrangements for most of the songs were different to the original tracks and that's something I hate at a gig. I appreciate that Sting would probably go green in the face if he attempted some of the high notes he was hitting back in the late 70's but some of the songs were almost unrecogniseable. You know when you're sayin to yourself that you know this one and then realise what it is once the first verse kicks in? Also in the latter days of the band the three piece extended to include other musicians and added to the drums bass and guitar were piano, synths and some orchestration. However, it was just the 3 of them on stage and while they created a mammoth racket between them, the songs suffered because of the above. Of course guitar purists wouldn't be bothered by my issues with the band set up but, being a child of the 80's, I do like a bit of synth:-)

Aside from that I enjoyed singing along to some of the lesser known album tracks, while some of the 82.000 strong crowd around us who's knowledge of the bands back catalogue begins and ends with Every Breath You Take tried to shuffle along, only making themselves look like even bigger gobshites!

Bottom Line ; I'm grateful to have been able to see one of my all time favourute bands so pay no attention to my rantings:-)