Last night I stepped back in time, an amazing opportunity that took me to music that was the strongest part of my youth, The timeline was all over the place (as were my teenaged years) but memories were vibrant, reassuring, and oh so inspiring.
Drummer Stewart Copeland brought his act: The Police Deranged for Orchestra, playing with the full Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, local guitar god Joey Landreth, and three amazing female vocalists.
The music’s arrangement (or derangements, as Copeland puts it) totally captured the essence of The Police, the three-piece band he was part of into the ’80s for a seven-year history that saw it become the biggest rock band in the world, for a time.
The concert hall was packed. It wasn’t the same as when I watched The Police perform in this city more than 25 years ago, but I’m sure many of the other balding or grey-haired heads bobbing to the rhythms took in the same concert.
The music seemed to fit in with where I am now; I listen to more classical music than I do “new wave” or “post punk”`or whatever we called it then.
It was proof that great songs, performed in any genre or style, are still great three decades later.
I was right there. Remembering. For a time.
j.g.l.
