The Police Ride Off Into the Sunset
151 shows later and $358,825,665 richer, The Police have wrapped up their final tour, capping it off with a final performance at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Thursday night. The band played many of their all time greatest hits on their set list including: Message in a Bottle, Wrapped Around Your Finger, Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, Roxanne and Every Breath You Take. They also played covers of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” and Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love”. The tour was the third highest grossing tour of all time according to Billboard Magazine.
From the article:
The final gross puts it only behind the Rolling Stones’ 2005-2007 A Bigger Bang tour ($558 million), and U2’s 2005-2007 Vertigo tour ($389 million), and ahead of the Stones’ 1994-95 Voodoo Lounge tour ($320 million), according to Boxscore.
Bassist/vocalist Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland began the proceedings with a surprise cover of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love.” Afterward, the New York Police Department band augmented normal set-opener “Message in a Bottle.”
There was only an intermittent amount of sentimentality to the show, with Sting at one point telling the crowd, “It’s been a huge honor to get back with my good friends. The real triumph of this tour is that we haven’t strangled each other — that doesn’t mean it hadn’t crossed my mind.”
The tour, the band’s first live performances since 1986, began May 28, 2007, in Vancouver and sold 3,300,912 tickets from 146 shows, plus five festivals, according to Live Nation.
Here is the set list from the MSG show:
“Sunshine of Your Love”
“Message in a Bottle”
“Walking on the Moon”
“Demolition Man”
“Voices Inside My Head” / “When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around”
“Don’t Stand So Close to Me”
“Driven To Tears”
“Hole in My Life”
“Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”
“Wrapped Around Your Finger”
“De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da”
“Invisible Sun”
“Can’t Stand Losing You” / “Reggatta de Blanc”
Encore one:
“Purple Haze”
“Roxanne”
“King of Pain”
“So Lonely”
“Every Breath You Take”
Encore two”
“Next To You”
I never had the opportunity to see The Police live. A major part of that may have been the high ticket prices for this final tour. If only we could go back to the days when you could actually afford to go see your favorite bands play. Thoughts?
This entry was posted on August 10, 2008 at 2:33 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: The Police, Sting, Madison Square Garden, New York City, Billboard, Billboard Magazine, Rolling Stones, U2, Voodoo Lounge, Andy Summers, Stewart Copeland, Live Nation, Concert Tickets, Ticket Prices, High Prices, Police Set List, Message in a Bottle, Every Breath You Take, Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, Wrapped Around Your Finger, Purple Haze, Sunshine of Your Love, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Roxanne
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