1978-12-08

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1978-12-08
an ad for this concert in "Courier"'s November 29 issue - 13/4/1, University Archives, Newcastle University Special Collections, GB 186
an ad for this concert in "Courier"'s December 8 issue - 13/4/1, University Archives, Newcastle University Special Collections, GB 186
a photo of the Albertos' CP Lee from this concert - photo used with permission
Performance summary
Artist performing:	Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias
Tour:	1978-1979 Outlandos d'Amour Tour
Venue:	Newcastle University
Location:	Newcastle, England, UK
Support acts:	Merger, The Police
Ticket prices:	2,95 UK pounds

On 1978-12-08, The Police performed at Newcastle University in Newcastle, England, UK.

Setlist

Among the songs played were:

• Fall Out

• Roxanne

• Can't Stand Losing You

• So Lonely

• Hole In My Life

Recording information

This section needs more information. Please note if an official or unofficial recording, or recording(s), is known to exist of this performance.

Trivia

The event was called "Xmas Xtravaganza" and went from 8:00PM to 3:00AM. The entry fee of 2,95 UK pounds entitled you to free bacon baps - you could also go to bars or see movies.

SOUNDS magazine from December 30, 1978 featured a concert review by Phil Sutcliffe

--> copyright Phil Sutcliffe, not to be used elsewhere without the author's permission <--

Albertos arrested

Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias / The Police

Newcastle

According to drummer Stewart Copeland, The Police returned from the States a couple of weeks ago on a high because of reaction over there but fully expecting to have to call on all their reserves of self-esteem to withstand the cool-to-vindictive home vibes.

Instead and inexplicably, they found that suddenly everybody loved them: splashes in all the papers and big audiences going bananas. I suppose they feel they can't possibly have changed that much in 18 months to justify the complete volte-face. Yet their development has been pretty radical.

On the Cherry Vanilla tour when they first played Newcastle, they did come across as pseudo-punks. Although they were genuinely inspired by the new raw speed and energy at first they were just turning out neat plastic imitations.

But then Sting, who had come pogoing straight out of jazz rock, started to get the hang of it and Andy Summers' imaginative guitar was brought in. Result: a hot bitch of a band.

At the University this time round the only song which reminded me of their earlier lack of definition was 'Fall Out' - the first single. The rest of the set struck like a snake, all muscle from tongue to tail. They told the stories in skeletal white reggae then hammered out the chorus riffs to the unlikeliest misses of '78, 'Roxanne', 'Can't Stand Losing You' and 'So Lonely'.

Everything about them was alert and responsive to the moment. Every 'middle eight' was fresh, no mere album facsimiles here. When Sting's bass was extinguished by a backline hitch, it was no problem - Stewart and Andy ripped out some surging rhythm variations which were as exciting as anything scheduled.

And they had a truly musical connection with the audience, like no band I've seen since Kokomo. What I mean is they didn't invite routine clapalong and singalong which so often seemed to be the Colgate smile disguising a bad night. They stirred the crowd into living and giving a bit instead of just watching.

For instance Sting got them chanting the 'yeahs!' in the dry, hypnotic 'Hole In My Life' then the band jazzed around them so they were really part of the song. Then he had everyone clapping the double beats on the encore of 'Can't Stand Losing You'. Small details maybe, but they make the difference between sycophants and participants.

The Police gave it everything then bounded away so frolicsome it looked as though they would gladly have stayed for another hour. Their next headlining tour should be an event.

As Bruce Mitchell remarked before the Albertos took to the boards, they have picked themselves a mean combo to follow, and so it proved. The pissed-up gathering was not in the mood for satire. And for all their new cine-gear, the Albertos' manic efforts to entertain fell into increasing disarray. Apart from the mini Cooper-Clarke routine only the oneliners worked. As in their 'Save The Whale' sequence: "We were going to have a sperm whale live on stage but instead we bring you half a pound of marge!" The rest of the comedy and musical parodies verged on the embarrassing.

Rock needs bands like the Albertos and the Bonzos as a vaccine for its various incurable ills of hyprocrisy, pretension and greed, but even they have to take care of business. They need a much tougher, tighter, better scripted act to fall back on in crises like this.

Otherwise they just strike attitudes without making points/punchlines and the listeners just yell 'boring' and 'fuck off!' as this lot did.

PHIL SUTCLIFFE

See also

This section needs more information.

External links

• Courier

References

source: Stewart Copeland's diary, review in Sounds - December 30, 1978; Courier - December 8, 1978 features an ad for this event

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