The Police Confidential by Danny Quatrochi

The Police Confidential by Danny Quatrochi
William Morrow & Co.
October 1986
128 pages

Great companion to the Lynn Goldsmith Police books (The Police and The Police: 1978-1983) at very least.

Danny Quatrochi - Sting's right-hand man (bass technician) from New Jersey and Police roadie - put forth a fantastic book. If anything it's too short considering all the Police photos he's taken. He's one of them, so you get a lot of photos with The Police's guard down.

Embarrassingly, the back cover photo of Danny (and his awesome shirt) was how I was introduced to XTC in late 87/early 88. He was sporting a dark Drums & Wires shirt which made me think - "that's a cool shirt - what does it say exactly?". So I have Danny to thank for me becoming a huge XTC fan, unbeknownst to him.

Thanks for the cool pics of Andy, Stewart and Sting Danny - and XTC rules.

The Police: Certifiable (Cherrytree/A&M Records) [3-Vinyl 180-gram LP]

**** 1/2 (out of *****)

Well, after a long and boring turn of events (i.e. ordered the item from Best Buy at the end of December, it arrives weeks later damaged due to it being shipped in an ENVELOPE, sent back via UPS at their cost, told to pick up item at nearest Best Buy store) I finally got a chance to sit down with this fine set. The whole reason I ordered the item online (along with the 2-DVD/2-CD set) in the first place was because of a great reduction in price. It was reduced from $29.99 to a pretty fantastic $9.99 (as was the DVD/CD set). That's $19.99, total. And the item is a Best Buy exclusive.

The recording - from the band's wildly successful reunion tour - is taken from a show at Estadio River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina on either December 1 or 2, 2007 (they played both nights and the set doesn't specify which night). The sound quality of the recording itself is pretty superb. And the sound is pretty sweet on all six sides of this 3-Vinyl 180-gram LP set. It comes in a pretty nice gatefold sleeve with an insert and a (now expired) code for digital downloads of all the tracks.

The majority of the singles get proper airings (only omitting "Spirits In The Material World", "Secret Journey", "Fall Out" and "Bring On The Night") as do a majority of fan-favorites. "Regatta De Blanc" still gets effectively inserted into the bridge of "Can't Stand Losing You". "Wrapped Around Your Finger" gets a nice Latin-tinged rearrangement that lends itself to the song well. "Next To You" is played for the first time since the Zenyatta Mondatta tour in 1981. "King Of Pain" sounds better here than it did on the Synchronicity tour, with the only backing vocals coming occasionally from Stewart and Andy as opposed to a trio of shrill female backing vocalists (who accompanied the band on that tour).

The band sounds absolutely phenomenal. They do not sound as one might expect a band that has been collectively inactive for over twenty-years to sound. The band members although have been busy individually with careers since - or even during - the band's existence. Andy Summers sounds better than ever and Stewart Copeland sounds like he never stopped playing these songs. Sting's vocal phrasing on some of the tracks have changed but never detrimental to the song's overall effect and he is still as great a bass player as he's ever been. His voice has weathered rather nicely too. Aside from a few phantom piped-in harmony backing vocal tracks on "Truth Hits Everybody" and "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da", the band remain unaccompanied. Sting, the ever gracious bandleader and learned polyglot regularly thanks the Argentinian audience and occasionally instructs them on handclaps and backing vocals when needed.

If you are a fan of the band - you'll love it and may be surprised as how great they sound live. If you are not a fan, but like the select hit single you too may be surprised at how great they sound. And the fact that it's such a nice quality recording helps for easy enjoyment.

Recommended.

Top Ten Live Albums Of The 2000's.

1) Talking Heads: The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads (2004)




2) The Byrds: Live At Royal Albert Hall 1971 (2008)




3) Roxy Music: Live (2003)




4) The Beach Boys: Good Timin':Live At Knebworth, England, 1980 (2003)




5) The Police: Certifiable (2008)




6) The Clash: Live At Shea Stadium (2008)




7) The Raspberries: Live On Sunset Strip (2007)




8) Morrissey: Live At Earl's Court (2005)




9) Brian Wilson: Pet Sounds Live (2002)



10) Too Much Joy: Live At Least (2001)

Top 30 Compilation Albums of the 2000's.

1) The Beatles: 1 (2000)




2) The Beach Boys: The Warmth Of The Sun (2007)




3) The Beach Boys: Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of The Beach Boys (2003)




4) The Byrds: The Essential Byrds (2003)




5) Blur: The Best of Blur (2000)




6) Supergrass: Supergrass Is 10: The Best of 94-04 (2004)




7) Radiohead: Radiohead: The Best Of (2008)




8) The Replacements: Don't You Know Who I Think I Was? The Best of The Replacements (2006)




9) The Raspberries: Greatest (2005)




10) Jellyfish: Best! (2006)




11) Pulp: Hits (2002)




12) The Beach Boys: Greatest Hits, Vol. 3: The Best Of The Brother Years, 1970-1986 (2000)




13) Outkast: Big Boi & Dre Present... OutKast (2001)




14) Suede: Singles (2003)




15) Morrissey: Greatest Hits (2008)




16) Paul McCartney: Wingspan: Hits and History (2001)




17) Teenage Fanclub: Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-Six Seconds: A Shortcut to Teenage Fanclub (2003)




18) Ride: OX4_The Best of Ride (2001)




19) Big Star: Big Star Story (2003)




20) Certain General: Invisible New York (2007)




21) Blur: Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur (2009)




22) Paul Revere & The Raiders: Kicks! The Anthology 1963-1972 (2005)




23) The Monkees: The Best Of The Monkees (2003)




24) They Might Be Giants: Dial-a-Song: 20 Years of They Might Be Giants (2002)




25) The Suburbs: Chemistry Set: Songs of the Suburbs 1977-1987 (2003)




26) The Police: The Police (2007)




27) R.E.M.: And I Feel Fine... The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987 (2006)




28) Scritti Politti: Early (2005)




29) The Smiths: The Sound of The Smiths (2008)




30) The Cars: Complete Greatest Hits (2002)

It Was (Just About) Twenty Years Ago Today...XTC: Oranges & Lemons

Cliched and overused as it may sound, I seriously cannot believe that it's been twenty-years since the release of XTC's tenth album Oranges & Lemons. I became a fan of XTC in a pretty random way and almost as an afterthought. I had in fact unwittingly half-knew nearly a half-dozen of XTC's songs but never really knew anything beyond the choruses for "Sgt. Rock Is Going To Help Me" and "Senses Working Overtime".

Overlong back-story begins in exactly...

Sometime in early 1988 I was browsing through a book by Danny Quatrochi entitled The Police Confidential - a photo diary on the de facto Beatles of the New Wave. In the book there are several photos of Police founder Stewart Copeland and book author/Sting's bass tech Danny Quatrochi in which they sport several different Drums & Wires tour T-Shirts. Being all of almost twelve years-old and for one reason or another taken with the interesting T-Shirt design - I investigated just what was XT something or other? What does it say? XTC?

Upon further investigation, it just so happened that my older brother not only owned the Virgin International vinyl version* of Go 2, but the Epic Records vinyl editions of both Drums & Wires & Black Sea as well. These three albums made a tremendous impression on me and in short XTC became my favorite band. Being a fan of a critically-acclaimed fringe band at a young age is pretty frustrating. There's no name-recognition among your peers which can be a bit alienating and you're too young to fully indulge in being a holier-than-thou hipster.

XTC's then-most recent albums were Skylarking (with the controversial then-hit "Dear God") and Psonic Psunspot (the latter under their Dukes Of Stratosphear pseudonym). I went to Tower Records that Summer and bought the Geffen cassettes of everything from White Music to Psonic Psunspot and whatever used vinyl or UK import CDs I could find (aside from English Settlement & Skylarking - XTC CDs weren't available domestically until early 1991 as Geffen were desperately slow on the uptake). It was pretty much all about XTC (for the most part) for sometime.

Fast forward to all but a few months later in January of 1989. I'm watching MTV - when they were still a viable source for new music and not a reality television channel - and lo and behold I catch the world premiere video a few seconds in (just after the band/song/album/label credits) of "The Mayor Of Simpleton" and by the bridge I'm thinking that this is my new favorite band. The song is a concise Beatlesque tour de force with cyclical Beach Boys vocals and jangle Byrds guitars and a bass line that is absolutely sick. Of course, it turns out to be XTC. That day I march to local record store Sounds Alive Music and happily plunk down one dollar for the one-song promo CD single. Followed by the 7", 12" and import 3" CD singles.*

A month later Oranges & Lemons is released and I'm very seriously overjoyed. It's better than I think it would be - and even the lesser tracks ("Poor Skeleton Steps Out"...) are only lesser comparatively. It gets four-star reviews everywhere and gets significant exposure on MTV and lots of airplay on the local "new music" radio station WDRE-FM & local cool college radio station WBAU-FM. It was the first time in my life that I was able to enjoy (or simply witness) an album by my favorite band and actively enjoy the whole release & promote the singles/album process. And in XTC's case it was slightly unconventional. They stopped touring in 1982 but actually did tour for Oranges & Lemons. Only in XTC's case they went to radio stations & MTV and played acoustic mini-sets of a few songs and a few medleys. They even played the second single from the album ("King For A Day") on Late Night With David Letterman in late June. I actually got to meet them that year (very briefly) at an in-store signing at Record World in Garden City, NY - the day before their appearance on Late Night. "King For A Day" got lots of airplay as did the ill-conceived remixes that were (unbeknownst to the band) commissioned by Geffen.

"Chalkhills and Children", "Hold Me My Daddy", "The Loving" (the third and final single from O&L), "The Garden of Earthly Delights", "King For A Day", "Here Comes President Kill Again", "Miniature Sun", "Merely a Man" and "The Mayor Of Simpleton" - all from Oranges & Lemons - remain some of my very favorite XTC songs (you know, out of about a hundred or so). And in addition to a few exclusive others XTC are still my favorite band. The album is slightly dated - not horribly so - but ever so slightly. It's an incredible collection of songs and is still every bit now as good as it was then.

* Forgive such expressions of vinyl record geekdom but there's no turning back at this point.

The Cars - Greatest Hits ( 1985 Elektra )

Although the band joked about calling their 1978 debut album as "The Cars Greatest Hits", this 1985 stop-gap release is a pretty okay one-stop for admirers of The Cars more popular singles. In actuality, bands like The Police, The Cars and Talking Heads had as many "turntable hits" - songs that AOR or alternative radio played as much as the label-picked singles - as they did chart hits (I personally used to hear "Got a Lot on My Head", "Running to You" and "Bye Bye Love" on local station WLIR-FM as a kid all the time). So a collection like this might leave some out in the cold. That didn't stop it from over selling six-million or so copies.

What does it have? The three formal hit-singles from their sterling debut ("My Best Friend's Girl", "Good Times Roll" and uber-hit "Just What I Needed"), only one of the three singles from their even-more-exciting sophomore album Candy-O ("Let's Go"), again only one of the three singles from the difficult/challenging third album Panorama ("Touch and Go"), a re-recorded version of "I'm Not the One" and two of the three hit singles from their 1981 Shake It Up album ("Since You're Gone" and the title track), four of the six singles from the stupidly-successful Heartbeat City album and a fine, if generic, new single , which also became a huge hit (the double-entendre of "Tonight She Comes").

Recommended? Personally I'm not a fan of best-of's/greatest hits collections but there are exceptions - when the releases have virtual lives and identities all their own (i.e. The Beatles' 1962-1966 (The Red Album) and 1967-1970 (The Blue Album) and The Beach Boys' Endless Summer). There aren't too many from the 80's - however this might might very well be one of them. For a full retrospective get the double-disc mid 90's collection Just What I Needed: The Cars Anthology.

Capitol/EMI Reissues I.R.S. Records Back Catalog!

Capitol/EMI, who apparently own everything, have recently reissued the majority of the mondo-influential I.R.S. label's back catalog of over 100 albums and tracks. Some of which having been out-of-print for nearly twenty years and never before available in the digital age. I.R.S. Records (aka International Record Syndicate) which was founded by Miles Copeland III (older brother of Police drummer Stewart) in 1979 and folded in 1996 was one of the most successful independent labels of all-time. Their roster included many successful bands such as R.E.M., The Go-Go's, The Buzzcocks and Fine Young Cannibals.

The digital-campaign will include releases by The Fleshtones, The dB's, The Three O'Clock, Gary Numan, Let's Active, Oingo Boingo, Wall Of Voodoo, General Public, Lords Of The New Church, Dada, Concrete Blonde The Bears, Hunters & Collectors, Havana 3 A.M, Timbuk 3 and solo albums by Television’s Tom Verlaine, The Police's Stewart Copeland (and his post-Police band Animal Logic), The Doors' Robbie Krieger and Go-Go's Jane Wiedlin and Belinda Carlisle.

All of these releases will be available from all major music retail as well as from the I.R.S Records iTunes Store. More titles are rumored to be released in the near-future.