Drift with me back to the early days of 1984. You couldn’t get away from Orwellian puff pieces, Reagan’s re-election campaign was in full swing and The Police Synchronicity tour was en fuego. Synchronicity had spent much of 1983 trading the #1 spot with Thriller and did not realize they were both about to lose the year to Purple Rain, and Sting, Stewart and Andy were about to bring their magic to Cincinnati.
But there was a rub.
Local radio station WEBN had purchased ALL of the tickets and you had to write in to get in a lottery to purchase seats. Me an my neighborhood boy Joe rallied a group of 8 and secured some average seats at the Riverfront Coliseum.
One week before Valentine’s Day they gave away ten seats in the front row, and all of Cincinnati under 25 listened as the excited winner called in to claim his prize. Wait a minute. I know that dude. Chris won the FRONT ROW AT THE POLICE CONCERT and we had been boys since third grade and along with Brad B, we were three of the four fellas who had made it out of our public school track to attend St. X. We had played on soccer and baseball teams together, I had been his guest at Kings Island on P&G day, I think I had even passed a note to Andrea G. once when he had a crush on her.
Then came the bad news. Brad and I did not make the ticket cut. Chris’ girlfriend wanted to bring her younger sister and Chris’ own sister wanted to bring a friend. He gets a 10% pass on the injustice because we were just 17 and I’m sure his parents had a strong hand in the sister-friend ticket, and none of knew what we were doing when it came to girls and Beth had Chris wrapped particularly tight. None of us had that fully a developed a loyalty/honor core, and so I watched from 2/3 back, halfway up.
We still sang until we were hoarse. But this tale was far from over.
Setlist – February 14, 1984, Riverfront Coliseum
Synchronicity I
Synchronicity II
Walking in Your Footsteps
Message in a Bottle
Walking on the Moon
O My God
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
Wrapped Around Your Finger
Tea in the Sahara
Hole in My Life
Spirits in the Material World
Invisible Sun
One World (Not Three)
King of Pain
Don’t Stand So Close to Me
Every Breath You Take
Murder by Numbers
Roxanne