1980-02-29
| 1980-02-29 | |
|---|---|
| |
| an ad for this concert in Rip It Up - February 1980 | |
| Performance summary | |
| Artist performing: | The Police |
| Tour: | 1979-1980 Reggatta de Blanc Tour |
| Venue: | Christchurch Town Hall |
| Location: | Christchurch, New Zealand |
| Support acts: | The Vauxhalls |
| Ticket prices: | TICKET PRICES |
On 1980-02-29, The Police performed at Christchurch Town Hall in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Setlist
This section needs more information.
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
This was The Police's only concert in New Zealand in 1980. There's conflicting information about the number of concerts they intended to play, but the planned schedule was probably this:
- 1980-02-29 - Christchurch Town Hall
- 1980-03-01 - Auckland Town Hall
- 1980-03-02 - Wellington Town Hall
- 1980-03-04 - Auckland Town Hall
The Police flew from Sydney to Auckland earlier today.
In the afternoon before this first Christchurch show The Police were detained by customs officers at Christchurch Airport when Stewart Copeland was caught with a roach (in a pocket of a winter coat in his luggage). All the band's equipment was dismantled and searched, before arriving at the venue only partially reassembled.
Police File No. 2 called this "a completely unnecessary body search"...
Sting immediately went to see a doctor because he realised that he was beginning to lose his voice.
After today's one and only New Zealand concert at the venue's Auditorium The Police spent a few days in the mountains, probably just the weekend.
Jeff Seitz: "Sting started to lose his voice about three quarters of the way through the first Christchurch show. All the rest of the NZ shows were cancelled as well as the Sydney shows. After a Doctor ordered week break, the band returned from the Brampton Islands and performed the rescheduled Sydney make up shows. The New Zealand shows were made up a year later.
The most memorable part for the Christchurch event for me was that Dano and I had to reassemble most of the gear after NZ customs inspectors tore everything apart looking for ????s. They didn't even have the decency to forewarn us as to what they had done. Speakers were loose and almost falling out of cabinets, drum heads had all been loosened up or removed. EVERYTHING had been searched and we discovered this as we were setting up for the show that afternoon! Don't get me started on the three hour individual customs search at the airport the day before!"
See also
This section needs more information.
External links
References
sources:
- RAM from March 7, 1980 only lists the first three planned New Zealand concerts
- Rip It Up from February 1980 lists all four concerts - apparently the 2nd Auckland concert was organized when the first one quickly sold out
- Billboard Australia - March 15, 1980: an ad lists two concerts in Christchurch (for today and 1980-03-01) as well as two Wellington concerts (1980-03-02 and 1980-03-03), but only one Auckland show (1980-03-04)
- RAM from April 4, 1980 mentions that Sting lost his voice during the 2nd (!) New Zealand gig, 3 more concerts were cancelled
- Police File No. 2 (from mid-1980) says that there was only one Christchurch gig, mentioning an unspecified number of cancelled concerts for Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland
- The Police: A Visual Documentary by Miles confirms that The Police only played today's concert - and shows yet another list of cancelled concerts for Auckland (1980-03-01 and 1980-03-04) and Wellington on 1980-03-02 and 1980-03-03)
- Jeff Seitz
