>Giovanni - I'm still a bit confused. Toni's joke came after the note on Stingus, so that can't be why it >was taken down... or is it that the joke got further than just the immediate fandom and was linked in >A&M's mind was Stingus?

 

For what I know, it came from Toni first...and Stingus followed...am I the only one who got it this way? At least, Toni told me he did the joke himself, and in my mail it came his joke first and Stingus note later.

 

Even if this is exactly what I meant some e-mails ago, when I said Sting would be sort of 'mad' to come back and do a tour of 80 concerts and more, yesterday I was thinking that IF Sting wants to come back with The Police, beyond the Anniversary, there might be something maybe bigger than that in his mind, and in this case it can even be possible that IF he wants to reform The Police, he may do it in the 'bigger way ever' with a proper long tour.

Now, said that, and what I said in my previous e-mail, you can see I am a human being with contradictions, just to prove to myself I still have a working mind, but these are just a couple of options that came to my mind thinking about why and what the band will do .... beyond the 'date' they will do soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, I like the list someone posted of tracks that could be put on a new boxed set. It'd certainly be better than what I read on Stingus about five new tracks... even apart from remixes that were released after the 1993 boxed set, we know there's more stuff than just those five tracks in the vaults. And heck, they should definitely include some demos - the ones that have floated around the fandom have been interesting enough to merit inclusion. And demos do sell - look at the Nirvana boxed set, for instance.

The idea of their just putting five new tracks on a new release also sounds suspect. They must realise it's not incentive enough for people to go out and buy almost the same product all over again. What's more likely, since downloading has become a big factor in the industry since the last boxed set, is that a lot of people will simply download those five tracks from somewhere. Not suggesting or condoning, for the purposes of keeping this list all shipshape and above board, just saying that the record company must consider this angle and the impact it would have on sales if that's all the new stuff they were offering.

What would make it a worthwhile purchase (apart from including the sort of stuff mentioned on the list) would be other extra material - the booklet in the original box was comprehensive, but it would be interesting if someone were to write a new one detailing the band members' post-Police work, and most significantly, the effect the band had on the industry - God knows, their influence can be felt among many diverse bands. Even when you look through a metal/punk magazine like Kerrang!, you see bands like Feeder and Lostprophets citing them as an influence, amongst others. The Police might not be fashionable amongst a generation of music critics who - as someone said last week - were too young to appreciate them the first time round, but young musicians certainly haven't disregarded them.

Angeline